Found Not Lost

We rented a bunch of movies to watch over the holidays and one of them is the movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. I’m trying to see all the movie versions of all the Jane Austen novels I’ve been reading lately.

Jade and I enjoyed watching this movie as we have with the other Jane Austen movies. She hadn’t read the book yet so she couldn’t really compare. I, on the other hand, almost preferred this movie version to the book. I liked the book because of the details and insights added by the narrative and we all know of Ms. Austen’s tendency for verbosity.

I think the movie did a great job choosing the settings just as Ms. Austen describes them in the book. Mansfield Park is definitely grandiose and Portsmouth is downright depressing after the expanse of the park. The movie version exercised its artistic license and played up the abolitionist tone more so than the book. I think Ms. Austen was a bit cautious in advocating abolitionism in the book whereas the movie highlights it.

The fact that Fanny and Edward being first cousins is still disturbing in my mind, but I think the chemistry between them is easier to see in the movie than in the movie than in the book. Henry Crawford, you almost fall for just like Fanny came close to, but you just knew his sister Mary is up to no good. A credit to the actors who portrayed those roles.

Coincidentally, the on the same night after watching this movie, I turned to the PBS station on TV and found they were showing the Masterpiece Theatre version of Mansfield Park! So I snuggled down to watch it too, but alas, I was too sleepy to finish it. So I guess I’ll have to get the DVD too so I can get a proper comparison.

 Lady Susan is one of the lesser known novels/short stories written by Jane Austen. I had a bit of a time finding the book, but I finally was able to find it tucked in ‘Sanditon and Other Stories’. This volume contains Jane Austen’s Sanditon, The Watson’s and Lady Susan plus some other even lesser and unfinished stories.

I only had to read Lady Susan for the Jane Austen Bookclub Online but ended up reading the other stories too. Lady Susan is very different from the other Jane Austen heroines. Different because she is more of the villain. She is devious, manipulative and unabashed. This story is also written differently. It is a series of letters written by the various characters in the story, each incident told from their individual point of view.

Widowed barely a few months, she gets herself thrown out of friends’ house because in the short couple of months she was their guest, she managed to gain the attentions and perhaps also the affections of the man of the house and the suitor of the young lady of the house. She had an affair with her host right under his wife’s nose and cajoled the affections of their daughter’s suitor in order to secure him for her own daughter.

From the Manwarings house she worms her way into the house of her brother in law where she creates a brand new havoc with the brother of the mistress of the house. The woman is just evil through and through, I tell you. Apparently, she is quite easy on the eyes, not having any need for diet pills, and thus is the perfect foil for gullible men. And in this book, there are quite a few of them. No, men who are strong, highly disciplined or have moral fibers and who have integrity are strongly lacking in this story. No Mr. Darcy here, that’s for sure.

It’s almost wrong that at the end Lady Susan comes out of the whole affair barely scathed. She can still reason that she’s come out just as she planned. By the end of the book, you really want to see her ruined or somehow made to pay for her evil deeds, but that is not to be. Which, I suppose, is how it is in life sometimes. Sometimes the most evil and cunning are the ones that always look like they are coming out on the winning end of things.

There is nothing more endearing than a sympathetic character like Fanny Price. I think that’s why I started feeling better when I started reading this book by Jane Austen for the Jane Austen Book Club Online. I was so disappointed with Emma that I really was looking forward to this book to rejuvenate my excitement for reading the rest of the Jane Austen books.

I wasn’t disappointed. A recurring theme in most Jane Austen novels is the exploration of the differences in class by birth and money. This is novel is no exception as we are introduced to Fanny Price, a poor relation to the Mansfield Park family, the Bertrams. In order to help out a sister who married a man of lesser fortune, the Bertrams, at the urging of the manipulative Mrs. Norris, another sister, they bring Fanny in as their ward to raise and educate. When Fanny joins the family, she wasn’t relegated to the role of ‘help’ but at the same time she was constantly reminded of her status (thanks again to her aunt, Mrs. Norris), being a recipient of charity and not as equal in standing to her cousins. The one constant source of kindness in the family, Fanny always found in her cousin Edward who never looked upon her as a charity case but rather as an equal member of the family.

