Mansfield Park (1814 original; edició 1999)

If doublethink is the dubious ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time, I think education could be the necessary skill of holding the tension between two views, neither of which you surrender to—in this case, Jane has to be stopped! Use the time machine!, and, It’s a Jane doll, 14.99; this is great; we’re going to Antigua! We’re rich!…. Specifically here, of course, I think that a lot of introductions are too commercial, like the one I read by Barnes & Noble Amanda; no culture conflict here, nothing to see here, keep moving. If you add a tree in the background, squint, and take a hallucinogenic drug, it could almost be Zadie Smith…. But the truth is, Fanny is a moralistic, tiresome, semi-invalid, who’s a hypocrite (be upright! And slothful! Sloth is good! It’s pious!) and an embarrassment to English literature and women’s writing. I’ll try not to say too much more about Arab Ed and “Jane Austen and Empire”—except to say that he’s right—but Mansfield has to be in the bottom third of Jane books, along with Emma. (S&S is maybe the best, and P&P and the Abbey are perhaps the middle two.)

…. Actually I think this a shade worse than Emma; it is the worst Jane. In Emma we may at least say that the main problem is the unlikable characters, and although the speaker doesn’t much care, at least she seems to understand—here the problem seems to be simple bad writing, something like “The Lamplighter”, just a big…. nothing. (“Without music, my life would be a blank.”) Even for Jane she seems *unusually* averse to saying *anything*, at all. It is very not dramatic; it is not so much the other Jane, Jane Copperfield, as it is Kristin Lavransdattir robbed of content. (Kristin was a pretty good book, and so was Jane Copperfield.)

It is also not a romance, or at least arguably not one, maybe just on the edge; not every book with a date or a marriage is a romance—otherwise Resurrection and the Hunger Games would be romances, and also on the other end of the spectrum some books have so little action that there is no flirting as the central action, either. These are not all bad books—take Kristin, for example—but in Mansfield Jane seems almost to regret being a novelist, as though she could appease Herr Pharisee, the guy who is suspicious of Bible commentaries—not the Text Itself—and thinks that All Novels Are Damned, so there! Jane’s solution is a novel that hates itself. It’s just like “The Lamplighter”. Nothing happens—not even flirting—and nobody says anything or makes fun of anybody. The only take away is that we should all be fucking loyal to the Prince Regent, and be glad he lets us be loyal.

…. Fanny is not a heroine—she’s ever perfecting the art of having nothing to envy—but even Mary is not an Austen heroine. Mary is a foil, that’s all. I do not know what became of Jane’s flirt-with-liberation, but Mary is the hick’s idea of the liberal. “La! The weather is much nicer in California! I haven’t the faintest idea of where I shall buy cosmetics here!” “But the music is much better here in Arkansas, and our husbands here do not want a beauty so much as a devoted servant.” Oh! Which poison to pick!…. I was expecting it to be like, to paraphrase Plato, the people who turn away from the light, (God knows there are some people, who, when they encounter someone less prejudiced than themselves for the first time, throw themselves head first into the task of becoming ever worse, and more consciously and explicitly prejudiced), but it is really more the case of someone living in a dark cave with a faulty lamp, chortling in a self-satisfied way when some loon comes in trying to describe some hallucination they call the “Sun”.

…. God, it’s so boring.

It’s been awhile since I was a *blind* Anglophile, but I think I see now why some people were so set again P&P Jane, and thought her a sort of Propaganda Leni—The Triumph of the Estate—it’s because they thought that Jane Bennet was Fanny Price.

I suppose they are superficially similar. I suppose that is the use of novels, of the study of the individual, because it’s hard to say what Fanny is that Jane isn’t, except that Jane really feels that way and Fanny probably doesn’t even know what she feels herself because she’s caught under so many layers of pretending and believing lies.

…. Of course Mary doesn’t like priests because she is a Bad Girl, saying more bad about them than Elizabeth Bennet, who had a personal reason to complain, because Mary is just a foil, a straw ‘man’. Good Edmund and Precious Fanny are not much better. Is Christianity a profession, then, like the law? If this is so, then it is almost less bad if it is a ‘bad’ profession. What perversity, that the law should only be obeyed by lawyers and their wives! Or maybe Christianity is just a cultural feature of certain countries, or rather the rural elements on certain countries, like monarchism, you know. What does one do with humbug like that?

…. At the end of the day, even “Lord of the Far Island”, Victoria Holt’s “poor relation” book, is better than this famous claptrap.

…. But perhaps I am severe on “The Lamp-Lighter”. If it weren’t for the, smile smile don’t make a fuss schoolgirl propaganda, the L-L really would be teaching you something. All Mansfield teaches you is what money feels like in your hand. So they’re not the same.

…. I realize that this entitlement has something to do with the times, but Edmund is a bother. If, say, you are invited to a party and the people are all either common (cf ‘mean’) or much younger or both, then naturally you refuse politely despite the flattery. Parties and even play-acting, I suppose, can be a waste of time, and one ought to guard oneself against wasting all of one’s time. But Edmund is positively insulted that people do not come to him and ask his permission, forget an invitation. Perhaps I feel this way too sometimes, but it is not unlike being attracted to someone too common (‘mean’) or too young, or too much money. Of course there is nothing to it. But Edmund decides to infiltrate the play-acting, like a Trotskyite infiltrator, to damp it down and dry it out from the inside. How important Edmund must be!

