Mansfield Park VI

Mansfield Park is Austen's most serious novel - lacking in much of the wit and lightness that she shows in her other works. While she was always a moral woman, her earlier books show a worldly wise person who was capable of being flexible in her thinking. In Pride and Prejudice, she dislikes the flightly vulgar Lydia, but she is sympathetic to the Bennet family's trying to cover up Lydia's pre marital affair and allowing her to keep her place in society. However, in Mansfield Park she has little or no sympathy for Maria. SHe is so fond of "My Fanny" as she calls her that she fails to note that Fanny doesn't show all that much sympathy to her own mother for not being a good housekeeper and for struggling with managing on a small income.. Fanny tends to give Mansfield a greater degree of admiration than it merits and does not seem to realise that if Mansfield is a more comfortable better organised home, it is largely owing to the family having a much larger income. Edmund is horrified by Mary's cynical worldly viewpoint of just wanting to cover up Maria's affair and get her married. He and Sir Thomas feel that they would offer Maria a home if she needs one but they would not have her back at Mansfield. Edmund takes Fanny back to Mansfield to comfort his mother and they take Susan along as well. Lady Bertram is happy to see her niece again, but Julia has eloped with a rahter silly dandy called John Yates. However, he turns out to have a decent income and they hope that the marriage will not add to the scandals that have beset the family. Fanny can see that Edmund is still in love with Mary and hurt by her attitude to his moralising. But shortly afterwards Henry splits up with Maria and she returns to her father, who sets up a home for her, away from Mansfield. Mrs Norris decides to go and stay with her as her chaperone and they go away together. Over time, Edmund recovers from the pain of loving Mary and begins to fall in Love with Fanny, and they marry and move into the Mansfield rectory. Tom reforms and Julia behaves well but Maria is never all that happy with her aunt.

Mansfield Part V

Fanny and William go together to Portsmouth, and Maria moves to London, wiht her new husband. Mary Crawford goes there as well and Edmund feels depressed as he fears that Mary's smart London friends will put her off the idea of marrying a country clergyman. Fanny finds Portsmouth something of a shock. She is used to the size and comfort of Mansfield, even though she always had fairly poor accommodation there, sitting in rooms that had no fire and not having much comfort for herself plus continually acting as an upper servant to Mrs Norris. But her parents' home is small, grubby and not well managed. Her mother is pleased to see her but soon forgets her in the bustle of looking after her husband and her many sons. She has 2 other girls Susan who is loud but good natured and Betsy who is spoiled. Fanny tries not to be critical of her mother who is clearly over worked, and her father who drinks, but she finds it hard to adjust to the confined life of her family home. She becomes fond of Susan who tries to help her mother and has plenty of energy, but Fanny realises that although Mansfield has its problems, she was happier there than in this home that she cannot feel is her own. Then, Tom comes home from a visit to the races and is quite ill, and Lady Bertram is very upset. This is followed by more bad news. Maria has left her husband and run off, with Henry Crawford. Fanny is horrified, and longs to go back to Mansfield. Sir Thomas is very moral and shocked at his daughter's having an affair within months of her marriage, and leaving her husband. He blames Mrs Norris to some extent for spoiling her niece and letting her grow up with poor morals. However Mary takes a more sophisticated view of the affair and tells Edmund that he must persuade Sir Thomas not to get Maria to leave Henry, because he will let her go, but if they stay together and Rushworth divorces her, Henry will feel obliged to marry her and that it is possible for a divorced woman to have a place in society, among certain circles.

Mansfield Park IV

Sir Thomas becomes uneasy about Maria, thinking that she is clearly not in love with Rushworth, and he offers to help her to break her engagment if she wants to. But Maria realises that Henry is not offering to marry her, so she does not want to break teh engagement. Henry has become uneasy about Maria, he does not want to get entangled with her, and makes it clear that he's not going to propose. So Maria marries Rushworth and she and Julia go away from Mansfield. Fanny is still not very happy as she is now half pushed into a friendship with Mary, as they are the only 2 girls left in the Manfield estate now. She tries to like Mary but she does not approve of her. Henry, bored now that Maria is gone, decides to flirt with Fanny and make her take an interest in him. However she cannot overcome her disapproval. Henry continues to pester Fanny, trying to get her to say that the play was fun, and she gets annoyed with him. Then, he decides to propose to her. Mary is quite pleased to see her brother wanting to marry, even though Fanny is poor and has no very grand connextions except for Sir Thomas. But Fanny remembers how Henry flirted with Maria and Julia and does not like him well enough to consider marriage. Sir Thomas is annoyed that his impoverished niece is being offered such a handsome proposal, to a rich man...and decides to send Fanny away for a bit, hoping she will change her mind. She has not been home to her family for 8 years, and he hopes that seeing what life is like in a small house in Portsmouth will sober her and make her re consider. Fanny has longed to see her relatives, since for years the only one she has seen is WIlliam who is in the Navy and occasionally visits Mansfield Park. SHe loves him, but can hardly remember the others.

