The earliest of her six major novels, Northanger Abbey remained unpublished until after Jane Austen’s death. A deliciously witty satire of popular Gothic romances, it is perhaps Austen’s lightest, most delightful excursion into a young woman’s world. Catherine Morland, an unlikely heroine----unlikely because she is so ordinary----forsakes her English village for the pleasures and perils of Bath. There, among a circle of Austen’s wonderfully vain, dissembling, and fashionable characters, she meets a potential suitor, Henry Tilney. But with her imagination fueled by melodramatic novels, Catherine turns a visit to his home, Northanger Abbey, into a hunt for dark family secrets. The result is a series of hilarious social gaffes and harsh awakenings that for all of Austen’s youthful exuberance nevertheless conveys her mature vision of literature and life----and the consequences of mistaking one for the other.

简.奥斯丁一七七五年生于英格兰汉普郡斯蒂汶顿教区长家，是家中六个兄弟、两个姐妹中的小妹，排行第七。这是一个生气勃勃的和睦家庭，父亲是牛津大学的毕业生。奥斯丁从小就在父亲鼓励下大量阅读各类书籍，并学习写作，家中文学气氛浓厚。简？奥斯丁六部长篇小说如下：《理智与情感》（1811年），《傲慢与偏见》（1813年），《曼斯菲尔德庄园》（1814年），《爱玛》（1816年），《劝导》（1818年），《诺桑觉寺》（1818年）。