Generally Discuss - Spoilers Possible!

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

Discuss overall themes, characters, and other points.

[[deleted user]]

**************SPOILER ***** BIG TIME **************

Okay, Henry Crawford is made to look the "wronged" hero all through the story. Then, to get rid of him, the author throws doubt on his character. What's up with that? Is he a good guy or not? Doesn't seem fair, really.

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

Hey Jeannette -- you've finished already! Great!

There were some interesting turns in the book, even though it was pretty short in length. And I kinda like that Aiken's writing isn't too dense after finishing the fairly long original Mansfield.

Henry Crawford will always remain an unknown! To me, it seems fitting that characters with the shady past would have gossip following after them -- even though they were only being courteous at a burial. Because even if Henry's rep concerning Maria was cleared up -- which I liked-- he still had a rogue's reputation.

So, I saw it that Henry was too unknown and carried a checkered past, so Susan simply had doubts about him. She wouldn't have known him very long -- this all took place in a few month's time, right? However, she had known Tom for years and knew at close hand his faults and strengths.

So what is your thought on Julia? Do you think she was made too conniving after all? I think she easily fell into the roll of the interfering sister, and I could see that she wouldn't have liked Susan having a say in the household.

[[deleted user]]

I always have a problem with Austen follow-ups, especially after having just read the original, in comparing them to the original. Austen left it that Maria had run off with Crawford, and that Julia and Tom were changed. So now we get Julia as a "shrew" and Tom as still shiftless and snobbish (I don't remeber him being such a snob in the book). Henry gets exonnerated all through the story and THEN we hear that maybe he still is hanging around with Maria. It was just very dissatisfying for me. All too convenient that the neighbor heard all of these "tidbits" to set it all in motion, too. But, I could never write a book!! Easy for me to pick it apart.

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

Tom does get credit for settling down from his drinking and gambling though. A maybe taking his role as next in line for the title may have increased his feeling of importance.

At least you see Tom susceptible to better ideas as the novel unfolds.

And Henry wasn't really hanging around with Maria, apparently she had just come to the graveside.

[[deleted user]]

Yes, I think the encounter, IF in keeping with 99% of the story, was innocent. Maria may have heard of Mary's death and came for her own reasons.

But, with Tom, it is set 4 years after his illness, so he appears to have had a relapse into his bad habits.

I think follow-ups are free to go in any direction they please. I just don't like an author "rewriting" something from the original to make the new plot work. It jars me and keeps me from enjoying the book as a whole. I didn't mind the "Maria made it all up to hurt Henry" plot line. But, seriously, can you imagine Aunt Norris ever saying anything bad about Maria, even if she was delirious? I can't.

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

That is an interesting point about Mrs. Norris. Although, in real life, times like that is when the truth is told.

I understand what you are saying about continuations. I am very iffy about them myself. I like them to be credible with the original characters. However, I have read some that don't move far enough into new territory. The retellings sometimes are like that. Then my interest is not peaked enough.

I like Aiken's plot turns and I like that she is not afraid of dialog -- there is tons of dialog in this novel. More than the actual Mansfield I think. Which is in keeping with the fact that Susan was more extroverted than Fanny. But I like lot of dialog in any novel.

If you looked at it for its writing, what is your opinion, apart from it being Austen fan fiction?

One example of the Aiken plot -- Mary's terminal illness. Usually a strong crisis would have to occur to bring characters together. It seems to fit well into this story that Mary was ill. It made her tamed down and more possible to do something with, other than what Austen did with Mary's old bitchy self.

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

Also meant to say, that I think I liked that Aiken didn't really make Tom a hero, just better. Because he was a little darned cardboard in the original Mansfield, wasn't he? Sterotypical spendthrift, irresponsible, and all that. Self-absorbed.

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

Jeannette,

I have just been to your GoodReads bookcase and looked at your Jane Austen shelf. Please send more info.