Mansfield Park III

Fanny begins to have a bit more of a social life, since the arrival of the Crawfords, but she is not happy. SHe is hurt by Edmund's being infatuated with Mary, and she fears that he is less ultra moral than he used to be.... Then Sir Thomas decides to go to Antigua where they own a plantation, to see into things there, and this leaves his family feeling more free to amuse themselves. They decide to put on a play, even though they know that Sir Thomas would not like them to be acting, especially the daughters. Edmund is against the idea but he is over ridden by his siblings and Mary wants to act so she persuades him to take part. Fanny feels left out but feels it is not proper to take part in a play when Sir Thomas would have been so much against it, but she then finds that the family put her under pressure to join in, when Mrs Grant who was playing a small part, has to drop out. Fanny feels obliged to please her cousins by joining in, when even Edmund wants her to help out, even though she feels it is wrong. She is actaully quite interested in the acting but still sticks to her belief that Sir Thomas would be strongly against it. THen, suddenly, Sir Thomas appears, having managed to get home earlier than expected due to good weather. He is not pleased to find his household all acting, but he is glad to be home so he is less strict than usual and forgives them all and tells them he is happy to see his family once again.

Mansfield Park II

Fanny reaches the age of 18, and by then Tom has gotten into debt and Sir Thomas has had to sell the living which was being kept for Edmund, and a new family move into the Parsonage. Mr Grant is rather lazy and fat, but his wife is a pleasant woman. She has a younger half brother and half sister Henry and Mary Crawford, who come to visit, and the Bertrams are pleased to have some new members of their social circle. Maria, who is the elder sister has found a suitor, James Rushworth, who is very well to do but very stupid. Henry Crawford is not handsome but he is witty and amusing and before long both Julia and Maria are interested in him, in spite of Maria's being engaged to Rushworth. Fanny still does not really feel part of the family. She is fond of Lady Bertram who is kind though lazy, and she loves Edmund, but she is not sure how to react to the Crawfords who seem lively but at times a little improper in their behaviour. She is dismayed that Edmund seems to have become attracted to Mary, and he is dismayed to learn that Mary does not think that the clerical profession is worthwhile, and she has started to nag at him to give up the idea of being ordained and go into some other job.

Mansfield Park By Jane Austen

This is Austen's most complex and controversial work. It has some overtones which make it seem more Victorian than Regency. The Heroine, Fanny Price is not liked by everyone, she comes across at times as dull, prudish and irritatingly humble like Uriah Heep. Fanny is a poor relation, like some Victorian heroines. Her mother made a bad marriage to a Marine officer, and they ended up living in Portsmouth with a large family and not much money. Mrs Price's sister, Lady Bertram had married a rich baronet and Sir Thomas, her husband is a strict but kind man who offers to help her and the children, as best he can. Mrs Norris, Lady Bertram's other sister is a mean and nasty woman, who married the clergyman at Mansfield, and who shamelessly crawls to her rich sister and brother in law. She makes a vague suggestion that she might adopt Fanny but she has no intention of taking on a child and having to provide for her out of a moderate income so Fanny ends up living at the Mansfield Park house, with her cousins, Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia. Tom, the eldest son, is lazy, and not very bright... Edmund, his younger brother is very serious, and rather dull and is intended for the Church. THe two sisters are silly and spoiled and they tend to bully Fanny who is also treated very much as a poor relation by Mrs Norris who runs the house since Lady Bertram tends to spend most of her time lying on a sofa doing nothing, though she is pleasant enough. Edmund feels sorry for Fanny but he does not really realise how much the child suffers by being bullied by Mrs Norris and ignored by Julia and Maria.

