Welcome to Litsy!

I'm still way behind, but I knocked out Mansfield Park this month. It was my 3rd time through - definitely the one I've read the least number of times. I struggle with the Edmond/Frannie relationship. He treats her so paternally that I have trouble rooting for the relationship. And the cousin thing - I know it's period appropriate, but 😬. Still, it's beautifully written and Jane's most biting social commentary, so it's easily 5 stars from me.

#PemberLittens

My second read of Mansfield Park, definitely worth another read after 15 years. The ending felt a bit rushed and was more recap. But Fanny and Edmund realized they were just right for each other! ❤️

I'm late posting my answers but enjoyed listening to this one again! #JaneAustenThenAndNow @Crinoline_Laphroaig

1. This was my second time reading. It's probably still my least favorite Austen but I did enjoy it much more this time around. I still believe Fanny deserved better than Edmund.

(cont'd)⬇️

Started this #Audiobook yesterday for my library‘s Victorian Book Club.

This will be my SECOND time reading this #Jane Austen novel. It was time for a re-read! 📖

Next up for my year of reading Jane Austen.

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet‘s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.
#MansfieldPark #JaneAusten #Classics #Fiction #Romance #HistoricalFiction #Audiobook #Literature #Historical #19thCentury 💜💜

1. Reread, it‘s my 4th read. I‘m not sure what‘s happening but for all the Austen novels on this reread I seem to notice all the bad characters traits

2. Favorite: Fanny. Least favorite: The Crawford siblings

3. I like the scenes where Fanny is standing up against peer pressure, like the theater and the proposal

4. Don‘t have any

5. I‘m not sure there‘s anything wrong with her, other than laziness

6. Neither

7. Mrs. Norris and the Crawford

Mansfield is a pick forever! I might rage against the Crawfords, and sure, Edmund isn't fantastic...but Fanny's quiet, unshakable strength brings me back time and time again.

Thanks as always to @Crinoline_Laphroaig for leading us through a whole year of Austen. #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

And it's a mad dash to the book's close! Fanny arrives back home and Edmund pours out the whole sorry story of Mary and then suddenly it's the "wrap it up" chapter?! Everyone gets a satisfying and deserved ending based on their actions and moral character (Maria and Mrs. Norris banished in disgrace, huzzah!) and Fanny is vindicated in every respect (double huzzah!). Long live the girl who's maybe kinda boring but has been GOOD and RIGHT all along!

Now, I don't generally dislike Edmund, but after all the shit that goes down in these two chapters, he comes out with THIS?!:

"How a man who had once loved, could desert you! But yours - your regard was new compared with ---- Fanny, think of me!"

We will NOT be thinking of you or centering you in the midst of this, Edmund, so get out of the way: Fanny has arrived home at Mansfield and is about to be greeted like a long-lost daughter (win!).

Letters are flying! Mary writes to update Fanny on the London social scene, including how FOINE Edmund is looking (I always love how offended Fanny is on his behalf, like, he's more than just a hot piece of ass, Mary!!). Meanwhile Edmund writes to say that he's truly in love with Mary even though she's a shallow gold digger with horrible friends. Finally, Lady B writes in distress- Tom has had a drunken fall and things are not looking good. 😬

Phew, catching up on Mansfield Park today! Fanny is still in Portsmouth and Henry Crawford shows up?! It's her worst nightmare but he acts like a changed man - he's courteous and chivalrous and kind to her sister Susan and Fanny is...maybe enjoying his company! She cringes when introducing him to her rough family, though. Like, she wants him to leave her alone for the *right* reasons, not because her family is a bunch of embarrassing trash people!

Let's just say that things in Portsmouth are...not great. William gets called away for Boat Stuff so he and Fanny can't spend much time together, and the other siblings are indifferent to her presence. Her mom only loves her boy children and Betsey, and her dad makes me RAGE. Are we seeing Worst Austen Father here? Where does he fall between negligent Mr. Bennet, vain Sir Walter Elliot, and Captain "Could Have Plausibly Murdered My Wife" Tilney?

Fanny is still a no-go on the whole "marrying a man she detests" front so Sir Thomas decides to send her to Portsmouth so she can see the poverty that awaits her should she not marry rich. And you know, he has a point: Fanny is pretty horrified by the loud, misbehaving kids, her drunk dad, the sullen servants, and the general lack of order. And also by the way they completely disregard the daughter and sister they've not seen for a decade??!

I have to admire Fanny in these two chapters. Everybody's riding her ass about refusing Henry and agreeing among themselves that he will eventually browbeat her into marrying him. But even though our girl cries about it and hates the pressure, she's standing firm and I love to see it! She may be timid and unassuming, but damn it, there's no way she'll spend the rest of her life with a flirtatious, philandering, dishonorable cad!

We are plagued with more chapters focusing on Henry Crawford. This time he proves he has a knack for reading Shakespeare aloud and though she tries to hold strong, Fanny is *into it*. But then he swiftly ruins any progress he made by talking about what kind of preacher he'd be: snobbish, ineffectual, and desperate for adoration. I can't adequately express how much I truly despise this man and how much I love that Fanny sees right through him.

