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Northanger Abbey is both an ingenious Gothic parody and a realistic portrait of the social education of a naive young girl in late eighteenth-century England. Conceived in the 1790s but not published until after Jane Austen's death, the novel straddles the style of her childhood writings, with their playful mockery of contemporary fiction, and the later mature works which probe both society and individual psychology. It paints a wonderfully dense picture of the material and social conditions of genteel English life in town and country. Through the young, naïve heroine, the reader experiences the popular delight in escapist and sensational fiction typical of the period. The novel invites us to enjoy being laughed at for our own fictional expectations, while happily fulfilling most of them. Prefaces and explanatory endnotes supplied by Janet Todd illuminate cultural, historical and literary context, bringing Jane Austen's world to life.
List of contents
Preface; Northanger Abbey; General Notes.
About the author
Janet Todd is a critic, editor, novelist and biographer of Aphra Behn, Mary Wollstonecraft, her daughters, and Irish pupils. Her latest novel is Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden (2021). Todd taught at Rutgers, UEA, Glasgow and Aberdeen. A former President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, she is now an Honorary Fellow of Newnham College.
Summary
Austen's ingenious Gothic parody illuminates the material and social conditions of genteel English society in the late eighteenth century. Through its naive young heroine, we delight in escapist fiction while learning its limitations. Explanatory endnotes illuminate cultural, historical and literary context, bringing Jane Austen's world to life.
Foreword
Northanger Abbey, Austen's ingenious Gothic parody, is simultaneously a realistic portrait of the social education of a naive young girl.
