LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
April 2014 Book of the Month.
A modern re-imagining of the Gothic Classic Northanger Abbey by the bestselling crime author Val McDermid. The second book in The Austen Project. In Val's trademark style of great storytelling and suspense meet modern day Cat whose world is turned upside down and her innocence lost as she is taken from rural Dorset to experience the bright lights of Edinburgh and the festival. Seamless prose complementing dialogue that's speckled with wit, it is clear that Val McDermid clearly relished the writing of this contemporary and page-turning take on Northanger Abbey.
This is the second novel in 'The Austen Project', following hot on the heels of Joanna Trollope's Sense & Sensibility, and will be followed by Alexander McCall Smith's Emma in Autumn 2014 and Curtis Sittenfeld's Pride & Prejudice in Autumn 2015.
A message from Val McDermid:
'Being a writer is about embracing challenges. Northanger Abbey is the least read and the least well-known of Jane Austen's novels. But only because our reading interests have changed and we don't get the joke that underpins the book. the challenge for me was to make this reworking come alive, with a sprinkling of wit and a dash of dramatic suspense.'
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Northanger Abbey Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Catherine 'Cat' Morland has led a sheltered existence in rural Dorset, a life entirely bereft of the romance and excitement for which she yearns. So when Cat's wealthy neighbours, the Allens, invite her to the Edinburgh Festival, she is sure adventure beckons. Edinburgh initially offers no such thrills: Susie Allen is obsessed by shopping, Andrew Allen by the Fringe. A Highland Dance class, though, brings Cat a new acquaintance: Henry Tilney, a pale, dark-eyed gentleman whose family home, Northanger Abbey, sounds perfectly thrilling. And an introduction to Bella Thorpe, who shares her passion for supernatural novels, provides Cat with a like-minded friend. But with Bella comes her brother John, an obnoxious banker whose vulgar behaviour seems designed to thwart Cat's growing fondness for Henry. Happily, rescue is at hand. The rigidly formal General Tilney invites her to stay at Northanger with son Henry and daughter Eleanor. Cat's imagination runs riot: an ancient abbey, crumbling turrets, secret chambers, ghosts...and Henry! What could be more deliciously romantic? But Cat gets far more than she bargained for in this isolated corner of the Scottish Borders. The real world outside the pages of a novel proves to be altogether more disturbing than the imagined world within...
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9780007504244 |
Publication date: |
27th March 2014 |
Author: |
Val McDermid |
Publisher: |
The Borough Press an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
Format: |
Hardback |
Primary Genre |
Family Drama
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Other Genres: |
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Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Val McDermid Press Reviews
Praise for The Austen Project: 'The Austen Project is a breathtaking tribute to Jane Austen. I can't wait to read the other five updates while being reminded to reread, joyfully, the originals
Washington Post Praise for The Mermaids Singing:
'Compelling and shocking', MINETTE WALTERS 'Terrifying but stylish, cruel and compassionate. Truly, horribly good'
Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday
'Gripping, intelligent stuff'
The Times
Author
About Val McDermid
Val McDermid is a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies. She has won many aw ards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and w as the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award. She writes full time and divides her time between Cheshire and Edinburgh.
In 2016 Val was awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. McDermid said: “It's an honour and a thrill to receive this award. The community of writers and readers at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is unlike any other in its warmth and generosity and so this means a huge amount to me. This year sees the publication of my 30th novel and I can't think of a better way to celebrate that.”
In 2010 she received the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, which honours outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing. Margaret Murphy, then chair of the CWA, said: "The CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger award acknowledges the work of an author who has made an outstanding contribution to the genre. Val McDermid is a worthy winner whose work has entertained and thrilled millions of readers as well as many more who have enjoyed the TV adaptations her books have inspired."
Author photo © Charlie Hopkinson
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