Can you learn to love? The adventures of Jane Austen’s youngest, most imaginative heroine take a modern twist in the American West. After living all her life in a tiny, remote town, Catherine Morland is eager for an adventure. And as Jane Austen notes, when a lady is to be a heroine, something must and will happen to make that possible. Catherine spends a summer working near a busy university, where she meets two brother-sister pairs: the Thorpes and the Tilneys. The glamorous Isabella Thorpe immediately takes Catherine under her wing, and Isabella’s brother John insists he and Catherine are meant to be together. Catherine enjoys Isabella’s friendship, but can’t figure out how to politely avoid the pushy, rude John. Henry Tilney – appropriately tall, dark, and almost handsome, with a quirky sense of humor – is another matter entirely, and Catherine wants to get to know him and his quiet, elegant sister Eleanor better. Much better. But whenever Catherine tries to spend time with the Tilneys, the Thorpes have other plans for her. Moreover, Catherine begins to suspect that the Tilneys’ sophisticated reserve conceals ugly secrets about their mother’s untimely death. It could just be gossip, but when Henry invites her to visit his family’s remote country estate, this could be the adventure Catherine has hoped for! Will our heroine solve the mystery and win her hero in the end ... or does an unknown threat to Catherine’s own happiness await her at Northanger Ranch? Based on Jane Austen’s classic novel Northanger Abbey, Northanger Ranch follows the lively and sweet-natured ingénue Catherine Morland as she learns the nature of true friendship, to discern between what people say and what they mean, to trust her instincts and her integrity ... and by the end, she also learns to love. Northanger Ranch is a modernization of Northanger Abbey set in the American West ... but if you expect to see cowboys or covered wagons, you will be as disappointed as poor Catherine with the General's improved Abbey. As Henry tells her, “It's just an oversized house with a pretentious name.” But from the grand sweep of the Wasatch mountain front with its golden display of aspens to the untamable beauty of the Pacific Northwest coast, Catherine's journey shows off the region's natural attractions at their best. It's always difficult to take a scene out of context, but I chose this sample sequence because it's fairly self-contained, it's a nice character study, and it shows the balance I've tried to maintain between old and new in the adaptation and modernization processes. To quickly set up the modernization: Catherine Morland spends her first summer away from home living with her cousin (Jessica Allen) and working part-time as a barista at the university Jessica and Catherine's older brother, James, attend. On the job, she meets Henry Tilney, a third-year law student, and is befriended by a co-worker, Isabella Thorpe. This sample scene, set at a university-sponsored party and dance, introduces us to Henry's older brother Frederick, a junior partner in a boutique litigation firm. NR-Sample.pdf (60KB) I am interested in your thoughts about this project! Please email me at comments (at) solitary-elegance (dot) com. Thanks for your support. – Heather Laurence