7 Comments

Mansfield Park is undoubtedly Austen`s masterpiece. Thank you for your insightful essay.

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So glad you enjoyed it. I agree, much my favourite

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I’d take Persuasion.

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I also love Persuasion. It's the Somerset novel (I now live in Somerset) and it has some great themes. I have adapted it as a play and hope to produce/direct it one day.

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About 40 years ago I saw P&P staged as an acted reading of the novel. This was at Stratford in Ontario. Marvelous. It was what sent me to read the rest of Austen. Makes me wonder why no one ever did the same for the other novels, though maybe they have & I just don’t know it.

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Sounds great! I’ve never seen a theatre production but she is of course much adapted for television and the movies. Pamela Byrne wrote a book about that.

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Nov 6, 2022
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She doesn’t show disobedience at the theatre etc when the others do and she confirms to courtship norms and is against the landscape reforms happening elsewhere so she’s pretty conservative but without being a total pushover. Also her challenges to him directly are implied more than stated strong though they are. Agree though she’s brave and under rated! Yes perhaps my favourite too.

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