Northanger Abbey is about the misadventures of the ingenuous Catherine Morland, whose indefatigable reading of gothic novels sends her imagination into hilarious overdrive. Austen's literary burlesque is tempered with edginess and cirumspection, however, as ordinary life takes a more sinister turn. This edition also includes Austen's other short works and shows her to be as innovative at the start of her career as at its close.