Fanny Price

Ugh, Fanny - I found her to be a terrible pain in the butt. Before I post any more, I'm going to read what you wrote in your second "Fanny Price" post above.

However, I do know the answer to your question. When her Uncle returns from his travels, he states that she has become quite beautiful. She is thereafter often complimented on her beauty by the narrator, as well as Miss Crawford.

Now about 1/3 of the way into the novel, I have become fairly acquainted with the characters. I can see why this novel is the most disliked of Austen's novels, by her avide fan-base.

Unlike her other stories, this novel was conceived when Austen was already 36 (versus her Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility both of which were rewritten stories begun in her teens and early adulthood. I think this is important, because the girl-gets-guy climax will most definitely be missing here. Neither the characters Fanny or Edward has spine enough to admit their love for each other, and I suspect only when (and if) the occassion arises that all other eligible partners are either married off or removed from Mansfield Park will they finally, and with false reluctance, succumb to their own feelings.

The novel is inherently bitter. By creating a frail, sickly spineless girl, with the annoying habit of being morally superior as the main character, the reader is placed in the awkward position of hoping to see her fail. She whimpers and cries, and plays martyr and victim, but all with the intention of obtaining attention, which she does to Edward's play at hero. He must always save her, but is fundamentally attracted to a woman, Miss Crawford, who would suffer a thousand humiliations sooner than play the victim. Miss Crawford is everything Fanny is not. She's clever and strong, both physically and mentally. She's fun loving and sometimes crass. However I believe that the reader is all to willing to forgiver Miss Crawford her indiscretions because she's simply more likable.

In a number of academic articles written on the the novel, each one describes Fanny as proud, sickly and extremely pretty. I missed the part where anyone refers to her as beautiful? Did someone else notice?