Since 2014 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's most controversial novel, Mansfield Park, I decided to reread it. Of all the novels, I think I've reread it fewer than any of the others, though I'm probably into the double-digits by now with this one as well.
Usually I say that it's my least favorite Austen novel until I'm actually reading it, and then I'm struck by the wit, the structure, the flawless composition, the characterization and deft turns of phrase and then say how much I like it. This time I listened to a recording, and while it's often noted that Austen's works shine when read aloud, I found that I was less able to appreciate all its positive attributes because I was focusing on how aggravating Fanny, Edmund, and Mary can be.
The reader did a fine job in representing Mary as a heartless flirt and Edmund as a hopeless drip and Fanny as a passive-aggressive whiner, so good a job in fact that I couldn't really enjoy the story all that much. I think my internal reading voice has been cutting all three of them a tremendous amount of slack over the years!
I still found Henry Crawford deliciously, dangerously attractive, and like Mary, I wish that Fanny had accepted him before that nasty Maria could seduce him into throwing his happiness away with both hands.
I'm actually thinking the character I like best in the book is William Price, Fanny's brother. He and Susan, her sister, have the most spunk of any of the characters.
So what is the problem with Fanny? My current feeling is that she is too much like those heroines of the 18th century novel--the delicate, fainting, moralizing creatures that Fanny Burney and Maria Edgeworth, et al, wrote about. They may be good girls but stuff happens to them--they don't make stuff happen. I think Fanny is in this category and her story is just not all that interesting, despite Austen's tremendous storytelling and writing abilities.
For your reading pleasure, here's a link to a short story in my Austen-inspired collection Intimations of Austen, that I was thinking about whilst reading Mansfield Park again: The Three Sisters
I'm so glad that Emma is the next book whose anniversary we get to celebrate. Now there is a heroine who sets things in motion!
This would be a good review to include in British Isles Friday. It's been awhile since I've read Mansfield Park, but I remember struggling to like Fanny at certain points during the story.
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I have always loved Fanny. She is so like Casandra in that she knows what will happen but no one listens to her or believes her. She has no voice in the household and is shunted aside and taken for granted by all her companions. William and Susan are the only characters who respect her.
ReplyDeleteGreat commentary on this one Jane.
ReplyDeleteYou raise an intriguing point about audiobooks. That is, how much is the narrator influences the perception of the listener? Do you ever find yourself thinning, "that is not right". I tend to give characters a lot of slack myself as I tend to look for complexity everywhere.
I have to admit, I've always been a fan of Fanny Price. She's thrown in this situation with relatives who don't appreciate her and where no one treats her like she has any value and she still manages to maintain her own sense of self. She has integrity, and I admire that. But I agree, Emma is a much funner heroine to read about and root for.
ReplyDeletePoor Fanny! She's painfully shy, and being painfully shy myself I have no difficulty identifying and sympathising with her. Glad to see that Patti and Lark are on her side too! :-)
ReplyDeleteI have only read MP twice. I really struggled to like the character of Fanny for a long time, not because she's downtrodden and meek - that isn't her fault, but because she was so judgemental. I was so glad when she was able to overcome this flaw thanks to her visit home. The only character I really liked unreservedly was William Price. To be honest, although MP's main character is Fanny Price I don't see it as 'her' story, but as more of an exploration of nature v nurture, which is a theme touched on with practically every character in the book.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's easy to focus just on Fanny, but the title of the book is Mansfield Park and not Fanny Price. In terms of nature vs nurture, do you think the Price children (Fanny, William, Susan) are more worthy than the Bertrams (Tom, Maria, Julia, Edmund?) because of their parents or despite them?
DeleteThat's an interesting question. I think the Bertrams were all neglected by their mother and spoiled by their aunt. Edmund is the best of them, perhaps because he was destined for the church he spent more time thinking about his behaviour than the others. As for the Prices, I think by nature they were pretty good, but the three eldest had very different upbringings - Fanny was often neglected and over-criticised by her two aunts, but she also had a good influence in the form of Edmund. I think she benefitted by being brought up away from her family. William was lovely by nature and he was his mother's favourite so would have gained a good start there, and then he would have gone to sea quite young so I would suppose much of his upbringing was done by others too. Susan does as well as she can in her circumstances, I think she'd have done well at MP, because her mother would never appreciate her at home, but she has a desire to better herself. I suppose all my blathering has brought me to the conclusion that the Bertrams turned out worse due to their upbringing - their father only required the illusion of proper behaviour, their mother entirely hands off and their aunt constantly feeding their egos and sense of entitlement and telling them how important and wonderful they were even when they were behaving badly. So semi-neglect is better than spoiling!
Delete>semi-neglect is better than spoiling
ReplyDeleteBased on MP, that certainly seems to be the case. I guess my own take is that nurture and nature work together. MP was better for Fanny than for her cousins!
I've read a good bit of Burney and Edgeworth, and I think you're on to something about Fanny's affinity with their heroines. Even though Mansfield Park is one of Austen's later novels, it does seem to have parts that straddle the two centuries and therefore conflict with each other. Perhaps that is why Mary Crawford has often been chosen to star in recent pastiches such as Lynn Shepherd's Murder in Mansfield Park. However, your short story shows how Fanny Price can be brought successfully into a new story--one of my favorites in your book.
ReplyDeleteI actually felt a bit like a traitor dissing Fanny in my post since I did write Bird of Paradise, in which she redeems herself, in my eyes anyway.
DeleteIf anyone wants to read about Fanny and Edmund after the wedding, here is my short story, Bird of Paradise: http://janegs.com/Short%20Stories/SS_Bird_of_paradise.htm
You nailed it, Janet!
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