On the strength of this, the General, soon after Eleanor’s marriage,
permitted his son to return to Northanger, and thence made him the
bearer of his consent, very courteously worded in a page full of empty
professions to Mr. Morland. The event which it authorized soon
followed: Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and
everybody smiled; and, as this took place within a twelvemonth from the
first day of their meeting, it will not appear, after all the dreadful
delays occasioned by the General’s cruelty, that they were essentially
hurt by it. To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of
twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well; and professing myself
moreover convinced that the General’s unjust interference, so far from
being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive
to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength
to their attachment, I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may
concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend
parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience. A NOTE ON THE TEXT


Northanger Abbey was written in 1797–98 under a different title. The
manuscript was revised around 1803 and sold to a London publisher,
Crosbie & Co., who sold it back in 1816. The Signet Classic text is
based on the first edition, published by John Murray, London, in
1818—the year following Miss Austen’s death. Spelling and punctuation