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Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Illustrated by Hugh Thomson.
Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Persuasion Illustrated by Hugh Thomson Author:Jane Austen Northanger Abbey was written in 1798, although it was not published until after her death. On the other hand, Persuasion was her final novel, written between 1815 and 1816, and published incompletely but revised immediately after her death with Northanger Abbey. Northanger Abbey is notable for being a fierce parody of the late 18th century G... more »othic style's fainting heroines, 'terror' (giving hints of something fantastic but dreadful, only to quash it later with mundane truth) and haunted medieval buildings. It concerns a typical Austen heroine, the young Catherine Morland who is taken to the fashionable resort of Bath with the her friends the Allens. From there she travels to the eponymous medieval abbey, the seat of the Tilneys. As an impressionable girl, Catherine becomes obsessed with the possible atrocities going on at Northanger Abbey. As is her style, Austen spices it with a little romance where she puts Captain Tilney under the spell of the unpleasant, scheming Isabella Thorpe. Persuasion concerns the social issues of Austen's time and particularly the matter of class. The story begins with the letting of Sir Walter Elliot's seat, Kellynch Hall, to his annoyance as a man of self-aggrandising and showy tendencies. Persuasion is the tale of the romance between his pretty and friendly younger daughter Anne who meets the novel's hero, Captain Wentworth and in spite of social barriers and the rival Musgrove sisters - Louisa and Henrietta - pursues his affection having once turned him down as a spouse.« less