Northanger Abbey
Language: English
Action & Adventure B&N Classics Bilingual Education Classics Contemporary Contemporary Fiction Education English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh European Fiction Foreign Language - Dictionaries Foreign Language Study General Gothic Historical Italian Language Literary Collections Literature & Fiction Phrase Books Psychological Regency Romance Suspense Thrillers Victorian none
Publisher: Createspace
Published: Jan 1, 1804
Description:
It is no tragedy that seventeen-year-old Catherine Moorland is not cut out to be the heroine of one of the gothic novels she reads so avidly with her new friend Isabella Thorpe. What may lead to tragedy on her first visit to the glamorous resort town of Bath, however, are Catherine’s overactive imagination and her inability to read other people.
Catherine has no clue that Isabella’s tendency to say one thing and do another might make her an unreliable friend. It never occurs to her that her brother James, arriving unannounced in Bath with Isabella’s brother John, has come to see Isabella, not her. After making a mistake that would shame any true heroine—falling in love with the wry and witty Henry Tilney before knowing his feelings for her—she fails to notice that the odious John Thorpe fancies himself in love with her, and vice versa. By the time Catherine visits Henry and his sister Eleanor at Northanger Abbey, her misconceptions and novel-fueled expectations virtually guarantee disaster. Yet, Catherine remains blissfully unaware of what awaits her.
In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen combines a satirical take on the coming-of-age story with a genial spoof of the gothic novel, using innovative storytelling techniques that seem to anticipate a number of modern narrative strategies. The result is the most lighthearted of all her novels.
Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman. Although a tomboy in her childhood, by the age of 17 she is "in training for a heroine" and is excessively fond of reading Gothic novels, among which Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho is a favourite. Catherine is invited by the Allens, her wealthier neighbours in Fullerton, to accompany them to visit the town of Bath and partake in the winter season of balls, theatre and other social delights...
Catherine Morland is an imaginative, seventeen year-old who has a love of reading, particularly Gothic novels. Visiting Bath for the first time, she experiences adventure in fashionable Regency society, meeting all manner of new companions and acquaintances. But her encounter with Henry Tilney takes Catherine on a totally different (and eventful) course - one that proves to her the real world can be far more challenging and complicated than anything Catherine might ever read about in one of her novels. Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s classic tale of Gothic mystery, self-discovery, friendship and romance - and is a characteristic look by its authoress at human nature that is still as entertaining and timeless as it is humorous, unpredictable and touching.This Cumulus Classics edition includes a biographical tribute to Jane Austen by her brother (Henry Austen), an introduction about Northanger Abbey's journey to the printed page and a short message by the authoress about her book. The full, unabridged text is based upon the first edition, originally published in December 1817.More than two hundred years since Northanger Abbey was first written, Jane Austen’s story of Catherine Morland, one of literature’s most original heroines, continues to enchant readers and aspiring heroines (as well as heroes) of all ages everywhere.