First published 1814. Penguin paperback, 1982, pp 464 (pp 417 main text), c.178,000 words (main text).
This is the greatest novel ever written, or at least one of the very highest peaks. In it, Austen shows her absolute command of character and choreography; her rich, subtle and sophisticated prose cuts through to the human soul, and she does so with such great intelligence, dashes of irony and with wit that the reader is persuaded into closer self-examination and understanding of the human condition, and what really constitutes a good life. Every sentence holds its place in driving the story forward: not a word is wasted in this long novel.
It is one of Austen’s late, great works; alongside Emma and Persuasion. They have a degree of maturity, and perhaps darkness, that her earlier works lack.
Austen employs her usual narrow canvas of ‘3 or 4 Families in a Country Village’ [Austen quoted in the introduction p32.] Here the families are very rich owners of country estates; all except the heroine, Fanny Price, who comes from poor relations, and is adopted into the great house as an act of patronage. She is a most unlikely heroine: completely passive, weak physically, and easily put upon; never expressing her own opinion or desires out loud. Her strength is her intelligence and moral sense (as well as blossoming physical beauty). She initiates no action, merely playing a supporting role, if any, otherwise she is just an observer. Therein lies her central position: because she is so little regarded and uninvolved and yet has an unerring moral compass, she is able to measure closely all the other characters, each of whom is deeply flawed in some way. Being so right and moral, some have found her a rather unattractive prig. She is at heart a conservative: a believer in the virtue of an old rural, almost feudal, way of life; one that began crumbling with the French and American revolutions, and was starting to be swept away by the industrial revolution and on the field of Waterloo (which took place in the year after this was first published). As Fanny’s view is so steady and so mature, it is sometimes hard to keep in mind that she is only eighteen when most of the action takes place. Everyone else, including her four cousins at Mansfield, is older. She has also been constantly reminded of her inferior origins since she arrived at Mansfield at the age of ten by her aunt, Mrs Norris. Sir Thomas Bertram, the patriarch, is decent but stern, his wife, Fanny’s other aunt, is idle and unthinking. In such circumstances, it is not so surprising that Fanny is passive, and indeed, self-effacing. She is also the foil against which all the others are illuminated. One might criticise Fanny’s acute observation and mature understanding for one of eighteen; Jane Austen was thirty-six when the book was published, and she had seen much more of the world and suffered her share of the vicissitudes of life since her first, great novels were written.
There are plenty of masterly short passages that illuminate character. Mrs Norris, for example, may be truly nasty but has become bitter and twisted perhaps though disappointment with her lot, for she was as beautiful as her younger sister Maria who married the rich and titled Sir Thomas, while she had to settle for a poor parson [p41] and ‘what was begun as a matter of prudence [avoiding expenditure], soon grew in to a matter of choice, as an object of that needful solicitude, which there were no children to supply.’ [p45].
Mrs Norris’s baleful influence is central to the story, particularly over the Bertram daughters, Maria and Julia: ‘… Mrs Norris assisted to form her nieces’ minds; and it is not very wonderful that with all their promising talents and early information [from governesses and tutors], they should be entirely deficient in the less common acquirements of self-knowledge, generosity, and humility.’ [p55]. Sir Thomas is blind to their faults because of his own: ‘Sir Thomas did not know what was wanting, because, though a truly anxious father, he was not outwardly affectionate, and the reserve of his manner repressed all the flow of their spirits before him.’ [p55]. Their mother was useless: ‘She was a woman who spent her days in sitting nicely dressed on a sofa, doing some long piece of needlework, of little use and no beauty, thinking more of her pug than her children,…’ [p55]. The eldest son has his faults too and ‘… was careless and extravagant, and had already given him [his father] much uneasiness.’ [p56] Only Edmund, the younger son seeks more than his own pleasure: ‘his strong good sense and uprightness of mind, bid most fairly for utility, honour, and happiness to himself and all his connections.’ [p56].
Mostly this character outlining is done through the observations of Fanny, or occasionally of another character, rather than a straight authorial description. The above are given as to what is seen by, or hidden from, Sir Thomas. We also get insights into Fanny’s and Edmund’s characters, as well as their initial relationship, by their interactions. Early on, Edmund softens the blow of the departure, after a brief visit of Fanny’s beloved brother, William, by taking notice of, and helping, her: ‘He knew her to be clever, to have quick apprehension as well as good sense, … he encouraged her taste and corrected her judgment…’ [p57]. We never feel in Austen that we are being told what to think, and therein lies much of her genius.
