Northanger Abbey [Special Illustrated Edition] [Annotated with Literary History And Criticism ] [Free Audio Links]

Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan (as it was first called) was written approximately during 1798–99. It was revised by Austen for the press in 1803, and sold in the same year for £10 to a London bookseller, Crosby & Co., who decided against publishing. In 1817, the bookseller was content to sell it back to the novelist's brother, Henry Austen, for the exact sum — £10 — that he had paid for it at the beginning, not knowing that the writer was by then the author of four popular novels. The novel was further revised before being brought out posthumously in late December 1817 (1818 given on the title-page), as the first two volumes of a four-volume set with Persuasion.

[Adaptations]

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The A&E Network and the BBC released the television adaptation Northanger Abbey in 1986.
An adaptation of Northanger Abbey with screenplay by Andrew Davies, was shown on ITV on 25 March 2007 as part of their "Jane Austen Season". This adaptation aired on PBS in the United States as part of the "Complete Jane Austen" on Masterpiece Classic in January 2008.
"Pup Fiction" – an episode of Wishbone featuring the plot and characters of Austen's Northanger Abbey.

Literature

In 2012, it was announced that HarperCollins had hired Scottish crime writer Val McDermid to adapt Northanger Abbey for a modern audience, as a suspenseful teen thriller. McDermid said of the project, "At its heart it's a teen novel, and a satire - that's something which fits really well with contemporary fiction. And you can really feel a shiver of fear moving through it. I will be keeping the suspense – I know how to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. I think Jane Austen builds suspense well in a couple of places, but she squanders it, and she gets to the endgame too quickly. So I will be working on those things."