illustrative of JAs mastery: she doesn't create one dimensional characters.

Marys complaint's are normally self-centered and imaginary, but in this instance she is right. Charles is a nice chap, but he has a blind spot about his curricle ;-)

These characters walk off the page and live with us now because, though they are nearly 200 years old, they are so well drawn and truthfully imagined: they really do not act out of character and are not the cardboard cut-out versions we encounter in a lot of other fiction,IMHO