本书是作者主要作品之一。善良懂事的芬妮由于家境穷困，从小被寄养在富裕的姨妈家。姨妈家的两个表姐虽然聪敏美丽，但都高傲任性，幸亏表兄埃德蒙的亲切关怀，才使她在寄人篱下的生活中得到安慰和快乐。成年后的芬妮也常随表姐表兄参加社交聚会，他们在牧师家里结识了风流倜傥的青年克劳福德和他的妹妹玛丽。埃德蒙对美丽机智的玛丽一见倾心，芬妮的两个表姐则拼命追求克劳福德，未料克劳福德在逢场作戏后发现自己真心喜欢的是芬妮，而芬妮深爱的却始终是温和真诚的埃德蒙......陷入感情纠葛的这几对青年男女最后的结局出人意料，却也在情理之中。(This book is one of the main works of the author. Because of family poverty, kind-hearted Fanny has been brought up by her rich aunt since her childhood. Aunt's two cousins, though smart and beautiful, but are arrogant and capricious. Thanks to kind attention from her cousin Edmund, she could feel the comfort and happiness when depending on her aunt for a living. Adult Fanny also often participates in social gatherings with her cousin and they get to be familiar with the pastor's romantic young man Crawford and his sister Mary. Edmund falls in love with the beautiful and wit Mary at first sight and Fanny's two cousins are desperately showing their love to Crawford. However, after joining in the fun on occasion, Crawford finds himself really loving Fanny, and Fanny loves Edmond who has always been gentle and sincere......The ending of these pairs of young pairs falling into the emotional entanglements is although unexpected but still reasonable.)