is there more than meets the eye? At first I thought she was just boy-crazy and enjoyed chasing and besotting men. But, she attaches herself to James Morland, who seems a decent chap, so I'm thinking, "better taste than I gave her credit for". Yet, she keeps looking at other men. And when she is with James, she is so unflappably coquettish that I sense no real connection between them, though it's clear James is very attracted. She's so busy "working it", I can't tell how much she likes him. (Her sighs and allusions to clergymen seem more melodramatic than hearfelt.)

Why would she, an acknowledged beauty, chase after him? For sport? Presumably, he is "plain" like the rest of the Morlands, so it's not his beauty. Is being the son of a clergyman a good enough catch to warrant this kind of attention? She strikes me as more pretentious and ambitious to shoot for that. But she takes such pains to befriend the sister of a son of a clergyman. Would James actually be a GREAT catch for her? Is she, at 21 and the eldest and handsomest daughter, under some pressure from the not-very-rich Thorpe family to secure an infusion of capital from marriage, and soon? Even with a brother at Oxford? Perhaps her boy-chasing (okay, man-chasing) is her way of doing her duty to her family? What a good daughter?!?

Well, I think I've just overthought myself dizzy! Now I've convinced myself that Isabella is the real heroine of this novel!! Ha! Is this what group reading will do to me?