Classic Books Store
Northanger Abbey (Barnes & Noble Classics)
RRP: $5.95
Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Author: Jane Austen
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Author: Jane Austen
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Average Customer Rating:
Experimental feature: Order Northanger Abbey (Barnes & Noble Classics) from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.
Northanger Abbey (Barnes & Noble Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781593082642
ISBN: 1593082649
Label: Barnes & Noble Classics
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2005-03-03
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Studio: Barnes & Noble Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781593082642
ISBN: 1593082649
Label: Barnes & Noble Classics
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2005-03-03
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Studio: Barnes & Noble Classics
Editorial Review of Northanger Abbey (Barnes & Noble Classics)
From cover: "A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austens Gothic parody. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist. The storys unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henrys mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art. Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austens novels, yet at its core this delightful novel is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage."
Customer Reviews of Northanger Abbey (Barnes & Noble Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Dearest Miss Morland...
Review: This excellent first novel by Jane Austen is a must read for Austen fans. Although this novel was the last to be published, Northanger Abbey was the first story she wrote. This first attempt is raw, emotionally driven, and shows the passion of a first time writer. The story is one of mystery, intrigue, and a match made in heaven... that is of course dependent on if society will allow it.
From the balls in Bath to the secrets of Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland lives it all. Her youth and proper upbringing give Catherine the innocence and naiveté that everyone can't help but love in her character. Her truly good-hearted personality allows her to be liked where ever she goes. Catherine, it should also be noted, is a fan of gothic novels and is intrigued by the mysteries and secrets they hold. While on vacation with her wealthy neighbors the Allens, Catherine for the first time gets to experience the society in Bath. There she meets the amiable Mr. John Thorpe and the witty Mr. Henry Tilney. When Catherine is invited to the Tilney's Northanger Abbey, her imagination and the grandeur of Northanger Abbey takes hold of her as she tries to discover the truth behind the death of Mrs. Tilney (Henry's mother).
"Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained. What have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English: that we are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you. Does our education prepare us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? Could they be perpetuated without being known in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such a footing, where every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open? Dearest Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting?" - Henry Tilney
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: beginner Jane Austen for young readers
Review: This is not a sophisticated read, but it is fun. Jane Austen wrote this before she wrote anything else and it was rejected, it is a bit adolescent, but fun. A young girl lets her imagination get away with her when she visits friends at an old house. I'm a high school teacher and I would recommend this for young teens who want to progress beyond R L Stine, etc.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Don't read the Notes!
Review: I generally love both Jane Austen's work and the foot & end notes accompanying it that give a more thorough sense of the culture, but this time the notes completely ruined the story for me!
At first I thought perhaps I was enjoying Northanger Abbey less than Austen's other works because it was her first, and therefore less practiced and perfected, novel. But towards the end of the book I realized that it's main flaws are not of Austen's doing.
Every morsel that Austen holds back, every secret she hints at to draw the reader along with her main character is dashed to pieces by the explanatory notes! No wonder I didn't think it very good - before I'd read a third of the introduction (and there I stopped), I knew what trials would befall Catherine, what motives the antagonists operated under, and who the heroine would marry in the end!
Of course her first work is not as heralded as Pride & Prejudice, but it is still worth the time of an Austen fan. If you are capable, ignore every memo in this book until after you're done. If you're incapable, I recommend you find another version so that you may enjoy Austen's first novel for what it is, without anyone spoiling it for you!
A.L. Travis
Author of The Pillar of Light: The Legends of Milana Series
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Not Austen's best...
Review: I have to disgree with my fellow reviewer on the delight to be found in Northanger Abbey. I am a great fan of Jane Austen's work and am also somewhat partial to Gothic romances so I expected to really enjoy Austen's satirical take on this genre. While it started off with promise, I soon found myself wishing it would end as there is little action until the latter chapters when Catherine Morland, the heroine, finally goes to Northanger Abbey. I won't deny that there is some pleasure to be had in Austen's wit and humorous take on Gothic romances but the majority of the story drags a bit and the ending feels almost too rushed.
Additionally, while it is clear that Austen created a heroine very different from those in her later work and that she is intentionally naive and easily influenced, she is difficult to like, making it hard to stay engaged with her story. Of course, Austen may have also done this intentionally as a way to hold Catherine up as an example of the failings of youth and the influence of this type of literature on a sheltered mind, but even in that case, it doesn't make the story any easier to enjoy.
