Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Format: Paperback

Condition: New but cover minor torn and peel - not for fussy

Genre: Classic

"...when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way."

When Catherine Morland gets the chance to accompany a neighbouring family on an extended visit to Bath, it opens up a world of adventure and romance unavailable to the naive 17-year-old in her Wiltshire village home. She is soon captivated by affable clergyman Henry Tilney, befriends flighty Isabella Thorpe and also attracts the attention of Isabella's disagreeable braggart brother, John. The latter tries to drive a wedge between Catherine and Henry, while Isabella introduces her to Gothic novels, with their lurid plotlines.
Catherine is invited to Northanger Abbey, the Tilneys' family home, which seems to come straight from the pages of one of these potboilers. Her imagination in overdrive, she speculates that Henry's widower father harbours a dark secret over the fate of his long-dead wife, and in doing so threatens the blossoming relationship. Published posthumously but believed to be Jane Austen's earliest completed work, Northanger Abbey follows the growth of its heroine from artless ingenue to a woman of mature sense, able to distinguish reality from fiction and see people for what they really are.