Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Original en 76944 words First published 1817 United Kingdom

Jane Austen's first completed novel, written in her mid-twenties and published after her death. Catherine Morland, a naive young heroine weaned on Gothic novels, is taken to Bath and invited to Northanger Abbey, where she expects mystery, manuscripts and probably a murdered wife. What she finds instead is real life — real friends, a real, soft-hearted villain in John Thorpe, and a lesson in the difference between fiction and fact that is also Austen's wittiest defence of fiction itself. Delightful, lighter than her masterworks, and funny about books and their readers.

Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.

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