It is certainly worth reading to see a different side of Jane Austen as well as to judge the progress of her style and thematic focus but it may not stand up as well against the talent and mastery shown in her other work.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Absolutely delightful
Review: I approached this book somewhat warily, knowing that Northanger Abbey was to some degree a satirical take on the immense popularity of Gothic romances such as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, a book I dearly love. Happily, Austen's means of poking fun at Gothic horror literature are far from mean-spirited and, as a matter of fact, can be delightfully humorous indeed. Her heroine, Catherine Morland, is by no means the type of heroine to be found in the giant tomes of Radcliffe and her indulgent imitators, as Austen tells her reading audience directly from the very start. "Almost attractive" on a good day, this unintellectual tomboy has reached her fifteenth year without inspiring a young man's fancy, nor would she be able to delight him with musical skill or even draw his profile in her secret notebooks if she had. Having encountered no strangers who would prove to be a lord or prince in disguise, her heroic ambitions seem stymied at best until fate steps in and grants her a stay of several weeks in the delightful town of Bath. Making her transition from naïve girl to equally naïve young lady, Catherine almost immediately falls quite in love with young Henry Tilney, while at the same time she becomes intimate friends with an older young lady named Isabella, whose inconstancy as both friend and intended beloved of Catherine's own brother eventually brings her much pain. To her intense delight, however, Catherine is invited by General Tilney, Henry's father, to spend some few weeks in his home, Northanger Abbey. Her joy at spending such private time in the company of her beloved and new best friend Eleanor Tilney is immense, but equally exciting to her is the chance to spend time in a mysterious former abbey of the sort she has read so much about. Such Gothic romances as Udolpho have been the source of her recent heroic training, and she is wildly desirous and fully expectant of discovering hidden passages, dark secrets, frightening circumstances, and possibly even incalcitrant perfidy in the halls of her beloved's family home. Her overactive imagination runs wild in Northanger Abbey, bringing her a fair share of embarrassment, but the very sweet and tender sensibilities that fuel her fire for Gothic mystery make her all the more endearing to me. Catherine is remarkably innocent, and as such she is absolutely delightful in my eyes.
Much of the story does fit in with your typical Gothic novel, but the frightening and dismaying things Catherine eventually discovers are of a far from supernatural sort. Ever so gradually, a true monster slowly coalesces from the pages of this remarkable novel. I, like young Catherine, was somewhat overenthusiastic concerning the Gothic qualities of this adventure I feel I shared with her, and the truly despicable thoughts and actions of the book's villain did not immediately strike me as forcefully as they should have; the afterword by Elizabeth Hardwick included in my Signet Classic copy of the book, however, served to make me fully comprehend its import. Greed, selfishness, pride-these are the horrors of Northanger Abbey, and it does deeply hurt a reader of romantic sensitivity to stand idly by, unable to aid and assist a sweet young lady such as Catherine in her time of despair and emotional suffering.
Lovers of Gothic horror or literature in general will surely find nothing but delight in the pages of Northanger Abbey. Austen's critique of Gothic literature is quite subdued, and I actually find immense pleasure in the overindulgence the author sometimes employs in her attempts to satirize it. Written by Austen at a tender age (though not published until the year following her death), Northanger Abbey features incredibly human, complex characters full of wit and charm. The hidden motives of seemingly delightful friends is brought to light, teaching young Catherine as well as the reader a painful lesson in real life, yet romance stands at the ready to right the wrongs of self-interest, deception, and greed. I absolutely adore this novel and everything about it.
Review Summary: Dearest Miss Morland...
Review: This excellent first novel by Jane Austen is a must read for Austen fans. Although this novel was the last to be published, Northanger Abbey was the first story she wrote. This first attempt is raw, emotionally driven, and shows the passion of a first time writer. The story is one of mystery, intrigue, and a match made in heaven... that is of course dependent on if society will allow it.
From the balls in Bath to the secrets of Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland lives it all. Her youth and proper upbringing give Catherine the innocence and naiveté that everyone can't help but love in her character. Her truly good-hearted personality allows her to be liked where ever she goes. Catherine, it should also be noted, is a fan of gothic novels and is intrigued by the mysteries and secrets they hold. While on vacation with her wealthy neighbors the Allens, Catherine for the first time gets to experience the society in Bath. There she meets the amiable Mr. John Thorpe and the witty Mr. Henry Tilney. When Catherine is invited to the Tilney's Northanger Abbey, her imagination and the grandeur of Northanger Abbey takes hold of her as she tries to discover the truth behind the death of Mrs. Tilney (Henry's mother).
"Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained. What have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English: that we are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you. Does our education prepare us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? Could they be perpetuated without being known in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such a footing, where every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open? Dearest Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting?" - Henry Tilney
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: beginner Jane Austen for young readers
Review: This is not a sophisticated read, but it is fun. Jane Austen wrote this before she wrote anything else and it was rejected, it is a bit adolescent, but fun. A young girl lets her imagination get away with her when she visits friends at an old house. I'm a high school teacher and I would recommend this for young teens who want to progress beyond R L Stine, etc.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Don't read the Notes!
Review: I generally love both Jane Austen's work and the foot & end notes accompanying it that give a more thorough sense of the culture, but this time the notes completely ruined the story for me!
At first I thought perhaps I was enjoying Northanger Abbey less than Austen's other works because it was her first, and therefore less practiced and perfected, novel. But towards the end of the book I realized that it's main flaws are not of Austen's doing.
