Category: Mansfield Park
-
Some Mansfield Park Memes
For my favourite Jane Austen novel that deserves more love Fanny Price: After Sir Thomas is angry with her Trying to convince Henry Crawford she doesn’t love him: Sir Thomas (Ch 47): Edmund Bertram: On Edmund taking Fanny to the avenue or stargazing Mrs. Norris, talking up Rushworth to anyone who will listen: Also Mrs.…
-
The Timeline of the Affair and Elopement in Mansfield Park
Edmund Blair Leighton, Where There’s a Will The affair between Maria Rushworth (Bertram) and Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park is perhaps the most shocking event in Austen’s novels, rivaling Lydia’s elopment with Wickham. But how did it happen? Because it is presented in flashbacks and at several points during the final chapters, the timeline of…
-
Why Your Friends Hate Your Books . . .
I recently received an email from an old friend who’s also a novelist, though in a very different genre. “Hi Alice, I’m feeling low and in need of advice. Maybe everybody secretly dislikes me, but my friends and family, neighbours and acquaintances generally just don’t care about my books. They’ve sold great, and one was…
-
The Real Mary Crawford, a Guest Post from Ann Hawthorne
Eliza de Feullide, nee Hancock, was born in Calcutta, India, in the year 1761. Her mother Philadelphia had been George Austen’s older sister, and thus Jane Austen’s aunt. One can say Eliza had been raising eyebrows in polite society since her birth, because that was when the rumours of her illegitimacy started. There were people…
-
What’s Wrong with Putting on a Play in Mansfield Park?
Covent-Garden Theatre: This engraving was published as Plate 27 of Microcosm of London (1808) We know that Jane Austen wrote and acted in home theatre productions herself, so why is it so bad that Tom and Yates want to put on a play in Mansfield Park? I find it so strange when people argue that Austen had…
-
Cover Reveal for Austen’s Creative Development
I’m pleased to announce today the cover reveal for my new book on Jane Austen’s creative process and her development as a writer. The nonfiction book, Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in a “Style Entirely New,” can also be pre-ordered now from Jane Austen Books. It will be available in…
-
How Jane Austen Uses Names
And which names are never given Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and Colonel Fitzwilliam are never named in the entirety of Pride & Prejudice. Fan fiction and adaptations have given them first names, but Austen never revealed names if a person would be addressed by a title instead. Mrs. Bennet is addressed as “mamma,” “sister,” and…
-
The Centrality of Self-Knowledge in Austen, a Guest Post from Pamela Aidan
The importance of self-knowledge or self-discovery in Jane Austen’s novels is not likely to be contested as it is a feature, perhaps THE feature that appears in all of them to one degree or another. My personal favorite novel, Pride and Prejudice, has as its hinge the incident of Darcy’s ill-fated proposal at Rosings which…
-
Writing an Author’s Truth in Austenesque Fiction
What makes writing Austenesque variations exciting is that, in the hands of an author ready to explore truths that informed Jane Austen’s life and those of her characters, we are no longer constrained by the epochal notions enshrined in film or video. Rather, fresh approaches are sought in fantasy (Maria Grace and Abigail Reynolds, for…
-
Fanny Price is the New Pink
I saw a comment about Fanny that floored me because it made so much sense. On a thread about polarizing characters, User appletreerose said, “with Austen’s male characters, she often opposes a charming louse with a good man who doesn’t easily catch the eye. I think Mansfield Park is the only time she does this…