Overview
'...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, and mettlesome, and an indefatigable reader
of gothic novels. Their romantic excess and dark overstatement feed her
imagination, as tyrannical fathers and 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, and edginess and
circumspection are reaffirmed alongside comedy and literary burlesque.
Also including Austen's other short fictions, Lady Susan, The Watsons,
and Sanditon, this valuable new edition examines the ambitious and
innovative works with which she inaugurated as well as closed her
career. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.
Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's 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,
and much more.