Jane Austen's Bath was a ferocious old dowager. Forget Lady Catherine de Bourgh, it was Bath who made Jane Austen quake. In fact, Bath was a sustaining and inspiring site that Austen drew upon throughout her career from the get-go: it was the setting for Northanger Abbey, her first drafted novel (originally written in 1798–1799), and for Persuasion, her last fully completed novel. Jane Austen herself responds differently to the prospect of social interaction; and, despite what seems like straightforward approval of the abundant opportunities for socializing on offer at Bath, there is also a hint of irony in the suggestion that “we need not dread absolute Solitude” – as though “Solitude” may be precisely what Austen wants. For, despite all this mythic animosity on Austen's part, the fortunes of Austen and Bath have been linked together, for better and worse.