Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey" took a meandering course toward publication. Originally written in 1803 as a satire of the popular Gothic novels of the day, the book was not published until after Austen's death in 1817.

The story concerns seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland, who has lived her entire life in the small village of Fullerton with her parents and nine siblings. This sedate (and frankly boring) life is upended when Catherine receives an invitation to visit the resort city of Bath and thus break out of her humdrum existence. But Catherine's view of the world is based solely on the Gothic novels she obsessively consumes and, during this trip (where she meets and is courted by the charming Henry Tinley), she swiftly learns a number of important differences between truth and fiction.

What follows is a beautiful and fascinating tale of romance, intrigue and first love in a book that has become one of the most popular and celebrated works of the 19th century. Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey" is presented here in its original and unabridged format.