Henry shows up to drop the news that he used his connections to get Fanny's brother promoted and oh, btw, he's totally in love and wants to marry her. She is well and truly flabbergasted and I love the narration of her perspective here: she reflects on his manslut ways (above) and while he's plying her with flowery sentiments, she "considered it all as nonsense." Sir Thomas, though, can't believe she rejected him and ruh-roh...this won't end well.

Edmund leaves for his ordination, and while Fanny is relieved that he's going through with it, Mary Crawford is miserable- but her spirits lift when Henry announces his intention to marry Fanny. Yes, what started as a cruel joke at her expense has somehow morphed into a twisted white knight fantasy in Henry's mind. He laments how "friendless, neglected, forgotten" she is and reflects in self-satisfaction on how he will be her rescuer. Fucking UGH.

Lmao I love Fanny so much. The girl is going to the first party of her entire life and all we get is, "She had hardly ever been in a state so nearly approaching high spirits." Nearly approaching! We stan a self-possessed, stoic queen. ? Honestly, though, it's gonna be a banger of a night: Edmund came in clutch with his own gift so the necklace question is answered, and he engaged her for two dances. What could go wrong? (Answer: Henry Crawford.)

Gather round, folks: Sir Thomas is throwing a ball and everyone's mad excited. Fanny has a dilemma, though: William brought her a cross which she's been wearing on some ribbon, but that imitation bling isn't gonna cut it on the big night. She goes to Mary Crawford for advice and Mary offers her an old chain of her own. But what seems a nice gesture is inappropriate as hell because the chain came from Henry and now Fanny is in a moral gray area!

Let me tell you now of my deep hatred and dripping disdain for Henry Crawford, a vile, manipulative, misogynistic manwhore who is out specifically to sow trouble for his own amusement. In today's chapter, he delightedly announces his plan to win Fanny's affection and then break her heart just because she didn't fawn over him at dinner and he feels entitled to every woman's flattery and attention. I would eat this fucker's heart in the marketplace!

I'll just say it: I despise Mary Crawford. She's entitled, superficial, materialistic, and insincere, and when I read online discourse from her fangirls, I want to claw out my own eyeballs. She's just Caroline Bingley with better jokes, and in today's chapter she continues to be flatly dismissive of Edmund, the man she's supposedly falling for, and says outright that she won't respect him if he's poor. Screw you, Mary, and the harp you rode in on.

Finally get to repost my favorite Austen meme of all time! 😂Sir Thomas is home and he is NOT pleased to discover that the kids have built a whole-ass theatre inside the house. Yates and Henry blow town, the latter making Maria livid beyond belief because isn't this man supposed to be in love with her?! Side note that I love the final moment of the whole affair when Mrs. Norris absconds with the green baize curtain like the scheming magpie she is.

Rehearsals are in full swing and stirring up jealousies like nobody's business! Henry is all over Maria, pissing off both Julia and Mr. Rushworth, and Edmund is falling for Mary more each day, which has Fanny straight-up vexed. She's also in her feelings about Mrs. Grant who took on Cottager's Wife is now loved by everyone while Fanny is increasingly ignored and isolated. But soon none of this will matter because uh-oh...Sir Thomas has returned!

Edmund remains totally disapproving of the whole home am-dram concept, but when Tom suggests bringing in some rando to join the fun, he's absolutely aghast. The impropriety! Tom also tries to get Fanny to join in, but our girl's morals are iron-clad and she refuses. The same cannot be said for Edmund who decides that joining in himself would be the lesser of two evils and in a total weaksauce move, he tries to get Fanny to absolve him. Boy, bye.

Oh my godddd, here we go! Suddenly the gang turns into the most cringe theatre kids ever. As a lifelong member of that circle, I can confirm that the level of drama we see here lives on in every high school theatre club, community theatre troupe, and, yes, some professional companies. We even still have stodgy killjoys like Edmund trying to kill the vibe, largely in the form of vile conservatives defunding the NEA (oops, did I say it out loud?).

At Mansfield Park in Northamptonshire
#WhereareyouMonday
@Cupcake12

Mary Crawford showing her true colors in today's chapters: she likes Edmund a lot but his job isn't nearly grand or important enough for her and she tries to persuade him out of taking orders, even though he thinks the role of the clergyman is an important one. They're at an impasse and she flies off to play harp, and then in a maddening display of weakness and male blindness, he proceeds to...sing her praises?! Edmund, she may be pretty, but no.

Everyone continues to be terrible! The gang visits Sotherton and:

-Julia sits with Henry and Maria is a pouty asshole about it
-Mary Crawford shoves her foot directly in her mouth by being pointedly bitchy about the clergy
-Henry flirts with (engaged) Maria all day like the manwhore he is
-Fanny's left on her own again and doesn't even get to see the avenue she came for?!

On the bright side (?), I learned about the window-tax (link in comments).

