You’re invited to a conversation about Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park!

When: from May 9 to December 31, 2014

Where: right here at sarahemsley.com: “An Invitation to Mansfield Park”

I really hope you’ll join us in celebrating 200 years of Austen’s masterpiece. More than forty wonderful people are writing guest posts about Mansfield Park for my blog this year, and I hope you’ll all participate in the discussion in the comments. With exactly one month to go before the 200th anniversary of the novel’s publication, the countdown is on!

The party begins on Friday, May 9th, with Lyn Bennett’s thoughts on the first paragraph, followed in the next few weeks by Judith Thompson on Mrs. Norris and adoption, Jennie Duke on Fanny Price at age ten (“though there might not be much in her first appearance to captivate, there was, at least, nothing to disgust her relations”), Cheryl Kinney on Tom Bertram’s assessment of Dr. Grant’s health (“he was a short–necked, apoplectic sort of fellow, and, plied well with good things, would soon pop off”), and Katie Davis on Mrs. Grant’s promise to Mary and Henry Crawford that “Mansfield shall cure you both.” Many other excellent guest posts will follow throughout the summer and fall. Plus, one week before the series begins, Deborah Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont is going to tell us all about the publication history of Mansfield Park.

Please share this invitation with anyone who might want to participate in the conversations about, and celebration of, this brilliant novel. For the full list of contributors to the series, visit my new page “An Invitation to Mansfield Park,” which also includes links to several other blog posts and articles on the novel. Please let me know if you have suggestions for resources to add to this list. What have you been reading recently about Mansfield Park?

You can also visit my Pinterest board for Mansfield Park, and I’d love to hear from you about book covers and other MP-related images to add to the collection.

Many thanks to Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose.com, who gave me the elegant title “An Invitation to Mansfield Park” (thereby saving me from becoming Miss Bates), and thank you to everyone who contributed suggestions about the title. Thank you to Maggie Arnold for the lovely sketches of Mansfield Park and of Fanny Price reading. Thank you to everyone who’s writing for the series, and, of course, a huge thank you to all of you who are reading with us! Let me know if you’re coming to this party.