JOURNAL OF THE FOURTH MEETING - DISCUSSING MANSFIELD PARK

I don't know why but I both feared and expected something not very enthusiastic for today meeting. However I was also convinced that it depended on the fact that I  had a troubled time at trying to love this novel more than I actually did. You know I try to be honest, even blunt sometimes, and I was worried I could negatively influence my mates at the club. Instead, re-reading the novel and searching for essays and articles about it I got more and more convinced that Mansfield Park is very interesting and rich in threads for discussion, different in several ways from Austen's other novels, and you needn't love Fanny or Edmund to get caught  in it.
Anyhow,  fearing a less enthusiastic participation I had prepared a special warm up acitvity with a special message: one can have fun in a book club meeting though s/he hasn't read the chosen book, even if none of the present have read  it!

(you can see the clip I showed in my previous post)

Well, very few of us had really read the book, one had stopped in the middle, some had read about it or seen one of the adaptations (!!!) Incredibly, I had chosen the perfect beginning for such an afternoon. Geraldine and the bunch of her odd friends made some of us laugh ( those  who understand English) and some others smile (only after my translation) , and after that, we were ready to start.

We were just 8 but we discussed longer; some were absent, one had to go away after a while, but  Sig.ra Letizia ( the Miss Bates of the first meeting? ) came back after a long absence. And I was happy about it,'cause  she had much to say, interesting points, since she had  carefully read and reaserched about Mansfield Park. Then, last but not least, she brought a delicious home - made cake.

We discussed about
- Love & Marriage (reading the beginning of the novel about the 3 sisters)
- Fanny as the model heroine of good principles and good  manners
- the different beginning of 1999 and 2007 adaptations (little Fanny's leaving home and arrival at Mansfield)
- Country life - city life
- The role of the theatrical performance
- Fanny's feelings for Edmund & Edmund's for Fanny
- The Crawfords
- Role of family and education
- Comedy (Mrs Morris, Mr Rushworth)
- Edmund compared to  Edward Ferrars/Henry Tilney
- The figure of the rascal in Austen: Willoughby/Wickham/ Captain Tilney/ Henry Crawford

Sig.ra Pina was astonished, shocked by the final marriage between the two cousins which she considered deeply immoral, incestuous. None of us could convince her that  those characters were living in a different historical and social context , when and where it was not considered as such. Imagine that she is convinced that Austen is quite immoral, she has been convinced of that since the first meeting when she said she was shocked by Marianne's decision to follow Willoughby unchaperoned for an entire afternoon. Can you believe it?
She was the only one to express admiration for Edmund , the reason for that is  his convinced vocation to be a clergyman.

Sig.ra Letizia instead convinced me that I was completely wrong in considering her our Miss Bates. She is quite talkative indeed, but always says very interesting things and ... she bakes delicious cakes!
The girls were quite interested in the threads I proposed but too shy to interact with sig.ra Letizia. I was the only one who managed to cope with her.

We finally watched the end of 2007 adaptation (because the clip I had cut from  1999 film didn't want to work!) but Mara and Sig.ra Letizia had to leave before that and didn't eat the cake either nor are they among us in the pictures we took in the end.

Last meeting about Pride and Prejudice has been  the most crowded and the most exciting so far. However we had a pleasant afternoon today, too. Didn't we?

May is EMMA's month. We are discussing about Miss Woodhouse's story on the last Saturday of the month.

JOURNAL OF THE SECOND MEETING - NORTHANGER ABBEY

The second meeting to discuss  Northanger Abbey started perfectly on time. Unusual for us Italians, but true. There were three new acquisitions but some of us were, unfortunately,  ill at home. Anyhow, Northanger Abbey and its  delightful plot and characters let us have a very good time.

We talked about

• Northanger Abbey as an experiment of metaliterature;
• Catherine Morland  as an antiheroine; comparison with Marianne Dashwood;
• JA's Bath and  its wordly life;
• Henry Tilney, his characterization, comparison with the male characters in Sense and Sensibility;
• parody of the gothic taste
• Minor characters and comedy:  Mr and Mrs Allen
• Siblings & parallelisms: The Thorpes, The Tilneys
• The gothic setting of Northanger Abbey
• Education as a torment (Book I, ch. 14)

 We also read some excerpts from the book and finally watched two fragments from ITV Northanger Abbey (2007) starring Felicity Jones and J.J. Feild.

Most of the  girls are enthusiastic and eager to go on with this experienc. At least, this is the impression I get from their comments and smiles! The more hermetic of our group  is  still convinced we are reading romances, just romances. She feels Jane Austen's style is affected and her stories shallow. We ,  all we,  tried to convince her of the contrary but we really had a hard time. Can you guess who she is from the photos?

