Mansfield Park-inspired books, particularly ones set in the
period, appear to be pretty few and far between. I first became aware of this
book when looking for books connected to Mansfield Park as a bit of a personal
celebration of the bicentenary of it first being published.
Mansfield Revisited is a sequel to Mansfield Park, set
4 years later. There have been a few changes to the family in this interval -
Fanny and Edmund are happily married and proud parents to two children, Susan
Price has been living at Mansfield, filling Fanny’s place as helper and general
factotum to Lady Bertram. Julia (now Mrs Yates) persuaded her husband to buy a
properly close to Mansfield Park and she is to be found visiting her mother on
most days. Tom is still a bit unsteady, but he is no longer gambling or
drinking to excess.
The story opens with news of the death of Sir Thomas, who
was visiting his Antiguan property. Somebody will have to go to sort out
business affairs there, and Lady Bertram is loath to part from the new Sir Tom,
bearing in mind that 4 years previously he was extremely ill and took several
months to recover full health. He also needs to learn the reins for his
responsibilities at home, as Edmund has often done things that Tom should have
been doing. Edmund is quite happy to go to Antigua, and in fact proposes that
he, Fanny, and their younger child (who is only a few months old) should all go to
Antigua. Thus, Edmund and Fanny are not present for nearly the whole of this
book, which will please people who do not like the hero and heroine of MP!
Instead, Susan will take on responsibility for Fanny’s older
child, in addition to running the household, exercising Pug, keeping Lady
Bertram company, reading to her, and untangling her shawl fringe, netting, or
whatever else she has managed to tangle. Susan is extremely grateful to her
relatives for taking her in – being that bit older than Fanny was when she was
removed from her family she sees all the advantages the move has brought her,
and she is very attached to Fanny, who is her dearest friend as well as her
sister. Susan is also more fully
appreciated than Fanny was, and being less scared of her relatives allows her
to be genuinely fond of them. Although Mansfield Park is now devoid of Mrs
Norris the dynamic hasn’t changed that much, because Mrs Yates (Julia) has
taken over the mantle of resenting the low-born interloper that is Miss Price.
Mrs Yates isn’t quite as horrid as Mrs Norris, but she’s been cast in the same
general mould and is quite blind to her own hypocrisy:
‘ I have often observed it; she chooses to go her own way
without any of that decorum or propriety which you, ma’am and our dear aunt
Norris were so careful to instil in Maria and me. ‘
This is coming from somebody who eloped! And of course,
Maria ran off with her lover and was divorced so for either of them to be seen
as models of propriety is laughable.
Happily, Lady Bertram is somewhat of a champion of Susan, in
her own vacant, languid way:
‘Her ways suit me
well enough – we go on very comfortably together, for she is an active,
good-hearted girl, never too tired to untangle my work or take out Pug for an
airing. And she has a fine, clearspeaking voice; I can hear it plainly when she
reads to me, whereas you, Julia, always mumble, and so does Tom.'
Lady Bertram has some good speeches throughout this book,
she doesn’t take much notice of anybody, isn’t bothered by much at all unless
it impinges on her present comfort and she quite often is in complete
disagreement with her daughter!
Susan is of a different temperament than Fanny – she isn’t
meek, and she doesn’t take much of Mrs Yates’ criticism to heart. In fact, has
had to learn to guard her temper, to prevent herself delivering sharp comebacks
that would have been the norm in Portsmouth, but are not acceptable in this more refined society. She manages extremely well, but her Achilles heel in this
respect is her cousin Tom, as they often contrive to rub each other up the
wrong way:
‘He expected a more subservient and complaisant attitude
from Susan than she was prepared to yield; indeed she was not prepared to yield
to her cousin Tom at all, finding him in all respects, except for looks,
greatly inferior to his brother.’
