Jane Austen (Catherine Morland) on Real Solemn History

History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in.

I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all---it is very tiresome.

Catherine Morland [Jane Austen]. 1803. Northanger Abbey.