Review: Mansfield Park Revisited by Joan Aiken

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.

Goodreads

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