…. *’Lie down on the couch’ —What does that mean!*
Fanny Price: I really like this new dress I’m wearing, but I’m afraid that now people will notice me instead of Mary Crawford.
Therapist: I can hear a voice in my office, but there’s no one here. Oh dear.
Fanny Price: Oh. I guess…. I thought I was here. I guess I must be somewhere else.
Therapist: It’s getting stranger and stranger….

And, you know.

Jane said to herself, I’ll do the right thing; I’ll explain why slavery is okay. But she heard a male voice say, Woman, you will never understand why slavery is ok! The impudence of this woman!…. So her conscience convinced her to leave her life a blank.

…. I am very disappointed in you. You refuse Mr Crawford? It is a bad thing. You are a bad girl. It is disobedient for a woman to refuse an offer of marriage, fumes Sir Thomas. Why, if this were Antigua instead of England and you were black instead of white, I’d have you whipped.

*sobbing* But he’s not conservative enough! He comes from London! Just think, London! Not Little England!

You are still a rebel, he says stiffly. And you must formally apologize to him for not managing his servants for the rest of his life. Impudence!

…. Refusing Mr Crawford—a touch and go thing—is one of very few real episodes in the book. It’s not that something has to be ‘pure’ feminism for me, (for example, I don’t think that you can choose between idealism and materialism on such sectional grounds, as both have the potential to be quite abominable), but books should not aim to distort, and for most of the book Fanny is quite broken, while Jane tries to screen what that means. In this episode (more than in the preceding), Fanny is less broken, and the consequences of her brokenness are more plain. —I’ll put you on a horse and carry you away! I’ll kidnap you! Agree and it’ll be easier on both of us! No? Ok, I was bluffing.

And of course Fanny would have been presumed to be broken even if she was not, but of course she was very taken in that that was the right thing.

…. B&N Amanda’s notes are seriously negligent. *waves top hat* I paid you good money to use the special dictionaries, so I wouldn’t have to!

And God, what a tepid halfway gossip’s romance. “You were busy with something else, love?” No, but I was very busy…. Well, I was busy.

Gossip: Did you hear what they did? They got married. That’s all anyone does nowadays. Marriage marriage marriage. They got married!
—What have you been up to.
Gossip: Well, I got married.
—Whom to.
Gossip: I don’t like talking about it.
—Indeed. Does anybody else?

A reread for the - I'm not sure, 4th time? Mansfield Park used to be my least favorite Austen book (which still means I loved it) but it grows on me every time I read it. I now think it's actually one of her more mature books, with tons of opportunity to read between the lines, really interesting set up of believable characters, and lots of subtle humor and authorial commentary.

Fanny herself has also grown on me. She is often described as meek and mild and maddeningly won't ever put herself first. But I didn't see her that way on this reading. I saw that she is quiet and introverted and has been taught that her opinion isn't wanted, but her interior comments are quite perceptive and intelligent. And humanizing her even more, her interior thoughts, when revealed, are often self-centered, can be petty, and stubborn. I like this.

Also, a really large part of me wanted Henry Crawford to succeed with Fanny this time and become the person he thought he could be with her. First time to feel that way too!

I happily look forward to my next rereading of this book. ( )

Digital audiobook narrated by Johanna Ward

Miss Fanny Price is taken in by her rich relation, Sir Thomas Bertram, and his wife as an act of charity. Her family is poor and with seven children, resources are simply stretched too thin. Fanny is a quiet, sensible, obedient little thing, and grows into a quiet, sensible, graceful young woman. Her two cousins, Sir Thomas’s daughters Maria and Julia treat her well, but are far more interested in their own prospects. And there are several eligible, if not completely suitable, young men in the neighborhood.

Ah, but I love spending time with Austen. Fanny is perhaps the ideal heroine, and reportedly Austen’s own favorite among her heroines. She is intelligent and thoughtful, pretty and graceful, keeps her own counsel, is modest and principled, and still has a loving heart.

A couple of the gentlemen in the area seem interested in Fanny – she is very pretty, after all, and Sir Thomas is bound to leave her some money. But Fanny would rather be alone than marry a man she cannot love and respect.

There is a certain predictable pattern to Austen’s novels, and this one is no exception. Our heroine will remain true to herself, and love will triumph.

Johanna Ward does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. She brings Austen’s witty dialogue to life. ( )

I love this book even though almost nothing happened in it :D All the characters had faults and I don't think the reader will like any of them very much, but I had so much fun reading about their interactions. It is about a group of young men and women who live at or close to the high-end country estate of Mansfield Park. This is basically a book about how these young people interacted with one another.

The main female character Fanny was a cousin of the Mansfield Park family. She was from a poor background. Everyone else was well-off. There are chapters and chapters that focus on the things they said or the walks they took (and of course the things they said during the walks.) Fanny held an unrequited love for one of the young men, who in turn was devoted to another young woman, Miss Crawford who Fanny thought didn't deserve his admiration. One thing happened after another and in the next-to-last chapter, the characters came to a state of quiet regret, helplessness and misery. If the story ended there, I think it would have been a better book. It would have been realistic and thought-provoking. The Crawford siblings are interesting characters. But the author gave us a happy ending at the last chapter. It was satisfying to see affections returned, and wrongdoings repented, but I'm having such a hard time believing things actually happened the way the author said they did lol ( )

In its tone and discussion of religion and religious duty, it is the most serious of Austen’s novels. The heroine, Fanny Price, is a self-effacing and unregarded cousin cared for by the Bertram family in their country house. Fanny’s moral strength eventually wins her complete acceptance by the Bertram family and marriage to Edmund Bertram himself. ( )