WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY P.D. JAMESThe Vintage Classics Austen series is designed by the writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton and introduced by some of our finest contemporary writers and Austen fans- Alexander McCall Smith, Lynne Truss, Amanda Vickery, Francesca Segal, P.D. James and Andrew Motion.'Jane Austen is a genius, and Northanger Abbey is hugely underrated' Martin Amis Catherine Morland is a young girl with a very active imagination. Her naivety and love of sensational novels lead her to approach the fashionable social scene in Bath and her stay at nearby Northanger Abbey with preconceptions that have embarrassing and entertaining consequences. Part of the Vintage Classics Austen Series- all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed by writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton and introduced by our finest contemporary writers Jane Austen was born in Steventon Rectory on 16th December 1775. She began writing Pride and Prejudice when she was twenty-two years old. Originally titled First Impressions, it was initially rejected by publishers and only published in 1813 after much revision. She published four novels in her lifetime, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Jane Austen died on 18th July 1817. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were both published posthumously in 1818.P. D. James is an award-winning crime writer and author of Death Comes to Pemberley. She was awarded an OBE in 1983, and was created a life peer in 1991. Leanne Shapton is an illustrator, author and publisher based in New York City. http-//leanneshapton.com/