Rough Music, By Nadine Sutton, a music story

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RS14140M8F6N&keywords=rough+music+nadine+sutton&qid=1689679751&s=digital-text&sprefix=rough+music+nadine+sutto%2Cdigital-text%2C88&sr=1-1 A story about a rock band, set in the US in the late 1970s, about a band which is trying to make it big in the country and rock worlds. The 2 lead singers are talented but unsure if they will ever be a big success, or if their marriages will last. Available on Amazon.

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/ This is a long story available on Amazon. Its a tale of a young singer who is trying to make it in the music business, in Nashville and how he moves from bed to bed and bar to bar, looking for love.

Whipple

I enjoy Dorothy Whipple's books very much. she has been compared to Jane Austen because of her sharp observation and quiet realism. Most of her books are set in the North of England, among middle class people. Her first book, YOung Anne is about a girl from a middle class family, who has to wait for War to free her from the restrictions of being a young lady. She is able to work and earn her own money. Another early novel is High Wages, which is about a girl who goes to work as a shop assistant and ends up managing her own business. She also becomes a friend and advisor to other women who are in need of help. In one of her final novels, Someone at a Distance, Ellen the main female character gets a job at 43, as a manager to a small hotel for elderly ladies. She has never had a paid job, but she is hard working and wishes to be independent of her husband when they get divorced. In Because of the Lockwoods one of her other late novels, Thea the heroine and Molly, her sister both get jobs, and are the better for having work to do, and earning their own money. Molly runs a cake shop and Thea works as a secretary to Oliver their neighbour, a self made man, who has a business. Whipple admires women who work whether it is being a good housewife or having a paid job.

Someone at a Distance Part III

Avery takes Louise to a hotel in London, and then they go to France, but Louise wont let him meet her parents till they are safely married. Ellen is hurt and angry and she tells her friends and family that she wants a divorce and wont take any money from Avery. Hugh says the same, that he will stay in the army sooner than let Avery pay for him to go to College after his national service. Avery tries to talk to him but he is half in love with Louise and half very much ashamed of his own bad behaviour. He starts to drink heavily and Louise does not like this but she hangs onto her lover. Meanwhile in her home town, her former lovers wife is having her first baby and Paul is becoming a devoted husband. Ellen's friends try to persaude her to wait a while for Avery to lose interest in Louise and come back to her, or at least to ask for generous alimony. She tells her friends that neither she nor the children want much from him - she has some money of her own and she will get a job, though she has no training or experience. Anne has a horse that she loves, and hates the idea of haivng to give him up if they leave their house in the country, but Ellen has a lucky break. They live near a hotel which caters to elderly widows, and the manageress there is tired out and bad tempered. She suggests to Ellen that she could become her assistant, and live in a cottage on the site, where they could keep the horse. Avery's business partner tells him that he thinks badly of him for leaving his wife and that he would like to buy him out of the publishing house they own, as he doesnt want to work with him. Avery feels very hard done by... and its worse when his partner says that he would be glad to take Hugh, the son into the business, if Avery sells up. He and Louise make a trip to America to visit publishing houses there, and Louise is hopeful that Avery will be successful in another business, or become a rich gentleman of leisure, but she is getting irritated by Avery's self pity and his drinking when he is depressed. When the divorce is made absolute, Avery marries her, more out of a feeling of obligation than anything else, and they go to France to visit her parents. HOwever, when the parents find out that she was named in a divorce and has now made a civil marriage with a Non Catholic, they fall out with her and say they will not receive her. Louise, angry and upset, meets her old beau, Paul and hints broadly to his wife that she was his lover. Paul's wife gets very upset but he and she manage to patch up their marriage as he has grown to love her. Louise's spiteful streak puts people off her, and when they go back to England Avery feels very mixed up. He meets Ellen and tells her that he no longer even likes Louise but that he has to stay married to her for a while, as he has caused a lot of the mess by his stupidity in rushing into an affair and then into leaving her and getting a divorce. Ellen tells him it will be a long time before Anne who is only a kid, gets over the whole thing, but she does not rule out forgiving him in due course. The ending is ambivalent, with Avery being married to a girl much younger than him, whom he no longer likes or respects, and Louise being in what seems to be now a marriage in name only. Avery is trying to pull himself together and go back to work, but his weakness in falling into Louis's trap is not a hopeful sign. However, Ellen has like many of Whipple's heroines, found some salvation in finding a job, and going to work and keeping busy..... She is lucky to find the assistant housekeeper job, at 43, but she is willing to work hard and make a new life for herself and her children.

