Нортенгерское аббатство

УДК 
372.8
ББК 
81.2 Англ-93
 
О 76

ISBN 978-5-9925-0833-8

Остин Дж.
О 76 Нортенгерское аббатство: Книга для чтения 
на английском языке. — СПб.: КАРО, 2013. — 
384 с. («Classical litera ture»).

ISBN 978-5-9925-0833-8.

Предлагаем вниманию читателей роман замечательной 
английской писательницы Джейн Остин «Нортенгерское 
аббатство». Роман вышел в свет уже после смерти писательницы, в 1817 году.
Неадаптированный текст на языке оригинала снабжен 
постраничным комментарием и словарем. Книга адресована 
студентам языковых вузов и всем любителям английской 
литературы.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

© КАРО, 2013

ОБ АВТОРЕ

Замечательная английская писательница Джейн 
Остин (1775–1817), основоположница «дамского романа» в лучшем его смысле, родилась в семье провинциального священника, который, 
впрочем, сильно отличался от многих своих коллег — имел ученую степень в Оксфорд ском университете и в течение некоторого времени был 
членом ученой корпорации одного из его колледжей. Это был умный, эрудированный человек с 
широким кругозором. Джордж Остин и его жена 
Анна, урожденная Ли, принадлежали к старинным дворянским фамилиям. Несмотря на то, что 
они никогда не кичились своим происхождением, принадлежность семьи к родовитому дворянству обусловила круг знакомств и связей, открывая перед Остинами двери так называемых «лучших» домов графства.
Пробовать перо Джейн начала в возрасте пятнадцати лет. Сначала писала остроумные пародии 
на современный плохой роман, которые ее близкие называли «проказами Джейн», но тем не менее все они с интересом эти «проказы» слушали.
Свой первый роман Джейн написала в 1796–
1797 годах. Это были «Первые впечатления», увидевшие свет лишь спустя шестнадцать лет под 
названием «Гордость и предубеждение». Потом 

ОБ АВТОРЕ

были «Разум и чувства», «Эмма», «Мэнсфилдпарк», «Доводы рассудка», «Нортен гер ское аббатство».
Личная жизнь писательницы не сложилась, 
замуж она, в отличие от своих героинь, так и не 
вышла, хотя получила по крайней мере одно 
предложение руки и сердца. Умерла она от неизвестной болезни, в муках и молитвах о том, чтобы Бог послал ей и ее близким терпение.
Надо сказать, что современники Остин были 
не слишком высокого мнения о ее талантах и очень 
удивились бы, узнав, что произведения писательницы читают и два века спустя. Диккенс не подозревал о существовании Джейн Остин, высказывания о ней Шарлотты Бронте были весьма негативны. Но романы «несравненной Джейн», как 
назвал ее Вальтер Скотт, пользуются популярностью и в XXI веке, по ним снимаются фильмы и 
телесериалы с участием знаменитых актеров, и новые поколения читательниц живо интересуются 
судьбами прелестных барышень и блестящих кавалеров.

***
Роман «Нортенгерское аббатство» вышел в 
свет уже после смерти писательницы, в конце декабря 1817 года, под одной обложкой с другим 
романом — «Доводы рассудка».

CHAPTER 1

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in 
her infancy would have supposed her born to be an 
heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her 
father and mother, her own person and disposition, 
were all equally against her. Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very 
respectable man, though his name was Richard — 
and he had never been handsome. He had a considerable independence besides two good livings — and 
he was not in the least addicted to locking up his 
daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain 
sense, with a good temper, and, what is more 
remarkable, with a good constitution. She had three 
sons before Catherine was born; and instead of dying 
in bringing the latter into the world, as anybody 
might expect, she still lived on — lived to have six 
children more — to see them growing up around her, 
and to enjoy excellent health herself. A family of ten 
children will be always called a fi ne family, where 
there are heads and arms and legs enough for the 
number; but the Morlands had little other right to 
the word, for they were in general very plain, and 
Catherine, for many years of her life, as plain as any. 
She had a thin awkward fi gure, a sallow skin without 
colour, dark lank hair, and strong features — so much 
for her person; and not less unpropitious for heroism 

NORTHANGER ABBEY

6

seemed her mind. She was fond of all boy’s plays, and 
greatly preferred cricket not merely to dolls, but to 
the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a 
dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rosebush. Indeed she had no taste for a garden; and if she 
gathered fl owers at all, it was chiefl y for the pleasure 
of mischief — at least so it was conjectured from her 
always preferring those which she was forbidden to 
take. Such were her propensities — her abilities were 
quite as extraordinary. She never could learn or 
understand anything before she was taught; and 
sometimes not even then, for she was oft en inattentive, and occasionally stupid. Her mother was three 
months in teaching her only to repeat the “Beggar’s 
Petition”1; and aft er all, her next sister, Sally, could 
say it better than she did. Not that Catherine was 
always stupid — by no means; she learnt the fable of 
“Th e Hare and Many Friends” 2 as quickly as any girl 
in England. Her mother wished her to learn music; 
and Catherine was sure she should like it, for she was 
very fond of tinkling the keys of the old forlorn 
spinnet; so, at eight years old she began. She learnt a 

