Mansfield Park at 200

[neadods]

I'm taking another run at Mansfield Park, and this time I think I'll actually finish it. That is one of my goals, this being the 200th anniversary, although it's a pity that the Shepard Annotated won't come out until *next* year. I like his annotations and would find it a help getting me over some of the hurdles.

Mansfield is also the theme of this year's JASNAcon (technically the Annual General Meeting, but I know a convention when I go to one!) I hadn't planned on going and it's a good thing because the thing sold out in *a day.* For one of the "problem" novels! I'll have to be fast on my feet when the Emma and Northanger anniversary ones roll around, because I don't want to miss those!

The JASNA News that announced the sellout had a cover with quotes from Austen's family regarding Mansfield. It makes me feel a bit better knowing her mother considered the heroine insipid, one of her brothers essentially called it boring, and one of her nephews only liked a single character in it.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I have always found it hard going because Fanny herself is not someone I could empathize with and I couldn't find any of the humor in it at all. Now, with the radio adaptation flagging where to look for the funny (which is a lot easier to find) and the discussions of the themes from A Jane Austen Education and even Bitch In A Bonnet I'm grasping the under themes of social change, rationality vs self interest, introvert caught up in class distinctions, etc.

To be honest, I still want to poke Fanny - passive protagonists will never be my cuppa, you should hear my Hamlet rant sometime - but I'm finally getting what Austen aimed for, I think.