I'm struck by the way JA described Marianne's "form". She didn't say it was less attractive or less admired than Elinor's - no, it was less "correct"! This reminds me of P&P when Darcy complained to himself that there was a "failure of perfect symmetry" in Elizabeth's "form", though he was forced to conclude that he liked it all the same! I gather from the rest of the sentence that Teri-mc quotes, that Marianne was not tall enough to fit the Regency ideal, but this makes me wonder if JA's contemporaries had specific rules about proportions, and if a young woman's body didn't meet these requirements, it could never be considered quite "correct", no matter how attractive? I know that this period was in love with Ancient Greece and Rome, but I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Also, I do wonder what made Marianne's form "more striking" than Elinor's - was it curvier, perhaps? ;-)