Northanger Abbey

　　活潑熱情的凱瑟琳．莫蘭自小就對歌德式小說著迷，一日她隨鄉紳艾倫夫婦到巴斯度假，結識了社會名流亨利．提尼，亨利一表人才，讓正值十七歲的凱瑟琳產生好感一見傾心，因此就接受亨利的邀請到諾桑覺寺作客，然而它的秘密卻叫她害怕， 女主角凱瑟琳因為喜歡看魔幻小說，對充滿魔幻恐怖、內容離奇怪誕的情節尤其敏感，因此對諾桑覺寺的神秘有著無比的想像力，因此陷入如夢幻般的奇遇，使她與真正的現實拉開距離。

　　Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

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　　A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.

　　The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

　　Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austen's novels, yet at its core this delightful novel is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.

　　Alfred Mac Adam teaches literature at Barnard College-Columbia University. He is a translator and art critic.