As you can see in some of the pictures above, today I asked the readers in my group to answer some questions after our discussion. It was a simple survey I prepared to get some feedback. Here are the results.

1. FAVOURITE CHARACTER IN NORTHANGER ABBEY

Henry Tilney  5

Catherine 4

Mr Allen 1

2. UNFORGETTABLE MOMENT

a. Catherine is forced to go out by the Thorpes and meets the Tilneys, she understands she's been deceived

b. Catherine's first frightening night at Northanger Abbey

c. The setting :  Bath

d. Catherine dancing with Henry at Bath for the first time

e. Henry arrives at Northanger Abbey and meets Catherine just getting out of his dead mother's room

f.  Henry teasing Catherine all the time

g. Catherine and Henry going to Northanger Abbey, his making fun of her love for gothic novels (3)

h. Henry and Catherine in the final clarification /proposal

FAVOURITE THEME IN THE NOVEL

Parody of the Gothic taste 3

Metaliterature 2

Love  1

Good manners and social conventions  3

Marriage 0

Sentimental education of the heroine 1

FAVOURITE MALE CHARACTER SO FAR (after reading S&S and NA)

Colonel Brandon

Edward Ferrars

John Willoughby  2

Henry Tilney        8

John Thorpe

Frederick Tilney

FAVOURITE FEMALE CHARACTER SO FAR (after reading S &S and NA)

Elinor              3

Marianne        2

Mrs Dashwood

Catherine        5

Isabella Thorpe

Eleanor Tilney

Till next meeting then! 

3 p.m.    March 27th     PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

No Reading Club Meeting Today

I'm so sorry I had to postpone our meeting today! I actually feel deeply sorry but my health has forced me to stay off and away for a while from all my outdoor activities and from work (that's not the worst thing though!) . We are going to meet next Saturday, then . 6th March . Same book (Northanger Abbey), same time, same place. I hope you can forgive me, girls.

Meanwhile, here are the anwers to other 10 of the questions ( 1/11 to 1/20) I posted.

I / I I Where are James and John students?

Oxford; we don't know the college. We do, however, know two colleges where they are not: Oriel and Christ Church. How? Because John Thorpe identifies his friend Freeman as being at the second, and Jackson at the first. Sam Fletcher, we may assume, is of the same college (whichever) as James and John.

1 / 1 2 In Bath, after the Thursday evening ball, Catherine is exultant: 'her spirits danced within her, as she danced in her chair all the way home. ' What chair is this?

 A 'Bath chair' or 'sedan chair', presumably. The sedan chair was carried on shafts by two chairmen. As the Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it, the Bath chair was a 'chair on wheels intended for use by ladies and invalids. It was devised by James Heath, about 1750. For the next three-quarters of a century it rivalled the sedan chair and ultimately superseded  it as a form of conveyance in Great Britain. The most common variety was supported on two wheels joined by an axle beneath the seat, with a small pivoting wheel in front.' Catherine, of course, is not an invalid.

1 / 1 3 What is Miss Tilney's first name?

We learn from an unguarded comment of Henry's that it is Eleanor (the name was wildly fashionable, from Gottfried Burger's much translated ballad about a lover who returns from the dead to reclaim his bride).

1 / 1 4 What aspect of Catherine's walk does General Tilney particularly admire?

Her 'elasticity'. The material 'elastic' was not, in fact, invented until 1823 and in 1798 the compliment would not have the odd associations it now carries. The implication here would be that Catherine's gait is springy, lithe, light-footed.

1 / 1 5 Where did Henry go to university?

Oxford. But he in no way resembles his fellow Oxonian, Thorpe.

1/16 What is Isabella Thorpe's family nickname?
Belle.

1/17 What profession is James intended for?
The Church. Isabella may have been slightly self-deluded on this issue, expecting her future husband will be something grander than a country parson.

1/18 In what service is Frederick Tilney a captain?
The army. His regiment is the 12th Light Dragoons (that is, mounted infantry— they would use their horses until engaged in battle).

1/19 Is Captain Frederick the elder, or younger brother?
Elder.

1/20 What was Northanger Abbey originally?

Once a richly endowed convent, it has belonged to ancestors of the Tilneys since the Dissolution (presumably through the female line, hence the initial on the old chest is not 'T'). Gothic in style (Austen applies the term to architecture, but never to fiction), the pile was partly modernized by General Tilney's father. In its modern

condition it requires scores of servants, gardeners, and grooms to keep it running. Hence, perhaps, its proprietor's avarice.

(stills from Northanger Abbey, ITV, 2007)