LoveReading4Kids Says
"Northanger Abbey" tells the story of a young girl, Catherine Morland
who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy, sophisticated
world of Bath in the late 1790s. Austen observes with insight and
humour the interaction between Catherine and the various characters
whom she meets there, and tracks her growing understanding of the world
about her. In this, her first full-length novel, Austen also fixes her
sharp, ironic gaze on other kinds of contemporary novel, especially the
Gothic school made famous by Ann Radcliffe.
Catherine's reading
becomes intertwined with her social and romantic adventures, adding to
the uncertainties and embarrassments she must undergo before finding
happiness.
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Northanger Abbey Synopsis
"If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad."
Catherine Morland longs to be as interesting as the gothic heroines she reads about in novels. When she is invited on her first trip away from home, she leaps at the chance. New friendships and flirting lead her to the imposing Northanger Abbey, where Catherine discovers that a little imagination can be a dangerous thing.
About This Edition
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.
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