When six years passed with no activity, Austen decided to communicate with the publisher herself. In April 1809, a few months before moving to Chawton, she wrote to Crosby using the pseudonym “M rs Ashton Dennis.” Reiterating the original agreement, she tactfully offered to send another copy of the manuscript if it had been lost, but she closed the letter with a warning that if she received no reply, she would feel “at liberty to secure the publication of my work, by applying elsewhere.” And she signed the letter with a witty jab: for £10, with the understanding that it would be published soon. Jane Austen wrote Northanger Abbey 'about the years 98 & 99,' according to a note left by her sister, Cassandra. Austen was 23-24 years old, and it seems likely that her first visit to Bath in 1797 inspired her to set part of the novel in that city. The manuscript was originally titled Susan but was renamed Northanger Abbey when it was published posthumously.Īfter completing Susan, Jane Austen set it aside until the spring of 1803, when Henry Austen’s lawyer, William Seymour, sold the manuscript on her behalf to publisher Benjamin Crosby & Co. Northanger Abbey is a lively parody of the gothic novel and the story of a young and naïve heroine’s path to self-knowledge and a better understanding of others.

'The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.'

Northanger abbey