NORTHANGER ABBEY: With 5 colored illustrations from H. M. Brock (1898 edition) and 20 illustrations from Hugh Thomson (1913 edition)

With: 5 colored illustrations from H. M. Brock (1898 edition) 20 illustrations from Hugh Thomson (1913 edition) "Northanger Abbey" was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, but published after her death, at the end of 1817. Austen first titled it "Susan", when she sold it in 1803 for £10 to a London bookseller who decided against publishing. In 1816 the bookseller sold it back to the novelist's brother, Henry Austen. She further revised the novel in 1816-1817, with the intention of having it published. The lead character's name was changed from Susan to Catherine, and Austen changed the title to "Catherine". Austen died in July 1817. Her brother Henry renamed the novel and arranged for publication of "Northanger Abbey" in late December 1817 (1818 given on the title page) with a preface for the first time publicly identifying Jane Austen as the author of all her novels. The novel is a satire of the Gothic novels popular at the time of its first writing in 1798–99. The heroine, Catherine, thinks life is like a Gothic novel, but her real experiences bring her down to earth as an ordinary young woman. The novel is more explicitly comic than her other works and contains many literary allusions that her parents and siblings would have enjoyed, as a family entertainment — a piece of lighthearted parody to be read aloud by the fireside. The novel names many of the Gothic novels of that time and includes direct commentary by Austen on the value of novels, which were not valued as much as nonfiction or historical fiction.