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Gloucestershire, 1820: Twenty-two years after the close of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Tilney seems to be living a happily ever after. But her busy life as a clergyman’s wife is shattered by a letter that resurrects her darkest fears. Her daughter Phoebe has fallen under the influence of the unscrupulous Thorpe family—the very figures who once nearly destroyed Catherine’s happiness.
The Heiress of Northanger Abbey, publishing in ebook, paperback, and hardcover on September 1st, Is Nancy Bilyeau’s ninth historical novel. She took the time to answer some questions on her vision for the novel and why Gothic fiction is so important to this story.
Is The Heiress of Northanger Abbey a prequel, a sequel, or a retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey?
My novel is a sequel to Northanger Abbey. The story takes place from May and August in 1820. The main character is Catherine Tilney—she was Catherine Morland in the original novel, and at the end of the novel she married Henry Tilney—and the novel is written in the first person.
What kind of novel is The Heiress of Northanger Abbey—does it have a plot revolving around a young woman in the marriage market like what Jane Austen focused on? Or is it a murder mystery in which one of the characters is a sleuth?
My novel is not a murder mystery, but the plot is a suspenseful one. And the suspense does come from that Jane Austen preoccupation of marriage motives when it comes to heiresses. Whether it’s Georgiana Darcy in Pride and Prejudice or Miss Grey in Sense and Sensibility, women are targeted by fortune hunters. In Northanger Abbey, a crucial plot point is General Tilney’s mistaken belief that Catherine Morland is an heiress—and what happens when he realizes she is not.
In my novel, Catherine understands these mercenary hidden motives can cause pain in a young woman’s life, and so when she believes her own daughter, Phoeber, is being targeted, she leaps into action to protect her. Henry, Eleanor, and Frederick Tilney return and so do Isabella and John Thorpe. I also created some new characters, principally Phoebe but also the children of Isabella Thorpe and her mysterious neighbor, Lord Pomeroy, in Dartmoor.
Why did you pick the year 1820 for The Heiress of Northanger Abbey?
Most people believe that the “action” of the original novel took place in 1798. I wanted my story to go forward twenty-two years to a juncture in Catherine’s life when she is about to turn forty and Phoebe is seventeen, the same age Catherine was during Northanger Abbey.
Jane Austen famously wrote during the Regency. Is your book still in the Regency period?
If you want to be technical about it, 1820 was the last year of the Regency, because that was the year George III died and his son became king in his own right instead of ruling the country as a regent. But some people think that the “Regency period,” its culture, fashion, literature, and architecture, lasted until Victoria became queen in 1837.
I found that 1820 was a fascinating year in European history. Countries were recovering from the Napoleonic wars, and the political temperature was quite conservative. It was like a form of reaction going on against the French revolution. In France, Louis XVI’s brother had become king, and Napoleon’s allies were being persecuted.
Germany and Italy were swinging to the right. In England, the Tory Party had a landslide election. Also, George IV has off to a very bad start. There were hunger and poverty, and yet all he cared about was seeing that his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, didn’t become queen. In my novel, the scandal of the royal marriage is a backdrop running through the plot.
Where does your novel take place? Is Northanger Abbey a real place?
Jane Austen invented Northanger Abbey, the family seat of the Tilney family in Gloucestershire. But , just as with Pemberly in Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, there were real country estates that Jane may have based the places on. She wrote about the physical building of Northanger Abbey in detail, and it was exciting—if a little intimidating—to take that fictional but well rendered place for my novel.
2007 British television film adaptation with Felicity Jones and JJ Feild
I took the story to Bath for several important chapters, just as what happens in Northanger Abbey. And the second half of my novel is set in Dartmoor at the fictional home of the husband of Isabella Thorpe. That was one of the most enjoyable things for me—writing the Dartmoor chapters. I tried to make full use of the moors, the mist, the tors, the isolation, and some of the most fascinating local legends.
What about the Gothic satire part of Northanger Abbey?
Well, that’s why I took the story to Dartmoor! I leaned into the Gothic vibe. Jane Austen was no fan of Gothic fiction, and she created a heroine in Catherine Morland who loved that popular genre and longed to find herself in a Gothic novel like Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho. Repeatedly Jane Austen made fun of Catherine’s imaginings. And yet…and yet…there are aspects of the plot, like Catherine being put out of Northanger Abbey to fend for herself, that have a Gothic drama flavor to them.
In The Heiress of Northanger Abbey, I have a lot of fun with Gothic atmosphere and the Gothic fiction that was popular in 1820, from Anne Radcliffe’s bestsellers to Matthew Lewis’s The Monk to Dr John Polidori’s The Vampyre.
Is this your first Jane Austen adjacent novel and have you written other sequels or retellings of other writers’ novels?
This is my only foray into the Jane Austen adjacent world, a fascinating place! In my other novels, novellas, and short stories, I create my own characters and worlds. This began as an interesting challenge. Kris Waldherr of Muse Publications asked me if I wanted to be one of the group of authors participating in Once Upon a Gothic. For this special limited collection, each author took a Gothic classic and wrote a retelling from a different point of view or a sequel. For example, Paulette Kennedy wrote The Last Bride, a Dracula adjacent story.
I thought about it for a long time and decided to write about Northanger Abbey. I’ve been a huge admirer of Jane Austen my whole adult life and her Gothic playfulness in that novel is very interesting. It’s also one of her funniest books. And some scholars say there are strong autobiographical elements in the novel’s treatment of Bath and depiction of Catherine Morland’s family background.
The Heiress of Northanger Abbey was published with the others on Kickstarter in 2025, emphasizing the tactile possibilities of the physical books, producing in tête-bêche format. I received the rights back after the Kickstarter funded and commissioned a new cover. I decided to add a whole new chapter and revise some other parts, and I wrote an “Author’s Note.” I’ve made the novel available for the first time on Amazon, Bookshop.org, Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble, and it can be ordered in ebook, paperback, and hardback.
So far the response pre-publication has been so exciting! Real Simple magazine put it on a list of books “perfect for fall” and BlueInk gave it a star and said, “Bilyeau, an American journalist and editor who has made a career of novels of historically accurate fiction, brings emotional depth and character development to this absorbing narrative.”
Will you continue in the 19th century with your next historical novel?
I may return to it because I enjoyed this process so much, but the novel I am writing right now is Champagne at Midnight, set in 1926 New York City. I wrote the historical mysteries Dreamland and The Orchid Hour as tributes to early 20th century NYC and I continue that direction with the new one, which should be published in 2027.
Nancy Bilyeau
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