Having completed the set-up of the Mansfield Park family, the plot really starts to move forward in Chapter 3, a mere eighteen pages in. Two events of significance occur here: the death of Mr Norris and his replacement in the parsonage at Mansfield by the Grants. Dr Grant is in his forties, Mrs Grant in her late twenties, and so close in age to the Bertram children. The second event is the necessity for Sir Thomas to visit his estates in Antigua which are not producing the income expected. Neither seems forced, and combined, they set in motion all that follows. The events themselves are only briefly described; what is explored in much more depth is the reactions of the characters. Fanny at this stage is fifteen, and is, as always, a bystander and observer; pushed around and not making any attempt to control her own destiny. She is mostly ignored, except again by Edmund who, for example, provides a replacement horse for her on which she might get some fresh air and exercise. No one else has bothered to think of her needs. Edmund has to fight against his Aunt Norris’s ill will and his mother’s indolence, eventually sacrificing one of his own three horses to provide one suitable for Fanny. Fanny is grateful: ‘She regarded her cousin as an example of every good thing and great, as possessing worth… Her sentiments towards him were compounded of all that was respectful, grateful, confiding and tender.’ [p71]; he is the perfect elder brother for her to look up to.
Two more plot moves follow: the return after a year of Tom, the eldest son, from Antigua, but not of his father, and the appearance of the Rushworths, a very rich neighbouring family, whose eldest son has just inherited and is wont to marry. Mrs Norris is busy arranging introductions between Maria, the eldest Bertram daughter, now twenty-one, and Mr Rushworth. He may be not very bright, but he is wealthy; she may be beautiful, but she has only concern for a ‘house in town’, which her father had had to give up because of her brother’s extravagance and her mother’s indisposition. Maria and Rushworth get engaged. The wedding is to be delayed until Sir Thomas’s return, expected later that year. As usual, it is Edmund who is the only one ‘who could see a fault in the business’, saying ‘ “If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.” ‘ [p73].
The final critical element is put in place at this point, with the arrival of Mrs. Grant’s step-brother and step-sister, Mary and Henry Crawford: ‘They were young people of fortune. The son had a good estate in Norfolk, the daughter twenty thousand pounds.’ [p73]. Note: Maria Ward had married Sir Thomas Bertram with only seven thousand pounds [p41]. Although it may be misleading to compare money values then with those of today because the relative price of goods and labour have changed by such different amounts, Mary’s dowry might be thought to be worth somewhere between two and five million pounds today. Mrs Grant delights in the Crawford’s company, and is only concerned ‘lest Mansfield should not satisfy the habits of a young woman who had been mostly used to London.’ [p74]. ‘Mary Crawford was remarkably pretty; Henry , though not handsome, had air and countenance; the manners of both were lively and pleasant’ [p74]. Their characters are illuminated by Mary: of Henry she says: ‘He is the most horrible flirt than can be imagined. If your Miss Bertrams do not like to have their hearts broken, let them avoid Henry.’ [p75], and of herself: ‘everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.’ [p76].
So in the first thirty-three pages of this four-hundred-page novel, Austen has assembled all the important characters of her story and given us a strong understanding of who they are. Fanny is now eighteen. The set-up is complete; let the dance – and the masterly choreography – begin.
One of the great themes of Austen’s work is the country house itself and its surrounding estate. Here there is much talk of ‘improvement’: a redesign of the grounds to place the house in an idealised natural landscape, rather than the previous fashion for the house to be surrounded by formal planting and topiary, as exemplified by Versailles. Capability Brown was the leader of this new style. The young people talk of it, and the weathercock Mr Rushworth praises a friend’s improvements and wants some for his own place, Sotherton. Fanny is, of course, not an improver [p87]. Edmund is a slow, steady, self-improver [p88]. Henry Crawford offers his views, and eventually it is agreed that all the principles will make a day trip to Sotherton. What follows is a masterpiece of choreography as Austen manoeuvres her main players, firstly in a visit to the chapel that is part of Sotherton house and then, most famously, with seven of them taking a walk around the park and another three staying in or near the house. Every action is within character as they group together, split apart and reform in changing combinations. It is very funny and brilliantly handled. There is not a finer scene in all literature. Each character learns something about others and about themselves, sometimes for the better but more often for the worse.
In the next major passage, a friend of Tom Bertram, a Mr Yates, pays a visit to Mansfield Park and talks of amateur dramatics. This sets up a new piece of choreography as the principles decide that it would be fun for them to do a play, and then they jockey for roles that would show each to personal advantage. Fanny is shocked and appalled at the idea, believing that it would lead to indelicate license and that the absent Sir Thomas would heartily disapprove. Edmund agrees with Fanny but is already under the spell of Mary Crawford. A particularly unsuitable play is chosen, enabling another brilliant set-piece. Here the whole moral order of the house is under threat, and even its physical form, as a theatre is constructed. The scene, and book one, ends in melodrama.
