A Change in Narration

In the previous two novels we have read, The True History of the Kelly Gang and Wieland, a first person narrator, specifically the protagonists, have looked back on their lives and told their stories to someone else. Clara writes a series of letters to her friends while Ned writes to his daughter. In Northanger Abbey, we experience a third-person narrator who is not part of the story itself. This narrator seems to know only the thoughts of Catherine as illustrated in the scene where Catherine's brother asks her if she likes his friend Thorpe: "Instead of answering, as she probably would have done, had there been no friendship and no flatter in the case, 'I don no like him at all;' she directly replied,'I like him very much; he seems very agreeable'" (41). The narrator is the only one who secretly knows that Catherine does not like Thorpe. This change in narration is very interesting. For the first time, we may be receiving a less biased view of a story. This narrator may be more reliable than the previous two.