The gallery at Northanger Abbey was an ostentatious display of finery, with the many paintings having been framed and rehung many times over the years as the family’s fortunes rose, although the redecorating had produced strange bedfellows. Even young Eleanor, barely out of the nursery, questioned the wisdom of exhibiting slashed sleeves and rich gable hoods next to the austere Puritan blacks of a generation later.
Her brother Henry observed that shades who could not abide each others’ portraits were unfit to share more heavenly dwellings, and thus unworthy of any serious consideration.
Contrasting Views (Northanger Abbey)
The gallery at Northanger Abbey was an ostentatious display of finery, with the many paintings having been framed and rehung many times over the years as the family’s fortunes rose, although the redecorating had produced strange bedfellows. Even young Eleanor, barely out of the nursery, questioned the wisdom of exhibiting slashed sleeves and rich gable hoods next to the austere Puritan blacks of a generation later.
Her brother Henry observed that shades who could not abide each others’ portraits were unfit to share more heavenly dwellings, and thus unworthy of any serious consideration.