<b>Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen</b>&nbsp;<i><b>Northanger Abbey</b></i>&nbsp;(/'n??r&theta;&aelig;??r/) is a&nbsp;coming-of-age&nbsp;novel and a&nbsp;satire of Gothic novels written by&nbsp;Jane Austen. Austen was also influenced by&nbsp;Charlotte Lennox&#39;s&nbsp;<i>The Female Quixote</i>&nbsp;(1752).&nbsp;<i>Northanger Abbey</i>&nbsp;was completed in 1803, the first of Austen&#39;s novels completed in full, but was published posthumously in 1817 with&nbsp;<i>Persuasion</i>.<br /><br />The story concerns&nbsp;Catherine Morland, the na&iuml;ve young protagonist, and her journey to a better understanding of herself and of the world around her. How Catherine views the world has been distorted by her fondness for Gothic novels and an active imagination.<br /><br />Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman. Although a&nbsp;tomboy&nbsp;in her childhood, by the age of 17 she is &quot;in training for a heroine&quot; and is fond of reading&nbsp;Gothic novels, &quot;provided they were all story and no reflection&quot;.<br /><br />Catherine is invited by the Allens (her wealthier neighbours in Fullerton) to accompany them to visit the city of&nbsp;Bath&nbsp;and partake in the winter&nbsp;season&nbsp;of balls, theatre and other social delights. Soon she is introduced to a clever young gentleman,&nbsp;Henry Tilney, with whom she dances and converses.<br /><br />Through Mrs. Allen&#39;s old schoolfriend Mrs. Thorpe, she meets her daughter Isabella, who introduces Catherine to&nbsp;Ann Radcliffe&#39;s&nbsp;<i>Mysteries of Udolpho</i>, and the two quickly become friends. Mrs. Thorpe&#39;s son, John, is also a friend of Catherine&#39;s older brother, James, at Oxford where they are both students.