Introductions
Adelle Waldman has written introductions to two classic novels — works that have shaped her own thinking as a novelist and critic.
Northanger Abbey
Waldman's introduction makes the case for Austen's most underrated novel: a sly, exuberant book that doubles as a defense of fiction itself. Drawing on her writing about Austen for The New Yorker and Slate, Waldman illuminates the novel's wit, its sharp social observation, and the surprising modernity of its young heroine.
Related: "In Praise of Jane Austen's Least Beloved Novel" — The New Yorker (May 31, 2025).
North and South
In her introduction to Gaskell's North and South, Waldman explores one of the great Victorian novels of work, class, and conscience. Gaskell's portrait of an industrial city and the people who inhabit it — owners and workers alike — speaks directly to questions Waldman has pursued in her own fiction and journalism, from Help Wanted to her writing on labor and the dignity of work.