The next part of the book deals with the consequences of the first. It includes a stock Austen scene of a ball, and in this case it is Fanny Price’s first ball, and so she is the centre of proceedings, rather to her discomfort. But now she attracts attention, particularly as the cards have been shuffled, and some of that attention is unwelcome. Fanny is also witness to developing relationships and is equally discomforted by those. This is classic middle-section disorder: the set up promised in the opening has been disrupted, the expected course of events has become disturbed and is now heading in a significantly different directions to the one we expected. Austen doesn’t put a foot wrong here: every step is a logical consequence of the character setup and subsequent moves. The players see what they wish to see and take actions to please themselves or to spite others. Some believe they are acting in the best interests of others, but somehow these actions only fit their own world-view, and lack true understanding. It is particularly hard for anyone to know what Fanny Price truly wants because she is so completely self-effacing and inarticulate of her own interest; and while this makes her a less attractive figure, it allows the others to dance around, heedless almost of her presence, and display all their virtues and faults.
The question that is explored in the remainder of the story is: can people change? Is it possible for the influence of one person to be enough to overcome the character defects or strong beliefs of another, most particularly in relation to love? It is this question that sustains our interest in this story that in lesser hands would have become a trite romance spiced with melodrama and early nineteenth-century morality. We see real people struggling with themselves, trying to work out what is important, trying to find their way to a good life, one in which they can be satisfied, where they can live with themselves and with the choices they have made. There is the lurking fear, that like Mary Crawford winning a round of a card game called ‘Speculation’ that ‘The game was her’s, and only did not pay her what she had given to secure it.’ [p251]. In that game Edmund comments, when Fanny tries to help her brother, William: ‘Poor Fanny ! not allowed to cheat herself as she wishes!’ [p252]. This card game is another masterly scene, displaying the players’ characters and manoeuvrings without seeming at all forced.
The final part of the book includes a change of scene: Fanny Price makes her first visit to her parental family in Portsmouth in nine years. The contrast between the two houses is vivid, although the Prices are by no means at the bottom of the social scale – they employ two servants in the house – the difference is more between chaos and order, noise and quiet, crowding and spaciousness, hard urban and soft rural. Returning Fanny to her origins allows her to reflect on what she has become. It is a curious contrast: Fanny Price learns to embrace Mansfield as the place she truly belongs. It is as though a visitor from the future prefers the past. There is deep conservatism at work here: a lament for the steady and predictable order of a feudal world that is being overturned by an encroaching new world of industrial and political revolution; one where energy, action, and urbanism (speculation) is winning out over order, calm and rootedness. Yet the foundations of Mansfield Park are recent: the house is described as ‘modern’ [p434] and the Bertram fortune relies on its colonial estates and not on ancient local landholdings.
The issue of slavery is briefly touched upon – Fanny would like to discuss this with Sir Thomas but feels embarrassed by her interest in front of her silent cousins [p213]. The Bertrams’ lifestyle is almost certainly built on the backs of African slaves transported to the sugar plantations of the West Indies, and in particular to Antigua where the Bertram estates lay. It is an uncomfortable subject, and one perhaps the rest of the Bertrams don’t care to think about too much. At the time of the book’s writing, the slave trade had been abolished across the British Empire, but slavery itself had not yet.
Austen’s women are often noticeably the most intelligent and perceptive characters, and here we have the notably perceptive Fanny Price (passive) and Mary Crawford (active). Only Edmund Bertram , and perhaps Henry Crawford, comes close amongst the males. The position of women in this society is rather akin to that in present day theocratic Muslim countries. They are not in command of their own fortunes and have to be escorted everywhere either by a male relative, a trusted elderly retainer, or in a group. A woman’s virtue was her paramount asset, and if it became even slightly suspect, her marriage currency would be greatly devalued. A patriarch like Sir Thomas might see his daughters as a commodity to be traded in the marriage market for his personal advantage, but to be fair to Sir Thomas, he does offer Maria an opt out from her engagement to Rushworth when he sees what type of man he is. It is not so surprising that women either became completely supine, like Lady Bertram and Fanny Price, or manipulators like Mrs Norris (bitch) and Mary Crawford (cynical). Truly we live in a better world.
Fanny’s strength lies in her passive resistance – in not doing things all those around want her to do. By not joining in she is decrying their degeneracy. Note also that through the major actions of the book she is the youngest, and only eighteen. It is not surprising that she is inarticulate.
