Beauty only "cover" deep

[Penfeather]

I find it interesting, Penfeather, that you see a heroine's self-deprecating comments as false modesty. I've always believed them. Since, so often, they're writing in first person, I feel that they are duty-bound to be honest with me ( I make an exception for the ones you call TSTL, they seem incapable of being honest with themselves!).

It's my skeptical nature showing. My statement applies only certain books and authors. It's hard to make a case without presenting specific examples that strike me as disingenuous.

Of course, since the heroine is fictitious, the question is whether the author intended the reader to believe her self-appraisal or to read between the lines. We assume, usually, that the heroine is reasonably attractive. Sure, she may have a couple of flaws, but these are probably the sort of imperfections that lend her character and individuality. I prefer a minimum of self-description beyond the basics of hair color, eyes, a few distinguishing features. Part of the fun of reading a book is "casting" the dramatis personae with our imagination, and filling in the details ourselves.

The same applies to the hero. He too may have minor flaws -- a crooked smile, hollow cheeks, a romantic scar, an inch too much height (ha!) -- but I'm going to assume he looks more like Laurence Olivier than Danny DeVito.

I've found that most women are far more critical of their appearance than you might believe, even the pretty ones.

Aha! I hadn't really considered this. I suppose it would also be in keeping with the heroine's progress from an innocent ingenue to a woman who has had one or two illusions broken.

This is very interesting psychologically. I'm fascinated by how other readers' experiences differ from my own. Since I can't read the author's mind, I'm probably projecting my own thinking patterns -- something that can't be avoided completely when reading.

So often she can be enchantingly beautiful on the cover, but not much of anything substantial on the inside of the book.

To address this other idea in your post, yes! It's often obvious when the cover artist has not bothered to find out what the heroine looks like. It's also possible that stock covers were used for novels (or reused from earlier ones). This is not unheard-of in the publishing world. The editors figured, "Well, there's a young lady running from a creepy house with one light on upstairs -- good enough!"

I've also noticed that a lot of the heroines on the covers of Gothics published in the late 1960s looked strikingly like Barbara Steele:

http://content6.flixster.com/photo/94/92...68_tml.jpg

She was the movie queen of Gothic thrillers (Black Sunday, etc.), so go figure.