A witty exploration of the perils of mistaking fiction for reality Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is edited with an introduction & notes by Marylin Butler in Penguin Classics During an eventful season at Bath young naive Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time She is delighted with her new acquaintances rude boorish John Thorpe his flirtatious sister Isabella who shares Catherine's love of sensational novels & intrigue & sophisticated Eleanor & Henry Tilney who invite her to their father's mysterious house Northanger Abbey There her imagination influenced by Gothic romances such as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney With its broad comedy & irrepressible impressionable heroine this is the most youthful & optimistic of Jane Austen's works The Penguin Classics edition of Northanger Abbey is based on the first edition of 1818 &
Includes:: a chronology & additional suggestions for further reading Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers Austen began writing at a young age embarking on what is possibly her best-known work Pride & Prejudice at the age of 22 She was the author of Sense & Sensibility Pride & Prejudice Emma Persuasion Mansfield Park & Northanger Abbey If you enjoyed Northanger Abbey you may like Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho also available in Penguin Classics The most perfect artist among women the writer whose books are immortal (Virginia Woolf) These modern editions are to be strongly recommended for their scrupulous texts informative notes & helpful introductions (Brian Southam The Jane Austen Society)