Northanger Abbey and Persuasion‪ ‬

As has happened with many of history’s greatest writers, Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) did not earn the credit she was due until well after her death. Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, has earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature over the last 150 years. 

Austen’s romantic fiction was an interesting genre that belied the fact her writing was laden with realism and a scathing critique on society and the role women played in it during her life. Austen tried several different types of literary styles before settling on writing novels from 1811-1817, releasing Sense and Sensibility (1811), her most famous work, Pride and Prejudice (1813), and Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816). The novels highlighted the dependence of women on marrying high to reach a better social status and financial security, and Austen achieved some success from these works in her life.  

Northanger Abbey was the first of Austen's novels to be completed for publication, originally titled Susan. Written around 1798-1799, it was revised by Austen for the press in 1803 and sold in the same year for £10 to a London bookseller, Crosby & Co., who decided against publishing. In 1817, the bookseller was content to sell it back to the novelist's brother, Henry Austen, for the exact sum that he had paid for it at the beginning, unaware that Austen was the author of popular novels by then. Northanger Abbey is the first two volumes of a four-volume set with Persuasion. 

Northanger Abbey is the story of 17 year old Gothic novel aficionado Catherine Morland and family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen, and their trip to Bath, England. Catherine meets her friends such as Isabella Thorpe, and goes to balls, eventually being pursued by John Thorpe while hse’s interested in Henry Tilney.

Austen’s last published novel was Persuasion, which tells the story of Anne Elliot, who had fallen in love with a handsome young naval officer named Frederick Wentworth, who is intelligent and ambitious but poor. Elliot’s father, Sir Walter, and her sister, Elizabeth, are dissatisfied with Elliot’s choice due to the young man’s low social status. The novel describes Elliot meeting Wentworth again, who has become a wealthy wartime captain in the Royal Navy. 

This edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and images of Austen.