Understanding Fanny

Abstract

Abstract Though there has been recent interest in how Jane Austen’s faith influenced her novels, scholars have generally looked to her reading in philosophy and sermons, her spiritual expression, or her Anglicanism, and have neglected the more direct influence of the Bible. Yet judging from Austen’s lifelong church attendance and her reading of the Book of Common Prayer, we can conclude that she would have heard the Psalms read entirely through once every month of her forty-one years. This paper explores the resemblance between the psalmists and Fanny Price in terms of their shared experience of exile, their patterns of lament and reminder, their long wait for deliverance, and their final homecoming. Comparing Fanny Price’s character to the psalmists recasts her as a heroine in the Hebrew tradition, offering a new understanding of her passivity and suggesting that her author was more influenced by scriptural patterns than has been heretofore understood.