Fanny Price is the most misunderstood of Austen’s heroines, but the heroine Austen understood best. In  one of the first novels built upon the interior life of a young woman, Fanny shows up meritocracy by living with “so much true merit and true love.” Killer compliment: “Her mind, disposition, opinions, and habits wanted no half concealment, no self deception on the present, no reliance on future improvement.”