Jane Austen discussion

To celebrate the one year anniversary of the publication of my novel, Fanny, A Mansfield Park Story, I have posted a new story on my website, ameliamarielogan.com/BeyondMansfield..... "Beyond Mansfield," a low-angst alternative ending to "Mansfield Park."

I've also added a new blog post about the process and motivation in writing my novel which you can find here: goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/22191...

Enjoy! And, let me know what you think about either or both.

This is such a cute story! I love to see Fanny anywhere but Mansfield!

If you never personally liked Fanny in MP, are you likely to find her more appealing in this book?
I find her judgemental and hypocritical. I also never understood her hypochondria and its place in the character of the protagonist. Mrs Bennett and Mr Wodehouse are there for comic purposes. Mary Eliot is somewhat scorned and Anne de Bourgh is thoroughly so.

I do not have a problem with Fanny's shyness per se. Jane Bennett, Anne Eliot, and Elinor Dashwood are shy but they participate in life and do not just linger in the background.
Sorry about the rant. Congrats for getting a book published. That is really cool.

Janet wrote: "If you never personally liked Fanny in MP, are you likely to find her more appealing in this book?...

Janet,

I tried to keep all the characters as close to their originals as possible, including Fanny. So she is going to be a lot like Austen's Fanny (at least that was my goal).

I think Fanny is a product of her upbringing. A lot of people don't like her, but I find her fascinating.

Fanny would be a real treat to psychoanalyse - she is so repressed, as in, feels so repressed, her life 'crushed out of her' etc etc, it's like she's had to turn inwards, because she hasn't been allowed to turn outwards by the Bertrams. She's totally internalised. Her one 'outward' reach is a narrow 'beam' that focusses on Edmund. He is the only person who has the faintest concern about her. (William, her brother, yes, but he is far away.)

She is terrifyingly lonely.

Beth -- Yes! Poor Fanny!

I'm sure these days we'd regard her as suffering from something like alientation, attention and emotional deprivation, etc. She grows up knowing that absolutely no one loves her (bar perhaps William 'remotely'....as in, not physically present.) Who hugs her or kisses her good night or shows any affection for her at all? (Mind you, who does that for Maria and Julia, come to think of it??) (let alone the boys!)

Beth-In-UK wrote: "I'm sure these days we'd regard her as suffering from something like alientation, attention and emotional deprivation, etc. She grows up knowing that absolutely no one loves her (bar perhaps Willia..."

I really wonder about that. Did their nursery maids hug them? It seems like a very lonely time to be a child. When Fanny leaves Mansfield she hugs her aunt but only shakes her uncle's hand.

I guess in contrast to living in her natural circumstances, she could cope with a little emotional deprivation. I am sure we see the books through our own times and opinions. She certainly grew up very self sufficient but still, of course, her ultimate happiness or at least status in society was pretty dependent on the attentions of a man. Even Miss Austen considered marrying a man she didn’t love. Fanny’s position is far more precarious. Perhaps, like with Lydia, we miss the danger inherent in that society for a woman. Fanny must have felt very lucky?

She was lucky. But very, very passive. She has no agency except for when she turns down Henry's proposal. Through the rest of the book she skulks and cries at the sidelines silently judging and condemning all around her. She watches their machinations play out and when she is the only woman left standing Edmund agrees to marry her. The book would have changed little if she were only in the final scene and Edmund said, well Mary is a floosey after all. Hey, I know, I will marry my cousin Fanny." Everything else would have happened. Mrs Norris would be mean to someone, Henry would have run off with Maria because that is who he was, and so on. I think that is one of the reason Mansfield Park is my least favorite Jane Austen. The protagonist seems so unnecessary.

Amelia wrote: "To celebrate the one year anniversary of the publication of my novel, Fanny, A Mansfield Park Story, I have posted a new story on my website, ameliamarielogan.com/BeyondMansfield.sh..."

I feel JA would heartily approve of retellings and facfic that give an alternative ending to this novel - she practically invited us to do so!

Janet | Austen Connection wrote: "I feel JA would heartily approve of retellings and facfic that give an alternative ending to this novel - she practically invited us to do so!"

Thanks Janet! JA's invitation is exactly what inspired me to write it. I tried to write it in the way I imagine JA would have if she had chosen to.

As for Fanny, I love her. Your observation that nothing would have happened differently at Mansfield Park if she had not gone there is an interesting one. Was she just the moral filter through which the narrator could show us what was going on? I feel like Austen was showing us the contrast between the way she and her cousins were raised, and the dangers of too much indulgence vs. too much deprivation. I will have to give it some more thought!

The protagonist seems so unnecessary
**

Now, THAT is a VERY provocative assertion! It's definitely the title of a college essay:

'Mansfield Park is a novel whose protagonist is entirely uncessary to the plot. Discuss.'

Oh yes, fascinating!

BUT, without Fanny, the novel is a mere 'story', and has no substance at all, as none of the characters are evaluated.

I love your idea of it being a prompt for an essay!

It would certainly make for some interesting essays I think!

In one way, though, the question could almost apply to all of Jane Austen's protagonists, couldn't it? Indeed, to all women in her time?

How much agency was available to women at all?

A single woman, whether unmarried or widowed, who had at least some money of her own could do things off her own bat. Lady Russell in Persuasion seems to live a fairly independent life, heads off to Bath, goes to intellectual talks and so on. Plus, I suppose, exerts her agency on Anne by persuading her to dump Wentworth.

Dreadful Mrs Ferrars seems to have agency over the disposal of her money, as does Lady Catherine de Burgh (I expect the two of them would get on famously, come to think of it!)

A wife might have a little domestic agency, but it would depend on her husband if he allowed her any say at all, as legally she possessed none. Ditto an unmarried daughter like Emma with a doting (if dotty!) father.

But really, as you say, the only actual agency an unmarried woman had was in rejecting a proposal of marriage. Fanny rejects Henry Crawford, Lizzie Bennet rejects Darcy first time, and of course Mr Collins too. Emma rejects Mr Elton (in the most embarrassing scene Austen ever wrote),

Any other rejections? Anne Eliot had rejected Charles Musgrove, so he (ill-advisedly!) married the whiny Mary Eliot, and she'd rejected Wentworth after accepting him first time around. Any others? (Do we count Isabella Thorpe rejecting - thankfully! - Catherine Morland's brother? Or Lucy Steele de facto rejecting - again thankfully! - Edward Ferrars to marry his brother instead?)

Any other kind of agency that I'm missing out on??

Could Maria Bertram running off with Henry C be considered exercising agency? I don't think it can, as she couldn't have done it without Henry cooperating!