Northanger Abbey was written between 1798 and 1799 and sold in 1803 under the name of "Susan" to a publisher who inexplicably never published it. Six years later, Austen bought back the manuscript, changed the heroine’s name (and, consequently, the title) to “Catherine”, and prepared to sell it, but fell ill and passed away before she could see it through to publication. Her brother published it posthumously in 1818 under its current title.
The novel takes place in Bath; Catherine Morland, the young and naive protagonist, has just been invited by some family friends to join them in the resort town for several weeks. Fond of reading Gothic novels to the point of obsession, Catherine is...
