In Letter 20, JA wrote "Marianne is sensible and intelligent, and even Jane considering how fair she is, is not unpleasant." Was JA making a kind of blonde joke - i.e: blonde people (or blonde women) are generally unlikeable? I wonder if it was a family in-joke, like not liking the name Richard. Actually, I'd always pictured P&P's Jane Bennet as a blonde, like Susannah Harker in P&P2 - now I'm wondering if JA would have created her that way if she distrusted blondes! ;-)