If I remember correctly, NA was one of Austen’s earlier novels, so it could in part be due to her still growing into her style and her craft, which probably includes knowing how to satisfactorily wrap everything up.

There’s also the possibility (though this is 100% a guess and I can’t say for sure) that the types of novels NA was both emulating and poking some fun at (the sort of exaggerated gothic romance type novels Catherine was so fond of reading) have equally abrupt “and they lived happily ever after” endings, so it was all part of her matching that style? But like I said, that’s 100% a guess on my part.

If it was serialized, that might by why. Maybe she got canceled before she was ready to wrap up?

Northanger Abbey was the first novel Austen wrote after her Juvenalia, so it played with what being a novel even means (hence the lack of info about Eleanor's hubby) She also tended to skip over the marriage portion of her marriage plots and ended on the engagement with a quick aside about the wedding (iirc, the only divergence from this is with Mansfield Park where, instead of just stating that the marriage happened, Fanny also was pregnant)

Northanger Abbey was actually one of Austen's first completed novels, and she submitted it in 1803. [By contrast, Sense & Sensibility came out in 1813] However the publisher held on to it for about a decade, until Austen's brother bought it back in about 1816. Austen then spent some time revising it. Cathy's name was originally Susan, for one. How dedicated she was to revising it isn't really known [at least not to me]. She was already ill, and she died about a year or so after her brother got it back for her. He had NA and Persuasion published posthumously as a set.

I love Northanger Abbey, but I understand what you mean. I suspect it was just the growing pains of Austen working out how she wanted her novels to be, and then she wasn't able to spend enough time revising it when she had the chance.

Fwiw, I think that's typical of all Austen novels. Emma is probably the only one that doesn't feel rushed to me, and even then, once the love confession happens it's just a matter of tying up loose ends.

I've always read Eleanor's sudden marriage as another element of satire. We're told the whole book that Catherine is not exactly a classic heroine, and right at the end Austen is kind of like "you just read a whole-ass book about our quaint and naive little heroine who imagined she was in a Gothic story, but all along Eleanor would have fit the mould of a classical heroine what with her tragic romance so much better lol".

>She also tended to skip over the marriage portion of her marriage plots and ended on the engagement with a quick aside about the wedding

Honestly I think this is the biggest reason: she generally ends her novels pretty abruptly, so it's no surprise that NA is the same. Once the couple gets engaged, the book is basically over.

It wasn't. I don't think any of Austen's novels were serialized.

Ask /r/janeausten

It was written by a teen.

Why not?

Based on what I’ve read, most novels weren’t back then. Serialization of novels probably was a thing, but as far as I can tell it became the really popular thing to do in England in the mid 1800s, after Dickens published his Pickwick Paper stories that way. Austen’s contemporaries weren’t serializing their works either, they were publishing them as full novels.

I was going to add this to my reply as well, but then I got to thinking and I couldn’t remember whether NA was even more abrupt than the rest or not. But I think this is definitely likely to be the largest part of it! Especially because her stories are as much or more about the social absurdities and quirks and journeys of the people in them than they are strictly about the romance.

I've got a bone to pick with a certain mouthy English major!

I don’t think Frederick is the type to attend family events. On the other hand Catherine had a handful of younger sisters, maybe he shows up to spoil everyone’s fun in a few years.

It is a parody. It is a satire of gothic novels. Asking for a drawn out ending is like asking for a developed denouement to a SNL skit.

It is just not that kind of book.

Jane Austen wraps up a lot of her books quickly, especially Perusasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. When she's done, she's done.

At least we know that Henry and Catherine have their happy ending.

Also, if you want to discuss more, there is r/JaneAusten

Perusasion is pretty abrupt too!

It is! Persuasion is also my favorite of hers, but there is def lots and lots of buildup and then “they live happily ever after - as long as there isn’t another war” which is like…. Oh.

And did you catch that Wentworth proposed the day Napoleon escaped from Elba?

Another war there shall be!

I did not omg. That’s awful and now I’m sad about it, Ms. Austen whyyyyy

Don't worry too much, the navy hardly played a part. Mostly just trope and message carrying and making a blockade around France. They had already destroyed the French Navy.

But she did clearly do that on purpose.