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I know…. but here’s a thought.  If we view the novel as a love story (as the PBS version did) then we see but one side of the book. If we wish to see it as a saga of the country values in collision with the city values of the day, if we wish to see it as a story about healing, then we have a different story altogether.

In a scene that was not in the PBS broadcast Dr Grant, the parson, and his wife both tell the Crawfords that if they stay in Mansfield they (the worldly Crawfords) will benefit: “We will heal you” declares Mrs Grant, and she doesn’t mean they have the flu.  We recall that Fanny has to ride regularly in order to keep her health, that Tom falls very sick from his mad junkettings, and that Mr Rushworth is all set to ‘improve’ his estate by hacking down an ancient avenue of oaks (a symbol of England if ever there was one) where ‘improve’ was a word often used to refer to physical health.

Fanny, the least energetic one of the bunch, is a person who is kept healthy by moderate riding, who listens and seeks to discuss (usually with Edmund) when no one else seems to be listening to anyone else, who has a sense of right and decorum that is not upset by others.  She is the one who cures Edmund of his fascination for Mary; she refuses the brain-sick attentions of Henry; she nurses Tom to health; she is the indipensible keeper of Lady Bertram’s well-being. 

Moderation ensures health, it seems. To say that delicate Fanny Price is a symbol of England is to be heavy-handed.  She’s not.  She’s a person, yet her situation is richly suggestive of certain social awarenesses in the country,which none but she seems to embody so concisely. Healing comes in many forms, some of them surprisingly undramatic and yet curiously effective.