Antonia Forest fans

I think falling for a rather austere and much older man is not *that* surprising for someone in Karen's position, who has grown up with a largely-absent father and presumably precious little individual attention at any point. Unlike the younger girls, she doesn't have a (presumably fractionally more present) much older brother to look up to either. And all those dead uncles! I suppose we would say she is probably emotionally "avoidant" in terms of her 'attachment style' and as a result is highly likely to seek out partners who can't really respond to her adequately or with real intimacy. One thing that is so clever and interesting about the scenario is that Karen, who has avoided emotional closeness and as a result is not a 'natural' with small children, and has chosen an emotionally remote husband, finds that marriage forces her into immediate and very demanding daily intimacy, not so much with her husband as with his children. I think her reaction to this, and the extent to which she does in fact come to find it fulfilling and a route to maturity, is very well depicted (more in the next book or two as I remember).

I think the precipitous marriage itself is fairly plausible. People - men especially - do quite often remarry very (too?) quickly when abruptly bereaved, though I think this is actually more common when a marriage has been basically functional.

Having read Greats (Classics) at Oxford myself I am always inclined to feel that her rapid dropping-out is highly sensible! She doesn't really strike me as the type to suffer too much from the 'imposter syndrome', though the implication is surely that she has been disappointed or underwhelmed by the experience in some way at least.