A HOLD ON HAPPINESS; INTRODUCTION TO NORTHANGER ABBEY

Northanger Abbey is one of the lightest and most cheerful of Jane Austen's novels although it has dark instances. Its optimistic heroine, witty hero and sparkling dialogue make it an engaging book to read. In spite of its lightness, Northanger Abbey features deep themes that include the growth to maturity of the young heroine, Catherine Morland; the difference between false and true friendship and love; and the materialism of society. Catherine faces issues familiar to all teenage girls today: peer pressure, obeying the rules and conventions of society and how to choose a future partner. This enjoyable novel is also a very amusing parody of the Gothic novel that was very popular in the eighteenth century. If Jane Austen had written Northanger Abbey today she would, perhaps, have parodied 'Buffy, the Vampire Slayer' or a book by Steven King or Anne Rice.

Northanger Abbey begins when Catherine, chaperoned by family friends, the Allens, travels to the fashionable English spa town of Bath. Here she hopes to be introduced to eligible young bachelors. It is in Bath that the novel's hero, Henry Tilney, makes his appearance. Henry is handsome, charming and comes from a wealthy family. He is eligibility personified. Catherine quickly falls under his spell and imagines herself in love with him almost from their first meeting. Catherine also meets the scheming brother and sister, John and Isabella Thorpe, in Bath and becomes friendly with Isabella. Catherine is delighted to find that her brother James, who arrives in Bath from Oxford, where he is studying theology, is a good friend of John's. However, it puzzles her when James describes John as a ' little of a rattle' or a joker. James soon falls for the coy Isabella becoming engaged to her quite quickly. In Bath Catherine is invited to Northanger Abbey by General Tilney, Henry's father. Northanger Abbey, the Tilney's family property, is a grand estate indeed and the venue of the second part of the novel. It is here that Catherine, overcome by the grandeur of the estate and her assiduous novel reading, imagines herself playing the role of a Gothic heroine.

In her parody Jane Austen focuses much of her satire on the novels of Mrs Radcliffe but she also pokes fun at other Gothic novels. These books, with their elements of terror and the supernatural, were especially popular amongst women in the eighteenth century. Often set in exotic foreign countries such as Italy and France, they usually involved beautiful heroines, crumbling castles or abbeys and dastardly villains. The most important references in Northanger Abbey are to the Mysteries of Udolpho.by Ann Radcliffe. This story concerns a young heroine promised in marriage to a villainous count by her uncle. Taken to the creepy Castle Udolpho to marry the count, Montoni, she is cruelly separated from her true love, the young chevalier Valancourt. Catherine becomes engrossed by this exciting novel in Bath and loves to discuss it with her friend Isabella. They enjoy their attempts to discover the solution to the main mystery in the book - what lies behind the mysterious black veil.

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