ABSTRACT

Among the marriages anticipated for the heroines of Jane Austen's novels, how convincing is that of Edmund Bertram and Fanny Price? On the face of it, the question needs to be asked because the author's attempt to explain their 'happiness' sounds rather hollow:

With so much true merit and true love, and no want of fortune or friends, the happiness of the married cousins must appear as secure as earthly happiness can be. - Equally formed for domestic life, and attached to country pleasures, their home was. the home of affection and comfort ... (473).