1 “Beggar’s Petition” — «Мольба нищего», сентиментальное стихотворение английского священника Томаса Мосса (1740–1808)
2 “Th e Hare and Many Friends” — «Зайчиха и ее друзья», басня Джона Гея (1685–1732), английского поэта и 
драматурга

CHAPTER 1

year, and could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who 
did not insist on her daughters being accomplished 
in spite of incapacity or distaste, allowed her to leave 
off . Th e day which dismissed the music-master was 
one of the happiest of Catherine’s life. Her taste for 
drawing was not superior; though whenever she 
could obtain the outside of a letter from her mother 
or seize upon any other odd piece of paper, she did 
what she could in that way, by drawing houses and 
trees, hens and chickens, all very much like one 
another. Writing and accounts she was taught by her 
father; French by her mother: her profi ciency in 
either was not remarkable, and she shirked her 
lessons in both whenever she could. What a strange, 
unaccountable character! — for with all these symptoms of profl igacy at ten years old, she had neither a 
bad heart nor a bad temper, was seldom stubborn, 
scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to the little 
ones, with few interruptions of tyranny; she was 
moreover noisy and wild, hated confinement and 
cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as 
rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.
Such was Catherine Morland at ten. At fi ft een, 
appearances were mending; she began to curl her 
hair and long for balls; her complexion improved, 
her features were soft ened by plumpness and colour, 
her eyes gained more animation, and her fi gure 
more consequence. Her love of dirt gave way to an 

NORTHANGER ABBEY

8

inclination for fi nery, and she grew clean as she grew 
smart; she had now the pleasure of sometimes 
hearing her father and mother remark on her personal improvement. “Catherine grows quite a goodlooking girl — she is almost pretty today,” were words 
which caught her ears now and then; and how 
welcome were the sounds! To look almost pretty is 
an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been 
looking plain the fi rst fi ft een years of her life than a 
beauty from her cradle can ever receive.
Mrs. Morland was a very good woman, and wished 
to see her children everything they ought to be; but 
her time was so much occupied in lying-in and 
teaching the little ones, that her elder daughters were 
inevitably left  to shift  for themselves; and it was not 
very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature 
nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, 
baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the 
country at the age of fourteen, to books — or at least 
books of information — for, provided that nothing 
like useful knowledge could be gained from them, 
provided they were all story and no refl ection, she 
had never any objection to books at all. But from 
fi ft een to seventeen she was in training for a heroine; 
she read all such works as heroines must read to 
supply their memories with those quotations which 
are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes 
of their eventful lives.

CHAPTER 1

9

From Pope1, she learnt to censure those who “bear 
about the mockery of woe.”
From Gray2, that “Many a fl ower is born to blush 
unseen,
“And waste its fragrance on the desert air.”
From Th ompson3, that — 
“It is a delightful task
“To teach the young idea how to shoot.”
And from Shakespeare she gained a great store of 
information — amongst the rest, that — 
“Trifl es light as air,
“Are, to the jealous, confi rmation strong,
“As proofs of Holy Writ.”4

Th at
“Th e poor beetle, which we tread upon,
“In corporal suff erance feels a pang as great

1 Pope — Александр Поуп (1688–1744), английский 
поэт (далее цитата из его стихотворения «Элегия в память несчастной дамы»)
2 Gray — Томас Грей (1716–1771), английский поэт 
(далее неточная цитата из самого известного его стихотворения «Элегия, написанная на сельском кладбище»)
3 Th ompson — Джеймс Томсон (1700–1748), английский поэт (далее цитата из его стихотворения «Весна»)
4 “Trifl es light as air,
 “Are, to the jealous, confi rmation strong,
 “As proofs of Holy Writ.”— У. Шекспир, «Отелло», 
III, 3.

NORTHANGER ABBEY

10

“As when a giant dies.”1

And that a young woman in love always looks — 
“like Patience on a monument
“Smiling at Grief.”2

So far her improvement was suffi  cient — and in 
many other points she came on exceedingly well; for 
though she could not write sonnets, she brought 
herself to read them; and though there seemed no 
chance of her throwing a whole party into raptures3 
by a prelude on the pianoforte, of her own composition, 
she could listen to other people’s performance with 
very little fatigue. Her greatest defi ciency was in the 
pencil — she had no notion of drawing — not enough 
even to attempt a sketch of her lover’s profi le, that 
she might be detected in the design. Th ere she fell 
miserably short of the true heroic height. At present 
she did not know her own poverty, for she had no 
lover to portray. She had reached the age of seventeen, 
without having seen one amiable youth who could 

1 “Th e poor beetle, which we tread upon,
 “In corporal suff erance feels a pang as great
 “As when a giant dies.” — У. Шекспир. «Мера за 
меру», III, 1.
2 “like Patience on a monument
 “Smiling at Grief.” — У. Шекспир. «Двенадцатая 
ночь, или Что угодно», II, 4.
3 throwing a whole party into raptures — (уст.) безмерно восхитить компанию