. ..in suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting up his wife she had scarcely sinned against his character or magnified his cruelty. Northanger Abbey is about the misadventures of Catherine Morland young ingenuous & mettlesome & an indefatigable reader of gothic novels. Their romantic excess & dark overstatement feed her imagination as tyrannical fathers & diabolical villains work their evil on forlorn heroines in isolated settings. What could be more remote from the uneventful securities of life in the midland counties of England? Yet as Austen brilliantly contrasts fiction with reality ordinary life takes a more sinister turn & edginess & circumspection are reaffirmed alongside comedy & literary burlesque. Also including Austens other short fictions Lady Susan The Watsons & Sanditon this valuable new edition examines the ambitious & innovative works with which she inaugurated as well as closed her career. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.