The shortest and probably earliest of Shakespeare's comedies, The Comedy of Errors is the story of identical twin brotherswho are raised apart-and then mistaken for each other.
The earliest of her six major novels, NorthangerAbbey remained unpublished until after Jane Austen’s death. A deliciouslywitty satire of popular Gothic romances, it is perhaps Austen’slightest, most delightful excursion into a young woman’s world.Catherine Morland, an unlikely heroine—unlikely because she is soordinary—forsakes her English village for the pleasures and perilsof Bath. There, among a circle of Austen’s wonderfully vain,dissembling, and fashionable characters, she meets a potentialsuitor, Henry Tilney. But with her imagination fueled bymelodramatic novels, Catherine turns a visit to his home,Northanger Abbey, into a hunt for dark family secrets. The resultis a series of hilarious social gaffes and harsh awakenings thatfor all of Austen’s youthful exuberance nevertheless conveys hermature vision of literature and life—and the consequences ofmistaking one for the other.