[[deleted user]]

Sarah wrote: "Jeannette,

I have just been to your GoodReads bookcase and looked at your Jane Austen shelf. Please send more info."

What kind of "more info" would you like? I probably haven't reviewed many of them. Any that you would like me to?

[[deleted user]]

Sarah wrote: "That is an interesting point about Mrs. Norris. Although, in real life, times like that is when the truth is told.

I understand what you are saying about continuations. I am very iffy about th..."

******************SPOILERS***********************

Taking off my Austen filter, I did enjoy this book. I think the story of Mary Crawford was beautifully and realisticly done. I believe that many of us hold some place special in our hearts (I miss my home state of Michigan) and Mary wanting to die near Mansfield Park spoke to that longing. This was the one place she remembered where she was happy. I think she also may have wanted to say her goodbyes to Edmund and Fanny -- I wonder what Fanny said to her. I hope she was kind.

The way that Mary and Susan became friends was also well done, very natural. Mary was charming, even as sick as she was and Susan had the same tender heart as Fanny. I think that Aiken would have done much better had she made this a book about Mary Crawford.

The romances just didn't ring true. Susan didn't care that Tom was to marry Miss Harley, why the sudden changed and the "I've always loved you!" It was a bit of a stretch, even for those days of short courtships.

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

Jeannette wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Jeannette,

I have just been to your GoodReads bookcase and looked at your Jane Austen shelf. Please send more info."

What kind of "more info" would you like? I probably haven't..."

The reason I said to message me in my inbox, is that I'll post a discussion of Matters at Mansfield for December, so I wanted your aside thoughts for now rather than bring it out in discussion now. Let me know if you have time. I think you don't receive messages, but didn't know if you send them.

[SarahC, Austen Votary & Mods' Asst.]

Jeannette wrote: "Sarah wrote: "That is an interesting point about Mrs. Norris. Although, in real life, times like that is when the truth is told.

I understand what you are saying about continuations. I am ve..."

A book about Mary Crawford would be interesting on its own, but Aiken makes her pretty central in this one, which I was glad of also. It did seem Mary was trying to make amends before the end. So again, I thought it was good plotting that Edmund and Fanny were gone from the country.

Aiken constructed a good story here, and when I started to think it might have been a bit maneuvered, I would change my mind.

I will give you that the romance did just fall into place. I viewed it as credible though. The point here was that Susan was a more verbal, focused person than her sister. She was old enough before she came to Mansfield to have gained some footing on the world. And she was old enough when coming to Mansfield that Tom wouldn't have felt he grew up with her, so I could see some chemistry could have been developing there. And post-Mansfield Park (the original), both these characters might have been operating in more concrete roles. Sir Thomas had learned his lesson and was getting older and may have given the young people of the household more respect, giving them a chance to see more qualities in each other (even though the reader wasn't let to know this).

Maybe better explained, Tom was a hothead, still had his faults, but Tom and Susan seemed to see the realities of each other. In contrast, I wondered how the innocent Edmund and Fanny even had a true picture of each other. Fanny kind of hero-worshiped Edmund and that was certainly not the case with Susan in the Aiken story.

[Puck]

The book was entertaining. I liked Aiken's attempt at writing the way Austen wrote the original Mansfield. It had a lot of the same rhythm.
I like Susan. She's more interesting than Fanny is many ways. She has more of the herione qualities that we all seem to like.
I totally believe Mrs Norris ratting out Maria at the end of her life. If she felt slighted, she could be venegeful. I can totally see that.
I think it's funny that Julia became the Aunt Norris character in Revisted. She's still a crappy character but I loved reading about her getting put in her place. Heehee. In the original story, Julia is not disowned like Maria. I found that hard to believe given the incredible pride of Sir Thomas.

[[deleted user]]

I think Julia got off easy because Sir Thomas was reeling from Maria, and Julia and her husband came to him with their tails between their legs, so to speak!