Edmund and Fanny hang out to judge Mary Crawford but ultimately he's like, "but she's super feminine so it's fine" and goes to listen to her play the harp every single day. Then she starts riding Fanny's horse every day, too, and our girl is stuck at home to cut roses and run needless errands. Edmund feels bad and invites her on the Sotherton visit where Fanny and Mary gleefully catch sight of Edmund at the same time, giving real Pam/Karen vibes.

Rushworth is just another in a long line of tacky blowhards with no taste destroying much-loved places of natural beauty. "Ye fallen avenues, once more I mourn your fate unmerited." #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

Man, this book is full of selfish, thoughtless people: sisters Bertram and Norris set Fanny off on an emotional roller coaster about her living situation without giving two shits; nobody cares that she doesn't have a horse, ie access to fresh air and exercise; Sir Thomas heads off for a year to his slave plantation; and Henry Crawford comes out the gate as a feckless, self-centered ass who won't house his own sister. Shades of behavior to come...

#Pemberlittens I'm already behind on 2 Chapters a Day Readalong of Mansfield Park. Today is my grocery shopping day for 3 day holiday weekend house party. I'm firing up my audiobook read by the fabulous Juliet Stevenson and listening through Chapter 12. That will take me up to Sunday. Monday when things quiet down I go back to print.🛒 🎧 📖

#musingsonmansfield
#janeaustenthenandnow

"About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park,......." #Pemberlittens I'm here! 2 birthday celebrations in 3 days and now getting ready for holiday weekend house party has me a bit discombobulated. I used this Readalong as excuse to buy to copies off Ebay.

#JaneAustenThenAndNow
#MusingsOnMansfield

And we're off! We open with a portrait of three sisters- one very well-married, one relatively well-married, and one, well...whomp, whomp. Poor Mrs. Price has too many children and not enough income so the eldest girl is pawned off onto wealthy relations. Can I just say, if you're going to rip a child from her home, could you maybe greet her with ANY kind of affection and not just offer a snack?! I don't blame Fanny for breaking down in tears!

First two chapters of the #buddyread done! #janeaustenthenandnow @Crinoline_Laphroaig

#PemberLittens, are we even ready?! I LOOOVE Mansfield Park and have very little chill about it. I'm so psyched for two chapters a day of quiet self-denial, bitchy cousins, the aunt from hell, my least favorite Austen fuckboy, a romantic hero that nobody likes, and moral outrage about the lamest play ever put on by a bunch of kids in a living room. And yet...I adore every bit of it and can't wait to return, every single time. #JaneAustenThenAndNow

There is no reason in the world why you should not be important where you are known.

As always Austen has masterful character and symbolic work, but Fanny felt a bit too much of an abused victim, that let's themselves get walked all over by others, but deep inside they have strong opinions(tm).

It's not that a meek character cannot be interesting, its that on top of ot all Fanny is very judgemental and puritanical and I did not care for it.

I just got done listening to the BBC Mansfield Park. I loved it. One of the narrators was Benedict Cumberbatch. I rated this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

Watching the 1983 BBC version of Mansfield Park, which is on Prime currently, and I recommend it for three reasons:
1. Angela Pleasence as Lady Bertram does the best portrayal of a vapid, drug addict idle housewife I have ever seen.
2. Fanny, played by Sylvestra Le Touzel, occasionally gets this look on her face that clearly says "Go ahead, keep it up, I am plotting to murder you all with an ax."
3. It follows the book very closely.

Pretty early in the book (Just finished Ch 16 of Book 1), there's excellent characterisation of the societal norms, but the story drags, things hardly happen, and Fanny is so uninteresting and prudish.

On one hand, it's very refreshing to see, but on the other, it's hard being invested in a meek character who hardly speaks up and lets everyone walk all over them. I'm hoping Fanny eventually gains some semblance of confidence.

How come most people apparently don't like this book?
I loooooovvvvvveeeeeeedddddd this! So cute.
I'm not sure I'll watch the movies, though... Does anyone recommend them?

Current reads:
* 20 pages per day of Mansfield Park (it's wonderful reading Austen again, the nuances and the wit are one of the reasons I'm taking my time)
*2 essays per day in Preston's The Lost Tomb
*Starting dilouie's How to Make a Horror Movie & Survive

This show up in my Facebook Memories from 2021. I was doing Chapter A Day of W&P and
"Today also starts my #Pemberlittens Readalong......Mansfield Park is the first of Jane Austen's novels to be conceived as well as executed and published in maturity." It‘s been ages since I've read Mansfield Park. Much as Jane wrote this with older eyes, I'm looking forward to reading through older eyes. ? #musingsonmansfield

#PemberLittens

#Chirp #Audiobook deal

$2.99 for a limited time (2024)

https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/mansfield-park-by-jane-austen-45ba197709?p...

After two years of doing this I think I still have enough unread books to continue! So I‘m posting one book a day from my massive collection. No description, no reason for why I want to read it.

#ABookADay2025

3✨A coming of age story, family, and relationships. This had a lot going on, but it was an enjoyable read.