About the Author-

• Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, to the Reverend George Austen and his wife, Cassandra Leigh Austen, in the village of Steventon in Hampshire, England. Though her mother was from a family of gentry, Jane's father was not well off, and the large family had to take in school boarders to make ends meet. The second youngest of the Austens' eight children, Jane was very close to her elder, and only, sister, Cassandra, and neither sister ever married. Both girls were educated at home, as many were at that time. From a young age Jane wrote satires and read them aloud to her appreciative family. Though she completed the manuscripts of two full-length novels while living at Steventon, these were not published. Later, these novels were revised into the form under which they were published, as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, respectively. In 1801, George Austen retired from the clergy, and Jane, Cassandra, and their parents took up residence in Bath, a fashionable town Jane liked far less than her native village. Jane seems to have written little during this period. When Mr. Austen died in 1805, the three women, Mrs. Austen and her daughters, moved first to Southampton and then, partly subsidized by Jane's brothers, occupied a house in Chawton, a village not unlike Jane's first home. There she began to work on writing and pursued publishing once more, leading to the anonymous publication of Sense and Sensibility in 1811 and Pride and Prejudice in 1813, to modestly good reviews. Known for her cheerful, modest, and witty character, Jane Austen had a busy family and social life but very little direct romantic experience. Her last years were quiet and devoted to family, friends, and writing her final novels. In 1817 she had to interrupt work on her last and unfinished novel, Sanditon, because she fell ill. She died on July 18, 1817, in Winchester, where she had been taken for medical treatment. After her death, her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published, together with a biographical notice, due to the efforts of her brother Henry. Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Reviews-

• Jane Austen once said that if she'd been a painter, she would have been a miniaturist, for she loved the fine details. Reader Anna Massey is wonderfully attentive to those details. General Tilney is sufficiently ponderous, Mrs. Allen suitably vapid, and Catherine Morland, albeit sensible, just silly enough to make her flights of imagination entertaining as she enters the mysterious world of the handsome Henry Tilney. Massey renders palpable all of Catherine's delight and confusion in this new world. Though not as interesting as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE or EMMA, Austen's first novel argues forcefully for the seriousness of the novel as a form, pokes good humored fun at some of the silliness of the gothic, and tells a delightful story to boot. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine
• Although published after her death, Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's first novels. Like Don Quixote, it satirizes a popular literary genre of the day and draws distinctions between reality and illusion. Whereas Cervantes's novel took on a life--an archetypal one, in fact--independent of its original joke, Austen's novel suffers without at least a nodding acquaintance with the Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe. A sheltered young woman mistakes relatively innocent actions for the sinister clues she reads about. A comedy of errors, of course, ensues. Academy Award-winner Glenda Jackson does an admirable job, particularly with Austen's memorable characterizations. Her touch is perhaps a bit too heavy for the aery narrative. But finding just the right tone for this author has eluded many a fine actor. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
• Sarah Childs appears to revel in a mannered reading of Jane Austen's satire of gothic novels. The posturings and prejudices of 18th century middle-class attitudes are exclaimed in an arch parody of the Edith Sitwell style. Unfortunately, Childs fails to comprehend much of what she is reading. While the conversational sallies between Catherine and her companions are sprightly, narrative sections often stumble. The elegant phraseology loses its thrust in a tangle that suggests lack of rehearsal. Very poor production editing emphasizes these problems with hesitations and mistakes left uncorrected. The overall effect is amateurish. S.B.S. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
• Austen's parody of a gothic novel gets an elegant reading to match its elegant prose. Sheltered Catherine Morland goes to fashionable Bath with a wealthy neighbor and discovers society and love. Juliet Stevenson gives each character a unique voice--the duplicitous Isabelle; Catherine's suitor, Henry Tinley; and Catherine's vacuous hostess--and invests each conversation with energy and importance. At the same time, as Austen, Stevenson steps back and comments on gothic heroines and Catherine's failures at becoming one. The delivery of Henry's fanciful description of the Abbey as a dark and mysterious place is a mini-classic in itself. Those who love Austen's fiction will appreciate this classy production. J.B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
• In this Woman's Hour dramatization, Juliet Stevenson elegantly presents Austen's novel with wry, nuanced humor. Stevenson captures impetuous, breathless Catherine's overactive imagination, fueled by the gothic novels she reads. From the vague, shallow Mrs. Allen to Catherine's intriguing, smooth-voiced suitor, Henry Tinley, Stevenson does a terrific job dramatizing all of Austen's characters, creating a new voice and persona for each. Stevenson's artful ability to convey Austen's characters and to dramatize their exchanges is underscored when she shifts back to the narrative voice reserved for Austen's ironic observations on their behavior. This audio program is so delightful that it's quite likely to send listeners looking for an unabridged version. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
• With her natural elegance, fine ear for the English language, and hint of mischief, Emma Thompson has the ideal voice to narrate this Jane Austen classic. The first to be written (1798) and the last to be published after Austen's death (1818), the gentle gothic satire concerns clergyman's daughter Catherine Morland, who is introduced to high society with all its manners, teas, and dances. Young up-and-coming British actors Ella Purnell and Jeremy Irvine play the star-crossed lovers and lead the ensemble in this full-cast production, which includes plenty of period music and sound effects such as the clinking of fine china. Still, it's Emma Thompson who will mesmerize listeners. She and Jane Austen make a perfect pair. B.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
• Amazon.com “[Austen] uses her rapier wit to mock not only the essential silliness of ‘horrid’ novels, but to expose the even more horrid workings of polite society….In many respects Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austen's novels, yet at its core is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage, 19th-century British style.”

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  Blackstone Publishing

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