Title: Mansfield Park Revisited
Author: Joan Aiken
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Adult
Publisher: RHCP
Publication date: November 7th 2013
Pages: 272 (hardcover)
Source: bought it
After the sad demise of Sir Thomas, Edmund Bertram and his new wife Fanny must sail to the West Indies in order to oversee the family's affairs.
Back at Mansfield Park, Fanny's younger sister Susan is left at the helm. The household faces disarray, and she must guide the estate through gossip and grievances. Yet the news of Henry and Mary Crawford's return to Mansfield heralds the greatest storm yet. With the arrival of this dangerous pair, romance is once more in the air, and hearts are set to be broken.
Featuring a cast of characters from Jane Austen's classic, including Susan Price, Thomas Bertram, Lady Bertram, Julia Yates and, of course, the infamous Crawford siblings.
I have
always loved Jane Austen her books and Mansfield
Park is one of her better ones in my opinion. I really loved it when I read
it so when I found Mansfield Park Revisited in the book store I got
curious and picked it up. I did not think that I would read it any time soon
but the other day I found myself wanting to read some historical fiction and
that was also light to read and this book was perfect for that.
Mansfield Park Revisited picked up four years after the
ending of Mansfield Park. Fanny and
Edmund are about to leave for the West Indies to see things over at Edmund’s
late father. So with them out of the picture the focus shift to Fanny’s little
sister Susan who came to live at Mansfield when Fanny married Edmund. It is
logical that the author removed Fanny and Edmund out of the story and decided
to focus on different characters off the book. After all why would she want to disturb
the perfect image that Jane Austen had created for them? So with them gone we get to see more off the other
people at Mansfield, some of the old characters make appearances while they are
also some new characters that get introduced.
I did like
Susan as a character; she is a young lively lady that makes the best out of her
current position. We did not get to see much of her in Mansfield Park so I was happy to learn more about her. And all in
all I am happy about how she is portrayed, she knows that she does not truly
fit into the Bertram family but at the same time she is also not afraid to form
and voice her own opinion; which is admirable. Some of the new characters that
got introduced were fun to read about, Mr. Wadham and his sister Mrs. Osborne
were likeable characters. If anything I would have loved to get to know them
better. Then of course there are still some old characters that reappear in
this book like lady Bertram, Julia Yates, Tom Bertram and of course the
Crawfords who turned everyone’s life at Mansfield upside down four years ago. Some
of these characters have changed for the better while others only got worse and
more snobbish over the years.
Some of the
things were a bit unbelievable. Jane Austen had portrayed these characters in a
specific way and to see them changed it is hard to belief. But then I guess
when you write a sequel to someone else’s story you have to change some things
otherwise there would hardly be a story at all. But what bothered me the most
was probably the romance aspects, or better the lack there off. It seemed that with every single character
the love came out of thin air. To me it seemed like the characters had never
had any romantic interest in each other until suddenly they opened their eyes
and they realized that their soulmate had been standing right in front of them
for all those years. And that is just something I cannot believe in.
Overall I
did enjoy this book. I was looking for a light, fun and quick read and that is
exactly what I got with Mansfield Park
Revisited. Although I think I will
keep to the real work of Jane Austen for now.
Elien
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