The place of love in marriage is a major theme of the book, and some of the characters (all the ‘good’ ones) place it first. ‘How could you imagine me an advocate for marriage without love?’ asks Edmund [p343]. In contrast to that, the one of the Ward sisters, Fanny’s mother, who married solely for love in defiance of her family, ends up in the least satisfactory relationship of the three. There is a balance to be drawn, Austen seems to be saying, between head and heart.
Austen’s writing is rich and complex. Many sentences run between thirty and fifty words, some to over a hundred. She frequently uses semi-colons in such sentences, which greatly aids understanding. Her writing is easily accessible to the modern reader, with only a very few archaic, obscure or foreign words like ‘solicitude’ [p45], ‘othography [p58], ‘negus’ [p286], ‘eclairment’ [p287], and ‘etourderie’ [p426].
There are a few minor typographical errors in this edition: ‘ater’ for ‘at’ [p77], ‘ton’ for ‘tone’ [p120] caught my eye.
This edition includes ‘A Note on the Text’ [p37] which explains that there were two editions published in Austen’s lifetime, and that this edition largely follows the second which contained Austen’s own corrections to the badly printed first. The two examples given of emendations are very slight. This edition uses the modern style of only capitalising proper names, but otherwise uses what I presume is Austen’s own punctuation. The most notable difference with current accepted practice is that exclamation marks are used in the middle of sentences and with extra spacing, e.g. ‘Oh ! that I could transport you for a short time into our circle in town, that you might understand how your power over Henry is thought of there ! Oh ! the envyings and heart-burnings of dozens and dozens ! the wonder, the incredulity that will be felt at hearing what you have done !’ [p355-6]. There are a couple of passages where I became unclear who was speaking [e.g. p78 and again pp81-2]. Either the paragraphing needs adjusting or a few more ‘he said’ or ‘she said’ clarifications need to be added.
This edition also contains an excellent introduction by Professor Tony Tanner. He makes many insightful comments on the story and the context in which it was written. Had he not done so, this review might have added something on how Fanny Price is a typical novel protagonist in starting as an outsider. He also reflects on how it compares with other literary works in terms of significant themes such as finding one’s place in the world (Isabel Archer in Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady [p13]) and a world in transition (Christopher Tietjens in Ford Maddox Ford’s Parade’s End [p35]). However, if you have never read the book before, read the introduction after reading the text because it contains many plot spoilers. The same is sadly true of the Notes placed at the end of this edition. These are relatively few (35) and they don’t contain any critical information illuminating the story, but are more scholarly unearthing of the sources of texts quoted in the book. Note 32 (referred to on p354) contains an unnecessary and complete plot spoiler. Why editors feel the need to do this is a mystery. The same is true of a note in Thomas Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes (reviewed elsewhere).
Now for my plot spoilers:
The endings of Austen’s novels often seem rather perfunctory. The author steps in and we finally learn who will marry whom and that’s it: ‘Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit…’ [p446]. In this case, the melodrama that signals the end begins with Chapter 46, a mere thirty-one pages from the end. Up to this point alternative endings are quite plausible – although Tanner in his introduction makes a very strong case for the inevitable outcome because of all the foreshadowing. However, it would have been quite possible for Austen to construct a very different ending with almost no revision to the preceding text. It would have been equally satisfactory, and indeed to Cassandra, Austen’s sister, and many a modern reader, perhaps more so. (At least two of who have published alternative endings.) It might have suggested that people are truly capable of reform in the face of love: the lively can have their excesses trimmed and the deferential can be made stronger and have their light shine more brightly. What if Henry Crawford had gone to Richmond, not liked what he had seen there and then returned to Fanny with renewed commitment? What if the Grants had not gone to Bath, and Mary Crawford had been able to go to Mansfield to comfort and succour Tom in his hour of illness? Or perhaps she too would have tired of the superficiality and self interest of London life where ‘everything is to be got with money’ [p90], and come to appreciate Edmund’s virtues and calling – after all, she wasn’t penniless herself, and if Tom dies, she would inherit Mansfield.
Instead Austen gives us high, and initially implausible, melodrama. As first encountered it seems uncharacteristically unrealistic: how could this possibly happen? What were these people thinking? However, in those last thirty pages, all the implausibilities are smoothed away, all is rationally explained, and finally we are left with the outcome we expected from the outset. Like a Shakespeare play, there is always a bit of grit in the oyster. No masterpiece will be without it because it is true of life.
Read, enjoy, and be amazed and entertained with rich, beautiful, brilliant writing and masterly storytelling.
Wikipedia biography of Austen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen
Wikipedia summary of the book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Park
Others’ reviews of the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45032.Mansfield_Park?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_6
© William John Graham, October 2023