I don't know nearly enough about the context, but I'd like to speculate that Austen was sending up that kind of heroine in much the same way she sent up the heroines of Gothic novels.
There are interpretations of MP in literary criticism that do share this opinion, reading Fanny as a less obvious parody of the sentimental heroine. (And if anything deserves to be parodied, it's the sentimental novel, IMHO. I was traumatized by Richardson.) Unfortunately, I don't remember in which book or essay I've read this so that I might look up the details of this line of argumentation. Argh.
I gather there are people who read "Lolita" and think Humbert Humbert is in some way admirable.
It's very embarassing to confess, but when I read it the first time I found myself sympathising with him occasionally... I often tend to lose critical distance with first-person narrators in books I don't know yet. However, Humbert Humbert? Eeek.
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There are interpretations of MP in literary criticism that do share this opinion, reading Fanny as a less obvious parody of the sentimental heroine. (And if anything deserves to be parodied, it's the sentimental novel, IMHO. I was traumatized by Richardson.) Unfortunately, I don't remember in which book or essay I've read this so that I might look up the details of this line of argumentation. Argh.
I gather there are people who read "Lolita" and think Humbert Humbert is in some way admirable.
It's very embarassing to confess, but when I read it the first time I found myself sympathising with him occasionally... I often tend to lose critical distance with first-person narrators in books I don't know yet. However, Humbert Humbert? Eeek.