Jane Austen

Persuasion. Northanger Abbey (Two Novels) Jane Austen

In 1798, Jane Austen (1775-1817) began to write "Susan", which was the first draft of "Northanger Abbey". In 1803, she sold it to a London publisher, who did not issue it. In 1816, Austen succeeded in recovering the manuscript. She then worked upon it further; yet, she was still doubtful whether she should publish it or not, and, at last, it was posthumously published in two volumes in 1818, at the same time as "Persuasion". --- "Northanger Abbey" follows seventeen year-old Catherine Morland and family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen as they visit Bath, England. General Tilney, the father of friends she made at Bath, invites Catherine to visit their estate, Northanger Abbey, which Catherine expects to be ancient and mysterious? --- The other posthumous novel, "Persuasion", was begun in the spring or summer of 1815 and finished in July, 1816, the last two chapters being written a little later, to take the place of the original last chapter, which did not satisfy the author. The tone of the novel, as a whole, is graver and tenderer than that of any of the other novels by Jane Austen, but woven in with its gravity and tenderness is the most delicate and mellow of all Jane Austen?s humour. It is the love story between motherless Anne Elliot, daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, and the ambitious young naval officer Frederick Wentworth?.