Playwright Zoe Cooper merges the author with her heroine Catherine Morland and suggests that perhaps the book’s real romance ... I still loved it because, like Northanger Abbey, it’s about ...

Take “Northanger Abbey” (published 1817), Austen’s first completed novel, a frisky satire on the pitfalls of letting books be your guide to life. Catherine Morland, 17, is addicted to a diet ...