We are meeting on SUNDAY 7p.m. UK time, 2p.m. Eastern time to discuss Mansfield Park
**Remember, this is now open to everyone. You no longer need to pay to attend. Please cancel your subscription unless you want archive access.**
Whatever you want to ask or discuss, you can drop in the comments here. Do you love this book, or do you find it boring? Are you a Fanny Price hater? Is this novel a critique of slavery?
MEETING LINK — https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83598842431?pwd=AUyVYadOXqe3H5sxSLznZdmqPsh8ug.1
I think it is an implicit critique of slavery, among other things, but it’s very subtle. The Antigua slave estate is clearly present in the setup of the story - heavily emphasized in the opening chapters - but Austen leaves it hanging there, having made sure we are aware of it.
She’s always implicit like this. We know that her family encountered world events in the Napoleonic naval campaigns and in the shock & upheaval of the French Rev. The fact that she only alludes extremely indirectly & subtly to these in the virtue of admirals and naval officers as opposed to the vanity & vapidity of some members of the gentry doesn’t mean they are absent in the novels.
There is a counterpoint, between the emptiness of social status alone, without responsible & orderly conduct, & where we can presume her sympathies lie. She’s with stability & order, methinks. She’s a social conservative, but may disapprove quite strongly of the slavery connection. But I think that’s just one strand of the novel’s moral force.
My daughter’s favourite Austen novel, and Fanny her favourite Austen character, so I finally read it recently. That bloody play is hard to engage with as a pivotal issue, even with lots of external googling…