Mansfield Park

[altariel]

Thank you to yonmei for pointing me to a very interesting article about Mansfield Park written by helenraven.

I had the usual experience with Mansfield Park, reading it as a teenager, loathing it and its heroine, and then coming back to it in 'maturity' and deciding it's Austen's best book. Although Persuasion remains my favourite.

Comments

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Thank you for pointing me to the essay...I *love* Mansfield Park and hated the movie, although not quite for the same reasons. I actually thought about trying to make a television series about the adventures of Mary Crawford, who I would like to see live and flourish, although she really doesn't belong in the same kind of book as Fanny...

Whom I never disliked. I think of Mansfield Park as being something like a het version of Maurice: it's about someone who is really, really ordinary, someone is not Prince Hamlet nor was meant to be, who is not the hero of her own life. I mean, if Fanny Price took the quiz, she'd be Xander. And since I often feel like that myself, I have to root for Fanny, even though I think she deserves better than Edmund.

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[altariel.livejournal.com]

I would like to see Mary Crawford flourish, although I think she would have an unhappy time of it for quite a lot of her life. I see her becoming happy later in life.

Empathizing with Fanny... Well, I was always firmly convinced of my own centrality to the universe, and was quite prepared to be Prince Hamlet, meant or not. I've acquired boundless modesty in old age, making Fanny someone to whom I feel more kindly disposed.

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[executrix.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget that Fanny, at that time, was a poor relation, and therefore more at risk from Sir Thomas' wrath than his immediate family.

[trixieleitz]

I've acquired boundless modesty in old age

Pffft! Oh dear, now you owe me a new keyboard.

I'm currently working my way through 'Emma'. I make it sound like a chore, but the truth is I read it a bit at a time before I go to sleep. So I'm not at my sharpest and little nibbles don't give you the flow of the narrative so well.

Hey! Maybe I should get off the computer and go and read some now!

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[altariel.livejournal.com]

And then watch 'Clueless', which is one of my favourite Austen adaptations.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I recently re-read Mansfield Park and I still can't decide whether it's a stone-faced satire of Fanny. There are sections where she is so passive-aggressive, and where her elaborate moral rectitude leads her to actions which are so self-serving. On the other hand, in places she seems a genuine and moving character.

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[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think it's a stone-faced satire of pretty much every single character in the book, and at the same time an act of sympathy and compassion towards each of them as well. With the possible exception of Mrs Norris.

[(Anonymous)]

Mrs Norris really is Austen's greatest villain, and Maria's fate the least pleasant of any of her characters. Thanks for pointing out the article.

I can see why the film was made (and Rozema is a great director), but it's a shame, given the way it went, that it didn't have the courage to diverge *more* from the book -- what I found jarring was the repeated back-tracks to the original story which didn't make any sense in the new context.

Tavia

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[altariel.livejournal.com]

I didn't know the director, so looked her up on IMDB - turns out she made a film which I've wondered about watching for a while (it turns up on the movie channels a lot): 'I Have Heard the Mermaids Singing' (wonder how that title attracted my attention). So now I have another good reason to watch it.