With Austenian Wit and Charm, the Morgan Brings the Iconic Novelist to Life

When I first read Northanger Abbey, my favorite Austen work, I didn’t get up for hours. Just like the novel’s skittish but compassionate protagonist Catherine Morland, I struggled to negotiate the line between literature and life as the work utterly consumed me. Catherine mistook an ordinary laundry list for an uncanny, indicative roll of papers; I imagined a ghostly spirit might emerge from a creaking drawer or that the icemaker’s distant rattle was the cry of some nefarious force. As a bolt of lightning illuminated the Northanger sky...