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Amy Patterson, Cheryl Kinney, David Monaghan, Deborah Barnum, Elaine Bander, Hugh Kindred, JASNA AGM 2014, Judith Thompson, Laurel Ann Nattress, Lorrie Clark, Lyn Bennett, Maggie Sullivan, Mansfield Park, Mansfield Park 200th anniversary, Margaret Horwitz, Mary C. M. Phillips, Natasha Duquette, Ryder Kessler, Sara Malton, Sarah Woodberry, Sheila Johnson Kindred, Susan Allen Ford, Theresa Kenney
“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 Northamptonshire, 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.”
The first sentence of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park is nowhere near as famous as the first line of Pride and Prejudice. The heroine of Mansfield Park is nowhere near as beloved as Elizabeth Bennet. The novel is rarely chosen as anyone’s favourite Austen novel – I recently heard it described (by a Janeite who shall remain nameless!) as “my 6th favorite Austen.” But even though it doesn’t have the same kind of sparkle as Pride and Prejudice, it’s a complex, fascinating, brilliant book.
This year marks the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mansfield Park, and I hope you’ll join me in celebrating by reading and discussing the novel here with the wonderful people who’ve agreed to write guest posts on short passages.
The series launches May 9th, on the anniversary of the publication date, with Lyn Bennett’s analysis of the opening paragraph, and it continues through the summer and 
fall with posts by many excellent writers. Here are the ones confirmed so far: Elaine Bander, Deborah Barnum, Lorrie Clark, Natasha Duquette, Susan Allen Ford, Margaret Horwitz, Theresa Kenney, Ryder Kessler, Hugh Kindred, Cheryl Kinney, Sara Malton, David Monaghan, Laurel Ann Nattress, Amy Patterson, Mary C. M. Phillips, Maggie Sullivan, Judith Thompson, and Sarah Woodberry. Sheila Johnson Kindred will write about the concluding paragraphs towards the end of the year.
I can’t wait to read their posts and share them with you as we pay tribute to the third of the four novels Austen published in her lifetime. I love Pride and Prejudice as much as any devoted Janeite, but Mansfield Park is a close second for me. I’m happy to be celebrating with all of you online through the year, and with many of you in person at the JASNA AGM in Montreal in October.
Happy New Year, and Happy 200th Anniversary to Mansfield Park!
Sarah Emsley 
I think of how I love Austen’s novel much as a mother loves her children: each is special and unique in its very own way. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are the overtly beautiful and extroverted children, Emma, by her very nature demands attention, while Mansfield Park is the quiet, shy, yet precocious child often overlooked when the children come tumbling in from play. Very excited for this blog…thank you!
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What a lovely way of putting it, Mindi. I like the way you’re extending Austen’s metaphor, with her reference to Pride and Prejudice as her “own darling child.” I hope you enjoy the series! I’m so excited to read these posts, too, and to host the conversation and the celebration.
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Who would say such a thing as “my 6th favorite Austen”???? LOL!!!
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Well, I don’t know. I can say that this Janeite must be American, because when I checked the quotation I had to change my Canadian spelling of the word “favourite.”
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Reblogged this on Caffeine Epiphanies and commented:
Looking forward to this!
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Thanks for sharing, Mary. And thank you for agreeing to participate — I’m looking forward to reading your post!
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Thank you Sarah for including me in your Mansfield Park celebration – I love this book and look forward to a year of giving it its just due, of spending time in Montreal for the JASNA AGM, and of finally convincing some die-hard anti-Fanny friends of her true value!
Happy New Year to you Sarah! – what better way to start 2014 than with a shout-out for Mansfield Park!
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Thanks to you, Deb, for agreeing to write a post for the series. I’m looking forward to reading it, and to seeing how the conversation takes shape. Fanny is such a strong, fascinating heroine. The Montreal AGM is sure to be wonderful. Happy 2014 to you, too!
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Thank you for organizing this series, Sarah. Mansfield Park deserves and richly rewards rereadings. I hope that you will be writing as well as hosting. I always enjoy and learn from your posts. The plans for the MP AGM in Montreal sound wonderful!
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Thanks, Elizabeth. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the blog. Yes, I’ll be writing about MP as well, especially over these next few months before the series begins. It would be too hard to resist having my share of the conversation! Although I’ll be sure to let the others have time to exhibit. Are you planning to go to Montreal?
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Yes Mansfield Park is not a favourite but I think it is a lot like Fanny its central character – a slow burner. We don’t immediately warm to Fanny but over time a respect grows for her integrity and courage. So too the novel reinforces the value of integrity over superficiality.
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I agree! Slow, thoughtful, contemplative. It takes time to get into the novel and time to appreciate Fanny’s strength.
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I joined the Pride and Prejudice bicentenary challenge last year and plan to do very much the same thing this year with Mansfield Park. There aren’t nearly as many spinoffs, but I’ve found one, plus a couple of DVDs. I’ll probably be posting one a month on Wednesdays at Homecomingbook.wordpress.com, with a short post on Mansfield Park itself coming up January 14. Will also be tweeting daily quotes from Mansfield Park one week per month this year from @sueannbowling.
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Thanks very much for visiting, Sue Ann. I hope you enjoy the Mansfield Park celebrations. I love rereading the novel and I’m very much looking forward to conversations about it throughout 2014. What’s the spinoff you’re planning to read?
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A Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery by Carrie Bebris: The Matters at Mansfield. So far it looks the best of that series. Fanny’s not there (she’s at Thornton Lacey, and the Darcys never quite get there), but Henry Crawford and Mrs. Norris are very much present, as is Sir Thomas..
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How interesting that Fanny is absent! Is Mary Crawford in it, I wonder?
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No, but I’ll probably be writing up the review soon–possibly put it up for Feb 11. I searched Goodreads, as well as Amazon, for Mansfield. Lots of authors named Mansfield, but I also found:
Murder at Mansfield Park
Mansfield Revisited
Mansfield Park and Mummies
Mansfield Ranch
Also a third DVD, together with its screenplay. I suspect some are pretty awful. (I already know some of the authors didn’t like Fanny.)
I’m tempted to try writing a Kindle short story myself. My sci-fi unaging character, Roi, was (in my time line) the Guardian for Earth during the time period occupied by Mansfield Park, and it might be kind of fun to let him interact with some of the Mansfield Park characters. I think Fanny and Edmond would like him, and he might even be able to handle Mrs. Norris!
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Pingback: Mansfield Park is a Tragedy, Not a Comedy | Sarah Emsley
Reblogged this on Snhughes's Blog.
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The complexity that you mentioned is what makes this novel one of my top two favorites of Austen’s. I never finish the novel with a definitive view of the characters. They are all repulsive and sympathetic. I look forward to the year’s Mansfield Park blog posts this is a novel that is delicious to dissect.
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Thanks very much for visiting! And for sharing the link to my blog, too. Mansfield Park is certainly worth reading and rereading. What’s your other favourite Austen novel?
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I would say that my other favorite Austen in the top two range other than Mansfield Park is Persuasion.
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I love the focus on second chances in Persuasion. I haven’t ranked the other novels, after P&P as my favourite and MP second favourite, and that was hard enough to do, because I love all of them so much. What are some of your favourite things about Persuasion?
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