THIS MONTH'S BOOK - MANSFIELD PARK

Let's start working and re- reading Jane Austen 's MANSFIELD PARK. Our next meeting is at the end of April, on Friday this time.

Mansfield Park is the first of Jane Austen's three later novels, written after a fallow period of some six years. It can plausibly be taken as the first product of her full artistic power. She probably began writing it around 1811-12 and finished in 1813. It was offered to the publisher Egerton in that year and published in May 1814, in three volumes. A second edition was published by John Murray, in 1816.

WARM UP ACTIVITY

 THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB (2007)

Plot summary : Sylvia's husband dumps her for another woman, so Bernadette and Jocelyn organize a book club to distract her. They recruit Sylvia's daughter Allegra; Prudie, a young teacher whose marriage may be on the rocks; and Grigg, a sci-fi fan who joins out of attraction to Jocelyn. The six read and discuss one Austen novel per month. Jocelyn tries to interest Grigg in Sylvia; Allegra falls in love with a woman she meets skydiving; Prudie contemplates an affair with a student; Sylvia's ex keeps popping up. In the discussions, characters reveal themselves in their comments.
In the following scene Prudie , the French teacher , and Trey, a student at her school, discuss Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK in a rather unusual - and unprofessional - way...

  

As usual here are the questions to check your knowledge of the novel. The answers to the quizzes will be posted by April 30th, date of our fourth meeting.

I / I How many children do the Price family have, and what are their names and ages at the start of the novel's main narrative?

1/2 How recently has Mrs Norris seen her sister, Mrs Price, at the time of the novel's main action?

1/3 What argument does Mrs Norris adduce for the safety of introducing a girl into the Bertram family—specifically with regard to the two young sons of the family?

1/4 Where does Miss Lee teach her three charges (Maria, Julia,and—latterly—Fanny) and what happens to the school-room?

1/5 Who does Mrs Norris declare can help Fanny dress herself?

1/6 How much older are Julia and Maria than Fanny?

1/7 How often does Fanny see William in the nine years she spends at Mansfield Park, and how often other members of her family?

1/8 How much income does Mrs Norris have?

1/9 What advantageous physical attributes does Henry Crawford possess?

1/10 What does Dr Grant think to be 'an insipid fruit at the best'?

I / I I Why has Mary Crawford never ridden a horse, before coming to Mansfield (and appropriating Fanny's steed)?

1/12 Who sits alongside Henry on the 'barouche box' on the visit to Sotherton?

1/13 What are the 'curious pheasants'?

1/14 Why did Mrs Whitaker, the housekeeper at Sotherton, turn away two housemaids?

1/15 What is Fanny Price's favourite reading?

1/16 Who is driven from home by a green goose?

1/17 Where did Tom Bertram meet the Honourable John Yates?

1/18 Who divulges to Sir Thomas that private theatricals were in prospect?

1/19 Who says, pathetically, 'Every body gets made but me'?

1/20 What does William bring Fanny from Sicily?

1/21 What vessel is William posted to, after his promotion to lieutenant?

1/22 Who thinks the alphabet 'her greatest enemy'?

1/23 When she says 'what a difference a vowel makes', what vowel is Mary Crawford thinking of?

1/24 How much does Sir Thomas give Fanny on her departure for Portsmouth?

1/25 Where does Tom have the accident which precipitates the fever which leads, eventually, to his moral regeneration?

ENJOY YOUR READING OR RE-READING!

(Mansfield Park 1999)

(Mansfield Park 2007)

THEN IF YOU DON'T MIND SPOILERS HAVE A LOOK AT ONE OF MY OLD POSTS ON FLY HIGH! ABOUT MANSFIELD PARK. YOU'LL FIND ALSO VIDEOCLIPS FROM THE TWO MOST RECENT ADAPTATIONS OF THE NOVEL. CLICK HERE. 

Useful links
Mansfield Park at Austenprose
A reading of Mansfield Park  (Ellen Moody's analysis and comments chapter by chapter)