Almost equal advantage... but not close enough.

"About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntington, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram...... She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. " (Chapter 1)

We now come to the novel that I am the least familiar with. Mansfield Park is the second longest novel by Jane Austen, and from what I remember, has a lot of dry, sarcastic humour. I look forwarding to reading it all the way through in one go. I do not particularily like the copy of the book that I have. It is small in size, thick, and menacing. I may have to remedy this by getting a less scary edition of it before I get too far into the book.

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen's third published novel, appeared on the shelves of book sellers in the year 1814 (almost 200 years ago). It is another literary masterpeice, and though not as widely known as Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, it has a wide following of devoted Mansfield Park lovers. It is the story of a girl, named Fanny, who is forced to live with her extended family due to poverty. As a result of being dependent on others, she spends a lot of time trying to make people happy, and acting as an unpaid nursemaid to her aunt and cousins. This family has a penchant for scandal, and Fanny has only one true friend, the second eldest male cousin, Edmund. Will they both escape the scandal unscathed? Well.... I'm not going to tell you. Read it for yourself.

Like the quotation and the title at the top suggests, the book is filled with characters who are close to being equal, but not quite close enough. For example, when Sir Bertram agrees to foster his neice, he makes it clear to his sister in law that, though Fanny is family, she is not the equal in beauty, education, status, and fortune of his daughters. He says, "I should wish them to be good friends, and would, on no account, authorize in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation; but still they cannot be equals. Their rank, fortunes, rights, and expectations will always be different. It is a point of great delicacy, and you must assist us in our endeavors to chuse exactly the right line of conduct." (Chapter 1)

Mansfield Park, I believe, does a good job at showing the darker secrets of the aristocracy and wealthy in Regency England. All of her novels do this to some extent, (Wickham's need for money in S&S, the Bingley sisters and Lydia's elopement in P&P), but in Mansfield Park, it is the focus. The picture at the top of the post, is Fanny, from one of the more recent adaptations. There are considerably fewer adaptations of Mansfield Park (I'm going to need a good short form, or acrynom, so I don not have to write Mansfield Park out everytime that I want to refer to it!) than other Austen novels, but maybe by the end of the project I will be able to give you my informed decision about which one I like the best.

Happy reading to all those following me on the project.