Polly and Fanny

It's the last day of summer, so I've been enjoying it as best I can. I finished reading Love in a Cold Climate this morning, and found it very interesting. My initial comparison between it and The Pursuit of Love held true--I don't like it as well. I was bothered that I couldn't quite tell whether Polly or Fanny was the main character, and Polly was completely incomprehensible to me. The trouble with characters in books whose chief interest is there beauty is that you can't see that, so her only interest was that she made no sense. I very much liked getting a closer idea of Fanny, though, who despite being the narrator of The Pursuit of Love is really not a big main character. But it was a bit like there wasn't enough plot about Polly to take up the space, so Fanny's life crept in further. I liked hearing more about Alfred and her life in Oxford, and Jassy and Victoria were fun to see more of. Also more of Aunt Emily and Davey.

Fanny kind of reminds me of me. She's got my distinctly romantic sensibilities, and is a bit shy, but overall she's really very sensible and plain. This particular combination makes her very likeable. One doesn't have to be frustrated by her being stupid about things (if she were really the main character that wouldn't be possible--she would be boring), because she never quite is, but she's still got her views on things and she's still silly about things.

I watched the recent miniseries a while ago, but didn't find it terribly memorable, so I'm going to watch it again now I've read the books.