Every morsel that Austen holds back, every secret she hints at to draw the reader along with her main character is dashed to pieces by the explanatory notes! No wonder I didn't think it very good - before I'd read a third of the introduction (and there I stopped), I knew what trials would befall Catherine, what motives the antagonists operated under, and who the heroine would marry in the end!
Of course her first work is not as heralded as Pride & Prejudice, but it is still worth the time of an Austen fan. If you are capable, ignore every memo in this book until after you're done. If you're incapable, I recommend you find another version so that you may enjoy Austen's first novel for what it is, without anyone spoiling it for you!
A.L. Travis
Author of The Pillar of Light: The Legends of Milana Series
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Not Austen's best...
Review: I have to disgree with my fellow reviewer on the delight to be found in Northanger Abbey. I am a great fan of Jane Austen's work and am also somewhat partial to Gothic romances so I expected to really enjoy Austen's satirical take on this genre. While it started off with promise, I soon found myself wishing it would end as there is little action until the latter chapters when Catherine Morland, the heroine, finally goes to Northanger Abbey. I won't deny that there is some pleasure to be had in Austen's wit and humorous take on Gothic romances but the majority of the story drags a bit and the ending feels almost too rushed.
Additionally, while it is clear that Austen created a heroine very different from those in her later work and that she is intentionally naive and easily influenced, she is difficult to like, making it hard to stay engaged with her story. Of course, Austen may have also done this intentionally as a way to hold Catherine up as an example of the failings of youth and the influence of this type of literature on a sheltered mind, but even in that case, it doesn't make the story any easier to enjoy.
It is certainly worth reading to see a different side of Jane Austen as well as to judge the progress of her style and thematic focus but it may not stand up as well against the talent and mastery shown in her other work.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Absolutely delightful
Review: I approached this book somewhat warily, knowing that Northanger Abbey was to some degree a satirical take on the immense popularity of Gothic romances such as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, a book I dearly love. Happily, Austen's means of poking fun at Gothic horror literature are far from mean-spirited and, as a matter of fact, can be delightfully humorous indeed. Her heroine, Catherine Morland, is by no means the type of heroine to be found in the giant tomes of Radcliffe and her indulgent imitators, as Austen tells her reading audience directly from the very start. "Almost attractive" on a good day, this unintellectual tomboy has reached her fifteenth year without inspiring a young man's fancy, nor would she be able to delight him with musical skill or even draw his profile in her secret notebooks if she had. Having encountered no strangers who would prove to be a lord or prince in disguise, her heroic ambitions seem stymied at best until fate steps in and grants her a stay of several weeks in the delightful town of Bath. Making her transition from naïve girl to equally naïve young lady, Catherine almost immediately falls quite in love with young Henry Tilney, while at the same time she becomes intimate friends with an older young lady named Isabella, whose inconstancy as both friend and intended beloved of Catherine's own brother eventually brings her much pain. To her intense delight, however, Catherine is invited by General Tilney, Henry's father, to spend some few weeks in his home, Northanger Abbey. Her joy at spending such private time in the company of her beloved and new best friend Eleanor Tilney is immense, but equally exciting to her is the chance to spend time in a mysterious former abbey of the sort she has read so much about. Such Gothic romances as Udolpho have been the source of her recent heroic training, and she is wildly desirous and fully expectant of discovering hidden passages, dark secrets, frightening circumstances, and possibly even incalcitrant perfidy in the halls of her beloved's family home. Her overactive imagination runs wild in Northanger Abbey, bringing her a fair share of embarrassment, but the very sweet and tender sensibilities that fuel her fire for Gothic mystery make her all the more endearing to me. Catherine is remarkably innocent, and as such she is absolutely delightful in my eyes.
Much of the story does fit in with your typical Gothic novel, but the frightening and dismaying things Catherine eventually discovers are of a far from supernatural sort. Ever so gradually, a true monster slowly coalesces from the pages of this remarkable novel. I, like young Catherine, was somewhat overenthusiastic concerning the Gothic qualities of this adventure I feel I shared with her, and the truly despicable thoughts and actions of the book's villain did not immediately strike me as forcefully as they should have; the afterword by Elizabeth Hardwick included in my Signet Classic copy of the book, however, served to make me fully comprehend its import. Greed, selfishness, pride-these are the horrors of Northanger Abbey, and it does deeply hurt a reader of romantic sensitivity to stand idly by, unable to aid and assist a sweet young lady such as Catherine in her time of despair and emotional suffering.
Lovers of Gothic horror or literature in general will surely find nothing but delight in the pages of Northanger Abbey. Austen's critique of Gothic literature is quite subdued, and I actually find immense pleasure in the overindulgence the author sometimes employs in her attempts to satirize it. Written by Austen at a tender age (though not published until the year following her death), Northanger Abbey features incredibly human, complex characters full of wit and charm. The hidden motives of seemingly delightful friends is brought to light, teaching young Catherine as well as the reader a painful lesson in real life, yet romance stands at the ready to right the wrongs of self-interest, deception, and greed. I absolutely adore this novel and everything about it.