Revisiting Mansfield Park

 

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Fannie Price is one of my least favorite Jane Austen heroines. To be sure, she has had a hard life—sent at the age of ten to live with well-to-do relatives, who were not particularly happy to have her. Her cousin Edmund is a friend, but her female cousins are the typical Mean Girls of the era, catty, insulting, and not caring about much beyond their own fashions and prospects. But Fanny is a wimp and a ninny, afraid to speak up and doesn’t spend her time in self-improvement. She moons after Edmund, who is besotted by the flashy and questionable Mary Crawford. There is a brief mention of slavery at the dinner table, which is how the family’s fortune is maintained.

Fanny is sent to Portsmouth  to stay with her family—there are many children and her father is a coarse drunkard. Henry Crawford, who has decided to pursue Fanny as a lark, pursues her to her home and ingratiates himself to her family. But Fanny has grown too fine for her family, and wants to return to Mansfield Park.

There are at least three film versions of Mansfield Park. I watched the 1999 version, which was quite an eye opener. Fanny was described as a “spirited girl,” which I certainly would never call her after reading the book. Dispirited would be more appropriate. But in this film, Fanny interrupted, flirted, kissed in public. Slavery played a central part in this version, with Tom arguing with his father about the family’s treatment of slaves in Antigua. There were also a couple of scenes between Fanny and Mary Crawford which had lesbian undertones, surprising to say the least.

Some of the actors are familiar to anyone who watches BBC programs. Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) was Rushworth. Charles Edwards (Michael Gregson on Downton Abbey) was Yates. Francis O’Connor (Mr. Selfridge) was Fanny. And Harold Pinter (the Nobel prize winning playwright!) was Sir Thomas.

There was a tv series of Mansfield Park in 1983. In this one Fanny was a plain and timid young woman, more in keeping with Austen’s original character.

Samantha Bond (Lady Rosamond on Downton Abbey) plays Maria Bertram.

Archie Goes Home

 

 

Archie Goes Home: a Nero Wolfe mystery by Robert Goldsborough

Archie Goodwin, right hand man of legendary detective Nero Wolfe, returns to his hometown in southern Ohio. A phone call from his Aunt Edna, a notorious gossip, informs him that his mother hasn’t been feeling too well lately, and by the way, the town banker was found dead of an apparent suicide. Archie’s mother is just fine, but he decides to visit anyway.

Back home he meets an attractive newspaper reporter who agrees with Aunt Edna. The banker had enemies in town but the police chief isn’t going to investigate further. But Archie is.

Goldsborough has done a fine job of continuing Rex Stout’s classic series. The fifties atmosphere, the wise-cracking Archie, and the idiosyncratic Wolfe combine for a fast-paced mystery sure to entertain.

 

The Books of August

 

 

Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton

This is the twenty fifth novel in a mystery series by Sue Grafton. The first book in the series is “A is for Alibi,” and Grafton had planned to write twenty six books in the series, but she died before she could write the final book. The series is set in the 1980s, and features private investigator Kinsey Milhone.

In this book, Kinsey is approached by a wealthy couple whose son Fritz has just been released from prison. He had been a student at a posh private school, and a group of students there had filmed a group of boys sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl. Another girl, who knew about the film, was killed, and that’s what put Fritz in prison. Now the parents have received a blackmail demand--$25,000 or the film will go to the police, who until now haven’t seen the film.

The story alternates between the events of 1979 (the rape and murder) and 1989, when Kinsey is investigating the blackmail attempt. There is also an attempt on Kinsey’s life by a man who has previously tried to kill her. I liked this series—Kinsey was one of the first female private investigators in fiction. The one thing I didn’t like about this book was the rape scene—while not overly graphic, there were details I really didn’t want to read. But the author does a good job with characters, especially her secondary characters—in this one there are a couple of homeless people camping in her backyard, and a cat named Ed and a dog named Killer take part in the action.

 

Decoupage Can Be Deadly by Lois Winston

A Stitch to Die for by Lois Winston

Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

The Camel's Neighbor by Andrew Moscrop

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

The Melody Lingers On by Mary Higgins Clark 

Miss Felicity Beadle's The World of Poo by Terry Pratchett

Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

The Resurrection Man by Charlotte Macleod

Haunted by James Patterson