Northanger Abbey 1 A NOTE ON THE TEXT 2 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE AUTHORESS, TO NORTHANGER ABBEY 3 This little work was ﬁnished in the year 1803, and intended for immediate pub- lication. It was disposed of to a bookseller, it was even advertised, and why the business proceeded no farther, the author has never been able to learn. That any bookseller should think it worth-while to purchase what he did not think it worth-while to publish seems extraordinary. But with this, neither the author nor the public have any other concern than as some observation is necessary upon those parts of the work which thirteen years have made comparatively obsolete. The public are entreated to bear in mind that thirteen years have passed since it was ﬁnished, many more since it was begun, and that during that period, places, manners, books, and opinions have undergone considerable changes. 4 CHAPTER 1 5 No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her. Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard — and he had never been handsome. He had a considerable independence besides two good livings — and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what is more remarkable, with a good constitution. She had three sons before Catherine was born; and instead of dying in bringing the latter into the world, as anybody might expect, she still lived on — lived to have six children more — to see them growing up around her, and to enjoy excellent health herself. A family of ten children will be always called a ﬁne family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the.

Text 04 Northanger Abbey

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1690

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Jane Austen Concordance

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