Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey was Jane Austen's first novel and was written between 1798 and 1803. The novel is a coming of age tale, focusing on the comedic adventures of a sheltered seventeen-year-old girl who learns to navigate the polite society of Bath (a popular English resort town) and Northanger Abbey (the fancy home of one of the book's wealthiest families). Her travels are full of mishaps with new friends and love interests. Though this was Austen's first novel, it actually wasn't published until 1818, after her death. Oddly enough, it was published along with her last novel Persuasion, a much more mature work than the often screwball Northanger Abbey. What was the hold up with Northanger Abbey? Well, publishing was pretty different back in the day. No one had contracts or anything like that. And publishing was also very expensive. So Austen's publisher bought Northanger Abbey in 1803 and then sat on it for ten years since he didn't think he could make any money from it. Austen bought the book back in 1813 with something along the lines of a 'thanks a lot, jerk' to her reluctant publisher. OK, so Jane Austen was more polite about it. We bet she was thinking that, though.