After Fanny and Edmund leave for Antigua, there are some new
additions to the neighbourhood. One of Edmund’s friends, a Mr Wadham, has come
to cover Edmund’s duties as parson, and he brings with him his widowed sister,
Mrs Osborne. There is also a visitor who we’ve met before, Mary Crawford. Mary
has married, but it was very unhappy and her husband has been committed to an
asylum, so she asks people to call her by her maiden name. She is now gravely
ill, and her brother has rented a cottage for her because she wanted to come to
a place where she was happy – the environs of Mansfield Park. The opinion of
readers is split on Mary – villainess or victim of her upbringing? Personally,
I am quite fond of Mary, and I thought this author’s portrayal of her was
wonderful, capturing Mary’s quickness and wit, how she noticed things, how she
analysed characters, her humour:
‘How I can see Fanny in you; at first I did not detect the
likeness; you are taller, more striking in looks and colour; but now I do. You
are Fanny, but a more forceful Fanny. And, to tell truth, from what I recall of
Lady Bertram, if you were
occasionally to stamp and scream and throw her embroidery frame out of the
window, you would quite retain my entire sympathy and give her no more than her
desert.’
Mary may be ill, but she is determined to enjoy herself as
much as possible, even possibly capturing a few more hearts and doing some good
turns along the way. I was wrung with pity for her, it seemed so sad that
somebody so alive should be wasting away:
‘I am as I was made. If, in my life, I have done harm
through thoughtlessness, I trust that it was not so very bad, and that I am atoning for it now. For my part, I think
that a little flirtation is far less of a sin than vindictiveness, or
arrogance, or pride; and of those I have not been guilty.’
Talking of flirtation, what about Henry Crawford? Well, it
has never been in doubt that he is a loving brother, and he is willing to bring
his sister to an area where he must be decidedly unwelcome. An explanation is
given for the situation between himself and Maria which exonerates him from
much of the blame. Another old friend
who makes a re-appearance is William Price. He was one of my favourite
characters from Mansfield Park, being about the only person in that book who is
entirely likeable – loving, hard working, thoughtful. He is less thoughtful of
other’s feelings in this outing however, perhaps feeling all is fair in love
and war, but it was nice to see William decisively taking opportunities when
they fell to him.
Joan Aiken has tried to replicate Jane Austen’s style and I
think she did a pretty good job of it – there were no glaring modern words
jumping out and there was plenty of delicate humour sprinkled throughout the
book. There were some aspects of the story that I didn’t feel were so likely;
how readily Mary Crawford was welcomed back into Mansfield society and the
behaviour of one particular character towards the end – I cannot tell you more
for fear of spoilers! I also would have preferred a bit more romance, but I
could say that about Mansfield Park itself! However, on the whole, I thought
this was a believable account of what may have happened after Mansfield Park
finished and it is certainly one of the best sequels to one of Austen’s works
that I’ve read. If this book has been languishing on your 'To Be Read' list I’d recommend
that you bump it up a bit higher and celebrate Mansfield Park’s bicentenary by
reading this book!
I've read Mansfield Park Revisited recently and agree with you, it is a delightful book. Although I do think Aiken was a bit too generous to Mary Crawford(kept waiting for her to pull some sort of trickery), MPR does justice to the original novel and then some:)
ReplyDeleteShe was certainly generous to Mary, wasn't she! I know what you mean, at first especially I was expecting Mary to be pulling some kind of trick. But I've always thought that it was interesting that the Crawfords, with their imperfect morals were about the only people who had a real appreciation of the good in Fanny's character, so I feel that they had potential to be better. I was very pleasantly surprised by this book, most of the other sequels to Austen's works that I've read have been nowhere near this good.
DeleteGreat in depth review! I am sad that Fanny & Edmund feature little, however I will add it to my TBR list on your recommendation :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Tamara! For some reason I had a lot to say about this book. I wouldn't have minded a bit more Fanny and Edmund, although I'm not sure how it would have worked with Mary Crawford. Susan is a lovely heroine though, I really liked her from the beginning.
DeleteFantastic review, Ceri! Although, Mansfield Park wasn't my favorite I didn't hate it either. In fact the second time I read it I enjoyed it much more! This book sounds like a wonderful sequel to that book! Thanks for pointing it out to me, as I had not heard of it before! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Candy! I was just the same as you, the first time I read Mansfield Park I thought it was alright, but when I read it the second time, many years later, I went in with different expectations and I saw so much that I'd missed before, I think it's a wonderful book. This sequel is very good, well worth reading. I'm not surprised you hadn't heard of it, it was first published in 1984 so it's probably fallen off the radar! This author did quite a few books based on Austen's works. They have variable reviews but I'm adding them to the TBR :)
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