Northanger Abbey Northanger Abbey Northanger Abbey () was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, in 1803. However, it was not published until after her death in 1817, along with another novel of hers, "Persuasion." "Northanger Abbey" is a satire of Gothic novels, which were quite popular at the time, in 1798–99. This coming-of-age story revolves around Catherine Morland, a young and naïve "heroine," who entertains the reader on her journey to a better understanding of the world and those around her. In the course of the novel, she discovers that she differs from those other women who
Georgian society in Jane Austen's novels titular "Northanger Abbey", or Donwell Abbey in "Emma"), parks (mansions surrounded by a vast park, like Mansfield Park in the novel of the same name, or Rosings Park in "Pride and Prejudice"), courts (another type of mansion, in theory approached via a vast courtyard, like Sotherton Court in "Mansfield Park"), halls (manors, like Uppercross Hall in "Persuasion", and finally simple houses, like Longbourn House, the home of the Bennet family in "Pride and Prejudice". This is why Catherine Morland is so delighted when she discovers Northanger Abbey, thinking, "With all the chances against her of house, hall, place, park, court,