Northanger Abbey (1986 film) Northanger Abbey (1986 film) Northanger Abbey is a 1986 made-for-television film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Northanger Abbey" (1818), and was originally broadcast on the A&E Network and the BBC in 1987. Northanger Abbey is the story of a young woman, Catherine Morland, who is invited to Bath, Somerset, with family friends, the Allens; they hope the waters at Bath will help Mr. Allen's gout. Catherine (called "Cathy" by her many younger siblings) has been quite sheltered all her life, escaping only by reading Gothic novels, and so is delighted to go to Bath. Mrs. Allen introduces Catherine to the
Northanger Abbey begun during that period, probably about 1794. However, the references to several Gothic novels published after 1794 would indicate Austen did not finish the book until about 1798 or 1799 as Cassandra Austen remembered. The scholar Cecil Emden argued that differences between the Catherine portrayed in the Bath section of the novel vs. the Catherine at Northanger Abbey were due to Austen finishing the book at a different stage of her life than when she started. As in all of Austen's novels, the subjects of society, status, behavior, and morality are addressed. "Northanger Abbey," however, being chronologically the first novel