Jane Austen's first novelpublished posthumously in 1818tells the story of Catherine Morland and her dangerously sweet nature, innocence, and sometime self-delusion. Though Austen's fallible heroine is repeatedly drawn into scrapes while vacationing at Bath and during her subsequent visit to Northanger Abbey, Catherine eventually triumphs, blossoming into a discerning woman who learns truths about love, life, and the heady power of literature. The satirical novel pokes fun at the gothic novel while earnestly emphasizing caution to the female sex.Northanger Abbey is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by Jane Austen. Northanger Abbey was actually the first finished novel that Jane Austen wrote.The story revolves around Catherine Morland, the young and naïve “heroine”, and her journey to a better understanding of herself and the world around her.When she is invited by her wealthy neighbors, the Fullertons, to accompany them to the spa town of Bath she experiences her first taste of the fashionable upper class society of England. While there she meets the clever young gentleman, Henry Tilney, his sister Eleanor, and their father, the imposing General Tilney. The Tilneys invite Catherine to come stay with them at their estate, the titular Northanger Abbey. Catherines naïve over-active imagination quickly leads to embarrassment when she infers some sinister circumstances regarding the lack of emotion that General Tilney shows for the loss of his deceased wife. Eventually she realizes that real life is not at all like that of a Gothic novel. Noted for the insight it gives to Austens one opinions of the literature of her day.Northanger Abbey is both a satirical parody of the gothic romance novel and the story of a young girls maturation into womanhood.
