There's More than Fanny
Posted by Ken on December 04, 1997 at 15:09:41:
In response to The other side (long), written by Becca M. on December 04, 1997 at 00:02:53
] I think if the ending were more fulfilling that I might feel differently about Fanny. I feel like I was shortchanged from seeing how Fanny would respond to the reciprocated love of Edmund.
] I agree that MP is a very interesting book to discuss. It seems to create a much more passionate discussion because people have such varied emotions about Fanny.
Yes, but too often the discussion begins and ends there. There's considerably more happening in this book, so one would like to avoid the usual Fanny wars in talking it over.
As for the ending, the last line or so logically sums up the book for me, so I don't feel badly about it. What I do sense, though, is that Austen began to run a little short of steam in figuring out how to end a very long novel, and thus threw down her pen for others to take up. The authorial instrusion is one of the few awkwardnesses I have ever found in JA. One can spin out many interpretations of what it really means; definitive answers are doomed to failure, I fear.
YHOS,
Snarkhunter
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