‘Northanger Abbey’ Out Tomorrow in UK 27 March 2014!
Northanger Abbey Out Tomorrow
Val McDermid’s modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey
The Austen Project pairs six bestselling contemporary authors with Jane Austen’s six complete works: Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion and Mansfield Park. Taking these well-loved stories as their base, each author will write their own unique take on Jane Austen’s novels.
Still no Abbey ending for Northanger but Val McDermid’s retelling would impress Austen…
Review By: Jake Kerridge – The Express
Of all Jane Austen’s six completed novels, Northanger Abbey is the least read nowadays. Like the plainest girl at the ball, it remains undisturbed on the shelf while readers waltz away with Pride And Prejudice or Emma.
…McDermid’s great virtue is to have made Austen’s characters seem fresh in the way they would have been for her first readers. When the minxy Bella Thorpe, supposed to be engaged to Cat’s brother, attempts to justify dancing with a handsome soldier (“I feel like I did my bit for the troops tonight. My personal Help for Heroes”), she reveals all her hypocrisy, vanity and absurdity in a single perfect phrase, in the patented Austen manner. I can imagine Jane herself applauding.
