But she did consume seven of the lesser-known works in the genre, giving them a fascinating legacy. Jane Austen may be furthest thing from a forgotten corpse (sorry, Jane, that came out wrong). In particular she says the literature is “cannibalistically consuming the dead body of its own tradition.” It truly doesn’t get any more gothic than defining gothic literature with such a spectacularly gothic metaphor. In Catherine Spooner’s Contemporary Gothic, the author describes gothic fiction as a genre especially full of self-reference. And I’m in good company, because Jane Austen was a reader and writer of gothic literature as well. Full of chills and monsters real and imaginary, it’s a year-round favorite of mine. The penultimate edition in Folio’s Jane Austen series, this volume is bound in gold cloth, and the slipcase reproduces the work’s spirited first line.With October creeping up on us, it’s time again to devote ourselves to the literature that fits the season: the gothic. Witty, fresh and perceptive, the images perfectly reflect Austen’s wonderfully sardonic novel. Jonathan Burton has contributed six colour illustrations, depicting both the ballrooms of Bath and the imposing Abbey. As Val McDermid writes in her introduction – a heartfelt account of how Northanger Abbey has reinvented itself for her with each rereading – ‘Austen unfailingly provides us with the opportunity to investigate our own lives and find surprising truths there.’ Just as Austen’s talent for satire exposes the failings of the overwrought gothic novels of the age, her subtle, beautifully observed portrait of Bath society reveals the real value of fiction: its power to convey ‘the most thorough knowledge of human nature’. But the tongue-in-cheek tone that characterises the story belies the skill of a truly great writer flexing her creative muscles. Simply told in lively and elegant prose, this is Austen’s most playful work. The last of Austen’s novels to be published, appearing posthumously in 1818, Northanger Abbey was the first to be completed, written when Austen was in her early twenties.
‘Somehow, Austen had the insight and skill to delineate life beyond her years and her experience.’
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