] My focus this read is on the three brother/sister relationships in NA. I have four brothers myself, and amongst them is a James Morland, a Henry Tilney and, pity me, a John Thorpe. First up: The Morlands.

] This seems to me to be your basic, cordial brother/sister relationship and is characterized by careless affection. JA took such pains in the first chapter to tell us that Catherine is your basic, “normal” girl. Here is your basic “normal” sibling relationship.

You untie James-Catherine relationship consicely, nothing really to add. But what about sisters? We know that Catherine was very kind to the younger members of the family, though occasionally tyrannical, which is so "normal", that no words of mine would better the description. I'm an elder sister myself, and know.

When Sally ("or rather Sarah") doesn't ask Catherine to write to her with every post, it is one of many quips on contemporary novels, this time epistolar novel. But, again, it shows the natural relationships between sisters. (Was Sally pouting a little? I'm sure she wasn't "heroick" enough to learn every detail of her sister's amusements...)