LoveReading Says
Full to the brim with ready wit and arch social commentary, this amusing and intelligent book is as relevant today as it was when published nearly 200 years ago. If you haven't previously read any of Austen’s works, this is the perfect place to start, it’s one of her lesser known but more stimulating and provocative novels. Quite literally a book of two halves, we have a story of a young woman learning the difference between reality and fantasy and then a consummate commentary from the author on the literary world at the time.
Austen introduces an almost anti-heroine, a kind, caring but not particularly captivating Catherine, then surrounds her with four fascinatingly different characters who range from compassionate, intelligent and gracious to self obsessed, mercenary and petulant. As well as the engaging story, you also discover an author who appears to be somewhat on the warpath. She actually talks to you from the page, her views are so clear, you could be having a face-to-face discussion with her. If you already know Northanger Abbey, reacquaint yourself with this fascinating novel. This actual edition is charming, a perfect size for the hand bag and one to treasure. It also has an interesting Introduction by Val McDermid who has just recently, with approval from the Austen Society, published a terrifically good reimagining in a contemporary setting of Northanger Abbey.
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Northanger Abbey Synopsis
Student edition, with an introduction by Jane Austen specialist Sylvia Hunt. Lightly annotated. The unabridged text of a great classic. Academic, easy-to-read format. Perfect for undergraduate and AP courses.Jane Austen believed that women inhabit a Gothic world, not one as fantastical as Gothic novels present, but a world that is just as oppressive, terrifying and confining as any Gothic novel.Late eighteenth-century society was established on the ideal of women inhabiting only the private or domestic sphere. The idealized home, the oasis from public concern, becomes a prison for any woman with intellect or ambition. Austen takes exception to this presentation of the passive, domestic woman.In Northanger Abbey, she defines the conflicts that exist in society and in individuals; conflicts between reason and feeling, restraint and freedom, society and the individual.Catherine Morland may be the heroine of the novel, but she is not really of central importance. Readers would have seen this character before: a naive young woman, supposedly under the protection of a relative, arrives in a city and must make her way through social blunders and sexual advances in order to finally gain the attention of the hero. Catherine certainly fits this prescription: she is relatively unsophisticated, gullible and a veritable a tabula rasa. On the blank page that is Catherine others make their mark. Slowly she learns to read people and situations more clearly and, in the end, marries the eligible bachelor.Austen completely rejects the idea of the delusional heroine and perfect hero. She redefines 'heroine' in this novel by rejecting the formula she inherited from previous novelists.Northanger Abbey is about the ability to read both texts and people, and it is populated by characters who are good and bad readers of both. In typical bildungsroman fashion, Catherine must develop her reading skills and decipher reality and fiction in both novels and people's representations of themselves. Austen attempts to defend the novel as a genre in this book, but she is also pointing out that the Gothic world is both feminine and real. (from "e;Introduction"e; by Sylvia Hunt)
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781988963594 |
| Publication date: |
19th September 2022 |
| Author: |
Jane Austen |
| Publisher: |
Universitas Press |
| Format: |
Digital Product (Other) |
| Primary Genre |
Historical Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Jane Austen Press Reviews
'My favourite writer is Jane Austen and I've read all her books so many times I've lost count'
J K Rowling
'Thanks to her sharp wit and strong female characters, Jane Austen's literature is still utterly relevant ... She's not just a writer, she's a cult, a brand and a cultural touchstone'
STYLIST
About Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 at Steventon near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. She lived with her family at Steventon until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother; in 1809, they settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire. Here she remained, except for a few visits to London, until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on 18 July 1817.
As a girl Jane Austen wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Her works were only published after much revision, four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818 with a biographical notice by her brother, Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship. Persuasion was written in a race against failing health in 1815-16. She also left two earlier compositions, a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons. At the time of her death, she was working on a new novel, Sanditon, a fragmentary draft of which survives.
Fellow novelist Katharine McMahon on Jane Austen...
I can't not choose her. And whichever I've read last is always my favourite. The nuance of emotion, the understanding of human nature revealed by Austen constantly delights me. When I reread Sense and Sensibility recently, for the first time Elinor came across as quite prissy and destined to marry a rather spineless husband. I wonder if that was intended?
More About Jane Austen
