Northanger Abbey

A coming-of-age tale wrapped in satire, tied with a black ribbon and a wink.

Jane Austen first drafted Northanger Abbey in 1798–99 when she was just 22, titling it Susan. It was her first completed full-length novel, though it wouldn’t be published until long after her death. In 1803, the manuscript was sold to a publisher for £10—who promptly shelved it.

Years later, Jane tried to buy it back, but the publisher refused to release it. It wasn’t until 1816, with her brother Henry’s help, that she successfully reclaimed the rights. Sadly, Jane passed away in 1817 at the age of 41, and Northanger Abbey was finally published posthumously that same year, paired with Persuasion.

In the preface, Henry revealed her identity for the first time: the elusive “Lady” who had penned such piercingly witty novels was, in fact, their own sister.

The Story Catherine Morland is a perfectly ordinary girl with an extraordinary imagination—and that’s precisely the point. Raised in the quiet English countryside, she is unprepared for the dizzying world of Bath, where flirtation is currency and social climbing a full-time sport.

Armed with a love of gothic novels and a heart hungry for adventure, Catherine meets the charming Henry Tilney and is invited to his family estate: the mysterious Northanger Abbey. There, her imagination runs wild, and she begins to suspect hidden horrors in every creaking corridor. Surely there’s a dark family secret. A murder, perhaps? A ghost? A tragic heroine locked in the attic?

Or… perhaps the real danger lies not in abbey shadows, but in the subtle manipulations of polite society.

Northanger Abbey is Austen at her most ironic, lovingly skewering the gothic genre while crafting a fresh, funny, and deeply human tale of romantic missteps, self-discovery, and the peril of taking fiction too seriously.

Spoiler: the only thing truly gothic… is how many people pretend to be something they’re not.