The Crawfords esteem

The Crawfords seem to among the tiny handful of people who see the value of Fanny Price. Are they ever unkind to her? Why is Fanny so little moved by their interest and esteem? In your opinion, is any of this esteem genuine?

Exactly!

I think this is a really good point. Mary Crawford seems to recognize Fanny as a threat right from the start, so she keeps her enemies close, so to speak. She knew she'd have to be kind to Fanny in order to keep the wool pulled over Edmund's eyes. I think she was unkind to Fanny by acting like a friend in order to further her own purposes with Edmund, and her brother's plans with Fanny. I think she would've willingly kept Fanny in the dark about Henry's behavior if it wouldn't have come out. I think she does have some admiration for her moral character though.

It seems that Henry genuinely admired Fanny. I almost think that he mistook genuine admiration for love because he'd never had true regard for any of the women he got involved with before Fanny. He would flirt with women to expose their moral weakness, really. But he couldn't do it with Fanny and it stunned him into awed admiration ;) He was definitely unkind in the way he set out to "undo" her. But then once he felt like he was in love with her, I think in a way it was still unkind to seek her hand when she was so clearly superior in moral character. He must've known he couldn't deserve her without a "true conversion" to goodness. Obviously he didn't make it there :(

That's why Fanny is a great h e r o i n e (Can I just say that I h a t e the name Fanny? I hope that's no one's middle name!). With all the attention from the Crawfords that anybody else would be thrilled to have, she didn't bank on it. She was always kind to them, but never counted on their kindness to her in the way that most people would. She didn't let it go to her head. We all are eager to be loved, but Fanny was very careful about who influenced her. And this concludes my book report on "Mansfield Park". Thank you. ;)

-Sanya the Duck

I agree on all your points. I never really thought Mary did much that wouldn't suit her in the end. I also agree with what you said about Henry. He wasn't used to having someone not fall for him and I think that did make him sit up to notice what she was really about. If she had married him I'm sure that he would have immediately slipped back into his ways and not admired her as much anymore.
I am not a fan of the name fanny either.
Love your last sentence by the way... funny!
-Annegirl