Fanny cannot help being the reserved person that she is. She isn’t as outgoing and bubbly as her cousins and her friend Mary Crawford. Her situation has been such as it has made her the reticent and humble person that she is. I see it as a quiet dignity.

I fully understood where she was coming from when she wouldn’t take seriously, the advances of Henry Crawford, who by all definitions is a ‘catch’. Any girl would have been glad to have him and if Fanny had been the kind of girl whose only concern is to better herself and her family financially, then I’m sure she would have gladly entertained his attentions and proposal. But sometimes, even without ideological reasons, you just know in your guts when something is not right. You know when the ‘chemistry’ is absent. I think that was the case with Fanny and Henry.

Early on, with the close intimacy that developed between Fanny and Edward, I couldn’t help thinking, ‘If they weren’t cousins they would be perfect for each other’. I forgot that during that time it wasn’t unusual for cousins, even first cousins, to marry. Which is what happens in this story. Fanny ends up with Edward and they lived happily ever after. I’m not being abrupt in my description, that’s exactly how the novel ended.

I was thoroughly enjoying reading this book up until the last chapters. Henry goes and runs off with Maria leaving Fanny vindicated for rejecting his advances then all of a sudden, the story took a steep downward slide to the ending. That’s how it felt like to me. The ending felt rushed like the author just wanted to wrap things up. I wish Edward and Fanny’s story was explored and developed more than it was.

So bottom line is, I liked the story line, I liked the flow of the book but I feel shortchanged by the ending. It was still a good read though.

Emma is the third book by Jane Austen that I have read so far. I joined the online Jane Austen Club, so I should have the rest of the books read within the year. Usually, when I like a book I zip right through it (slightly slower with Jane Austen books) devouring and savoring every twist and turn of every word. That’s how it was when I read Pride and Prejudice and again with Persuasion.

Emma, on the other hand, dragged on. It’s a smaller book than Pride and Prejudice, probably the same length as Persuation; but while it only took a weekend to finish the other books, Emma took a painstaking whole week to read. Maybe it was even longer than that. I had lost time.

Why did it take so long? I just did not like Emma (the character) from the beginning. I thought her shallow and just plain infuriatingly dull. I don’t get why other readers liked her. To make matters worse, it seemed like Jane Austen’s writing had taken on a bit of Miss Bates’ tendency for verbosity. Some paragraphs just went on and on about seemingly nothing. It got a bit annoying at times.

Maybe I was just in a mood. I don’t know. I really wanted to like this book, but even the story line did not resonate with me. I never did fall in love with Mr. Knightly like I did with Mr. Darcy. I never grew to admire Emma like I did Anne and Elizabeth. At the end I didn’t sigh for the love of Emma and Mr. Knightly, I just sighed because it was over.

Sorry I couldn’t be more positive about this book. Maybe I’ll re-read it again one day to see if I still feel the same about it.

Anyway, after the disappointment of Emma, I jumped on The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I was not disappointed.

Wits and Nuts has posted the round up of Persuasion readers from the cyberspace version of the Jane Austen Book Club. Click on the link to see what the other members of the book club had to say about Persuasion.

Earlier this year, I had determined to re-read Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve done. In the process, my daughters and I got interested in the PBS specials on Jane Austen and movies from her novels. So I decided to go on and read her other novels too. Before you know it, I had run across the Jane Austen Book Club Online. So here I am, waiting to get my hands on the next book, Emma. I can’t wait to get started.

In the meantime, if you’d like to read my post on Persuasion by Jane Austen, just click on the link and let me know what you think.

Someone asked me sometime ago, “How do you feel when you’re talking to him? Do you feel any of the old feelings you had?” I answered, “Fine, we’re just like old friends now. He’s got his life, I have mine.” I meant it I certainly have no desire to ‘rekindle’ anything or to even want or wish for anything more than just friendship now. I am happy with my life, where I am, who I’m with.

BUT…

You knew that was coming, didn’t you? Now here are the what ifs. What if I listened to everyone instead of my misguided sensibility? What if I married him instead? What if I didn’t ever meet my husband now? Where would we all be today?

Sounds very much like a Jane Austen novel, doesn’t it? I guess that’s why so many of us can still relate with stories that happened generations ago. Whatever the setting and the circumstances, some things in life like love and death will always be universal.
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