Northanger Abbey (Signet Classics)

Author: Austen, Jane

Brand: Signet

Color: Purple

Binding: mass_market

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 256

Release Date: 05-02-2008

Part Number: 9780451530844

Details: Product Description


Jane Austen's brilliant satire of the gothic novel.

The most sprightly and satirical of Austen's novels,
Northanger Abbey was written when the author was herself in her early twenties, and takes for its heroine seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland, a spirited young woman preoccupied with the pleasures of dressing, dancing, and reading sensational novels. But when she visits Northanger Abbey, the ancestral home of handsome Henry Tilney, Catherine's taste in books comes back to haunt her. The rambling house full of locked doors and the family's mysterious history give rise to delightfully dreadful suspicions, and finally only Catherine's sweet nature and good humor triumph over her susceptibility. A sly commentary on the power of literature as well as a cautionary tale about the perils of naïveté,
Northanger Abbey is a fresh and funny tale of one young woman receiving, as Margaret Drabble reveals in her illuminating introduction, "intensive instruction in the ways of the world."


With an Introduction by Margaret Drabble

and an Afterword by Stephanie Laurens


Review


"Miss Austen understood the smallness of life to perfection. She was a great artist."—Alfred, Lord Tennyson


About the Author


Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born in Hampshire, England, to George Austen, a rector, and his wife, Cassandra. Like many girls of her day, she was educated at home, where she began her literary career by writing parodies and skits for the amusement of her large family. Although Austen did not marry, she did have several suitors and once accepted a marriage proposal, but only for an evening. Although Austen never lived apart from her family, her work shows a worldly and wise sensibility. Her novels include 
Sense and Sensibility (1811), 
Pride and Prejudice (1813), 
Mansfield Park (1814), 
Emma (1815), and 
Northanger Abbeyand 
Persuasion, published together posthumously in 1818.
 

Margaret Drabble is the highly acclaimed novelist, biographer, and editor of 
The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Her novels include 
The Gates of Ivory,
The Seven Sisters, and 
The Red Queen. She lives in London.


Stephanie Laurens is the
New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty historical romances set in Regency England. Her Cynster and Bastion Club novels are beloved by readers worldwide.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.


Chapter 1
No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy wouldhave supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, thecharacter of her father and mother; her own person and disposition,were all equally against her. Her father was a clergyman, withoutbeing neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, thoughhis name was Richard—and he had never been handsome. He had aconsiderable independence besides two good livings—and he wasnot in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her motherwas a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, whatis more remarkable, with a good constitution. She had three sonsbefore Catherine was born; and instead of dying in bringing thelatter into the world, as anybody might expect, she still livedon—lived to have six children more—to see them growing uparound her, and to enjoy excellent health herself. A family often children will be always called a fine family, where there areheads and arms and legs enough for the number; but the Morlandshad little other right to the word, for they were in general veryplain, and Catherine, for many years of her life, as plain as any.She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, darklank hair, and strong features;—so much for her person; —and notless unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind. She was fond ofall 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 rose-bush. Indeed she had notaste for a garden; and if she gathered flowers at all, i

EAN: 9780451530844

Package Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.0 inches

Languages: English