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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9781402212895
ISBN number: 1402212895
Label: Sourcebooks Landmark
Manufacturer: Sourcebooks Landmark
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 208
Printing Date: October 01, 2008
Publishing house: Sourcebooks Landmark
Sale Popularity Level: 134732
Studio: Sourcebooks Landmark
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Product Description:
In Aiken's sequel to Jane Austen's complex and fascinating novel, after heroine Fanny Price marries Edmund Bertram, they depart for the Caribbean, and Fanny's younger sister Susan moves to Mansfield Park as Lady Bertram's new companion. Surrounded by the familiar cast of characters from Jane Austen's original, and joined by a few charming new characters introduced by the author, Susan finds herself entangled in romance, surprise, scandal, and redemption.
Aiken's diverting tale gives the reader interesting speculation on how the Crawfords, whose winning personalities were marred by an amoral upbringing, might have turned out, and Jane Austen's morality tale takes new directions with an unexpected and somewhat controversial ending.
'A lovely read-and you don't have to have read Mansfield Park to enjoy it.'-Woman's Own
'Her sense of time and place is impeccable.'-Publishing houses Weekly
'An excellent sequel...remarkably effective and very funny.'
-Evening Standard (20080711)
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Rated by buyers -
The late Joan Aiken is the only writer of Jane Austen sequels I can stand to read--she wrote five or six of them and I've read three, "Jane Fairfax," the sequel to "Emma," being my favorite. Aiken's "Austens" are convincing, I think, partly because she was a terrific and prolific writer in her own right, partly because she writes in a voice both comfortable and compatible with the original JA, but mostly because she doesn't presume to endeavor continuing the stories of Austen's leading ladies and gentlemen; rather, she finds her heroines among the supporting characters of the original book, fleshes them out and gives them their own stories, while keeping the setting and supporting cast much the same as the original.
"Mansfield Park Revisited," a 2008 reissue of her 1985 sequel to "Mansfield Park," begins shortly after the deaths of Sir Thomas and Aunt Norris. Within the very first few pages, Fanny and Edmund are off to Antigua on family business and Fanny's more likable sister Susan is thrust into the beleaguered heroine's role. To make her plot work, the author must effect huge transformations in three of the original's key characters. She succeeds beautifully with two of them, in my view, but less convincingly with the third. Which is why, much as I enjoyed reading this, I wasn't quite satisfied with the way it ended and couldn't quite summon up a fifth star. A worthy sequel, nonetheless, and I do recommend it.
Rated by buyers -
Of all the characters in Jane Austen's masterpiece "Mansfield Park", Susan Price is probably my favorite. I've never had any sympathy for Fanny Price, the book's heroine; she's always impressed me as being a world-class drip, but her younger sister Susan, who takes her place at Mansfield Park after Fanny's marriage to Edmund Bertram, is a delightful creature. More spirited, more outspoken, less sanctimonious and moralizing than Fanny, she's someone we feel comfortable with, and much nicer to be around. She deserved a book of her own, and now she has one: She's the heroine of "Mansfield Park Revisited".
Joan Aiken's reinvention of Mansfield Park opens four years after Austen's book closed, on the demise of Sir Thomas, leaving Tom Bertram the head of the family while Edmund goes off to Antigua, with Fanny and new baby in tow, to settle the family affairs. Susan is left at Mansfield to look after Lady Bertram, as shallow and indolent as Austen left her, while Tom's sister Julia, now married to John Yates, incessantly meddles in the affairs of the house (Aiken makes her almost as obnoxious as Aunt Norris was), with designs to marry Tom off to her husband's sister. Tom, meanwhile, has designs to marry an heiress with thirty thousand pounds, when he gets around to it, but finds his plans upset by Susan's brother William, a newly made naval captain, who beats Tom to the punch while he's attending to other affairs. Oh well.
Into the mix, Aiken reintroduces the notorious Crawfords, rehabilitated for what purpose I'm not altogether certain. I always liked the Crawfords, warts and all; they were much more interesting than the stuffy Edmund and the insufferably prissy Fanny. Aiken, for some reason, sees fit to present Henry Crawford as the victim of emotional blackmail and slander by Maria Bertram, and poor Mary is wasting away from a mysterious illness after marrying for money and repenting at leisure, but not before her obnoxious husband has lost his marbles and has to be confined in an attic. Interesting twist on "Jane Eyre": instead of the mad wife in the attic, Aiken gives us the mad husband in the attic. At any rate, we never see or hear from him.
Aiken's book is an enjoyable, fast-paced read, but some Austen purists will undoubtedly be climbing the walls at her revision of some of Austen's characters. She also lacks Austen's acerbic wit, but she has sense enough not to try to write like Austen; she tells her tale in her own style. She makes Susan Price a most engaging and sympathetic heroine, providing friendship and comfort to poor Mary Crawford, efficiently looking after Mansfield Park while Lady Bertram lays around on the sofa all day, and setting things to rights with her own mixture of good humor, intelligence and common sense. But Aiken's ending seems hurried and contrived; she doesn't develop it in any way and we're stuck wondering how in the world did this come about? We're left without a clue.
Taken as a whole, "Mansfield Park Revisited" is fun, uncomplicated, and about as deep as a rain puddle. It's not Austen, but it doesn't pretend to be. Just enjoy it for what it is.
Judy Lind
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