Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey tells the story of a young girl, Catherine Morland who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy, sophisticated world of Bath in the late 1790s. Austen observes with insight and humour the interaction between Catherine and the various characters whom she meets there, and tracks her growing understanding of the world about her. In this, her first full-length novel, Austen also fixes her sharp, ironic gaze on other kinds of contemporary novel, especially the Gothic school made famous by Ann Radcliffe. Catherine's reading becomes intertwined with her social and romantic adventures, adding to the uncertainties and embarrassments she must undergo before finding happiness. Jane Austen was an English novelist and whose social commentary and masterful use of both free indirect speech and irony eventually made her one of the most influential and honoured novelists in English literature. Her novels were all written and set around the Regency Era. Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, one of two daughters and six brothers of the Reverend George Austen and his wife Cassandra. Two of her brothers, James and Henry, followed in their father's path and joined the Anglican clergy, while two other brothers Francis and Charles both pursuedn naval careers. A fifth brother, George, had a disability, and did not live with the family. Austen's sister, like her mother, was named Cassandra. Austen never married and died at age 41.