Northanger Abbey [Paperback]

Jane Austen takes a satirical swipe at the gothic novel in this classic book bursting with sly subversive wit.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY P.D. JAMES

The Vintage Classics Austen series is designed by the writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton and introduced by some of our finest contemporary writers and Austen fans: Alexander McCall Smith, Lynne Truss, Amanda Vickery, Francesca Segal, P.D. James and Andrew Motion.

'Jane Austen is a genius, andNorthanger Abbeyis hugely underrated' Martin Amis

Catherine Morland is a young girl with a very active imagination. Her naivety and love of sensational novels lead her to approach the fashionable social scene in Bath and her stay at nearby Northanger Abbey with preconceptions that have embarrassing and entertaining consequences.

 • Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire. --J.K. Rowling

 • Somebody reading over my shoulder refuses to believe that I foundNorthanger Abbeyfunnier thanCatch 22, but I did. So there. --Jenny Colgan

 • The most perfect artist among women, the writer whose books are immortal. --Virginia Woolf

 • Jane Austen's lightest and most playful novel. --IndependentJane Austen was born in Steventon Rectory on 16th December 1775. She began writingPride and Prejudicewhen she was twenty-two years old. Originally titledFirst Impressions, it was initially rejected by publishers and only published in 1813 after much revision. She published four novels in her lifetime,Sense and Sensibility(1811),Pride and Prejudice(1813),Mansfield Park(1814) andEmma(1816). Jane Austen died on 18th July 1817.Northanger AbbeyandPersuasionwere both published posthumously in 1818.

P. D. James is an award-winning crime writer and author ofDeath Comes to Pemberley. She was awarded an OBE in 1983, and was created a life peer in 1991.