Ink well used

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Of course, a masterpiece of writing – and how did Jane Austen do it, in 1814 with just a quill pen and parchment? No spell-check or Grammarly, no instant thesaurus, no cut and paste. The technical task of organising 160,000 words and hanging together a coherent narrative is a minor miracle in itself.

It is a slow-moving story in which little happens, but whose tendrils creep insidiously into your subconscious and draw you into the world of Mansfield Park, leaving you always pleased to return after a day of alternative reality. Before you know it, you are back rooting for Fanny, the poor relation adopted into the wealth and privilege of her uncle’s Northamptonshire estate.

Shy and retiring, a bud the idea of whose ‘coming out’ is overlooked by county society, Fanny blooms into a most desirable rose – though her morals are never in danger of corruption – and her strength of character shines through; not least when she resists an arranged marriage and suffers the almost intolerable disapprobation of the entire household.

The novel is a wonderful exposition of the life and times of the landed gentry of the early 19th Century; it conveys a deep sense of place and of the customs and mores of the upper classes. Though in this latter respect I felt, if not exactly a plot-hole, then at least a bump in the road. I shall avoid a spoiler, but if you have read Mansfield Park, you might agree that the climactic ‘trauma’ comes with too little pitch-rolling, somewhat out of the blue and therefore seemingly out of character.

But read it.




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