Northanger Abbey/Persuasion

Fülszöveg

JANE AUSTEN
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion
with an introduction by mary lascelles
This volume represents the earlier and the later Jane Austen. Northanger Abbey belongs to the former period; Persuasion was her last novel.
The spur to the writing of Northanger Abbey was the existence of novels like The Mysteries oj Udolpho by Mrs Radcliffe which had set a fashion. They were tuil of Gothic. qualities, of mystery and suspense, set in old castles amidst gloomy scenes that accentuated the 'horrors'. Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey gently satirized this class of fiction and gave us a delightful heroine in consequence: a creature ot radiance who tries to interpret life by false romantic associations until disillusioned by the hero.
By the time Jane Austen wrote Persuasion the humour had become more studied, the mood autumnal. Edmund Blunden wisely observed that the novelist could not have depicted an Anne Elliot here without being an Anne herself at one time or another. Persuasion... Tovább

Fülszöveg

JANE AUSTEN
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion
with an introduction by mary lascelles
This volume represents the earlier and the later Jane Austen. Northanger Abbey belongs to the former period; Persuasion was her last novel.
The spur to the writing of Northanger Abbey was the existence of novels like The Mysteries oj Udolpho by Mrs Radcliffe which had set a fashion. They were tuil of Gothic. qualities, of mystery and suspense, set in old castles amidst gloomy scenes that accentuated the 'horrors'. Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey gently satirized this class of fiction and gave us a delightful heroine in consequence: a creature ot radiance who tries to interpret life by false romantic associations until disillusioned by the hero.
By the time Jane Austen wrote Persuasion the humour had become more studied, the mood autumnal. Edmund Blunden wisely observed that the novelist could not have depicted an Anne Elliot here without being an Anne herself at one time or another. Persuasion is the 'most beautiful and candid anatomy of woman's love'. It also reveals in its pages a deeper note than is sounded in any of the other books; giving more than a passing hint of personal griel and loneliness. ' We may look through the happy ending of Anne's story at the tears of the authoress.'
There are scenes in Lyme Regis of an engaging beauty and open-air freshness. matched with the tormai splendours of Kellynch Hall in Somersetshire, where Sir Walter lived—'a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one'. Vissza