Every heroine needs a villain[ess]

The first three Austen novels feature a seductive villain. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice both feature a male villain who is attractive and agreeable on the surface but has vices that cause trouble for the heroine. In Northanger Abbey we do have some rather nasty examples of malehood in John Thorpe and General Tilney neither presents the threat of seduction that Willoughby or Wickham do. That threat to our heroine comes from another woman: Isabella Thorpe.

At first we get very little indication of what exactly makes Isabella bad. And when do get evidence, it is rather too much fun to get our claws out. A more interesting thing to do on rereading this book, I think, is to try and figure out exactly why Isabella is so attractive in the first place.