Northanger Abbey
NORTHANGER ABBEY by Jane Austen (1803) ADVERTISEMENT BY THE AUTHORESS, TO NORTHANGER ABBEY THIS little work was finished in the year 1803, and intended for immediate publication. It was disposed of to a bookseller, it was even advertised, and why the business proceeded no farther, the author has never been able to learn. That any bookseller should think it worth-while to purchase what he did not think it worth-while to publish seems extraordinary. But with this, neither the author nor the public have any other concern than as some observation is necessary upon those parts of the work which thirteen years have made comparatively obsolete. The public are entreated to bear in mind that thirteen years have passed since it was finished, many more since it was begun, and that during that period, places, manners, books, and opinions have undergone considerable changes.
equivalent of "th"), which should display properly in most text
viewers. The Anglo-Saxon yogh (equivalent of "y," "i," "g," or "gh")
will display properly only if the user has the proper font, so to
maximize accessibility, the character "3" is used in this e-text to
represent the yogh.
Characters with a macron are preceded by an equal sign and enclosed in
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Superscripted characters are preceded by a carat and enclosed in curly
brackets, e.g., y^{t}.]
[Illustration: The Wassail Song]
TO THE READER
I do not craue
mo thankes to haue,
than geuen to me
all ready be;
NORTHANGER ABBEY by Jane Austen (1803) ADVERTISEMENT BY THE AUTHORESS, TO NORTHANGER ABBEY THIS little work was finished in the year 1803, and intended for immediate publication. It was disposed of to a bookseller, it was even advertised, and why the business proceeded no farther, the author has never been able to learn. That any bookseller should think it worth-while to purchase what he did not think it worth-while to publish seems extraordinary. But with this, neither the author nor the public have any other concern than as some observation is necessary upon those parts of the work which thirteen years have made comparatively obsolete. The public are entreated to bear in mind that thirteen years have passed since it was finished, many more since it was begun, and that during that period, places, manners, books, and opinions have undergone considerable changes.