Someone at a Distance Part II

Louise is unhappy and angry at her French lover's desertion and she hate the provincial town where she has grown up.. Her parents are fond of her but she is a restless difficult person. She is not much liked by the local married ladies, and they discourage their sons from courting her, so her chances of marriage in France seem very slim. She goes back to England after spending a few months in France, and then visits again, but soon afterwards Mrs North dies. She leaves Louise a lot of her jewellery and a thousand pounds, which is a handsome sum to add to her dowry. Louise decides to go back to England again, to make sure she gets the bequest and while she is staying there, she starts an affair with Avery, who is an amiable but selfish man. Ellen, his wife, is a good, kindly woman who is busy iwht keeping house and her children and she does not devote much energy to her looks or clothes, and Avery is drawn away towards Louise, who is smart looking, intriguing and beautiful. Avery finds the affair exciting, and Louise becomes more selfish and difficult as a guest, but when Ellen suggests that she could now go home to France, she makes excuses to stay a bit longer. Then, when Anne, the Norths' daughter comes home from school, she and Ellen walk in on Avery in a passionate embrace with Louise. Avery loves his daugther and his son Hugh who is in the army doing National Service, and he is dreadfully ashamed of hurting his daughter, so he ends up taking Louise away and going to London. She is delighted, as she feels this will push the marriage towards an ending and she will be married to a rich English man.

Someone at a Distance By Dorothy Whipple

This is one of Whipple's later novels, set in France and England. It is the story of a middle class English family and a French girl who becomes involved with them. Louise Lanier is a cool hard headed French girl, who has been having an affair with a man from a much richer and grander family, in her provincial town. He deserts her to marry a well bred religious minded woman from a rich family, and to get over it, Louise goes to England to become a companion to Mrs North, a well to do English lady. Mrs North is an elderly widow who has a son Avery who lives nearby. I hope to write a full review of this later.

Absolute Truths Part III

Charles drives Harriet home, and she astonishes him by telling him that she feels he's unfairly hostile to Neville whom she is very fond of. He rebuffs her rudely, and the following day, he and Neville end up in a row. Neville accuses him of having an affair with Harriet. Charles is horrified, because he and Neville are on such bad terms over Neville's bolshie behaviour about the accounts for the Cathedral fund raising... that he fears he might make this accusation public. However, he remembers that he has had a fling with Sheila Preston which means that he is very little better than Neville with his weakness for young women. He goes to Jon, who has Neville with him, also seeking help because of their row. Jon tells him that the 2 of them have to grow up and make up their differences. Charles tells Neville that he did not sleep with Harriet, and Neville realises he is sincere and accepts the assurance. Charles says that he thinks that Harriet made up the story to defend him, Neville, because she is very fond of him. Neville is flattered at the fact that this attractive woman seems to care for him, but he tells Charles he's very sorry that he believed the accusation of his having a fling soon after Lyle's funeral. Charles feels very guilty when Neville says this and it looks as if they might begin to reconcile. Neville tells him that he knows that Charles has always had uneasy feelings about him because he kissed Lyle years ago after Bishop Jardine's funeral. The 2 men try to talk and realise that both of them have had problems in their past, with difficult uncles or fathers.. but Jon pushes Neville too much, and the Dean walks out of their discussion. Charles has become friendly with Lewis Hall a maverick Anglo Catholic priest, who has come to Starbridge and wants to set up a Healing Centre. He is unusual in that he is divorced, though he does not believe it is right for a priest to remarry after a divorce. He has a daughter Rachel, and Charles finds him an interesting companion, if eccentric. Charles goes through a crisis with his sons, when Charley tells Michael's girlfriend that he was cheating on her. Holly, the girlfriend kills herself and Michael is shaken but angry with Charley who now feels guilty. Charles tries to sort out their problems and tells them that they are both his sons. He then has a scary experience in the cathedral when he goes to pray, and thinks that he sees Jardine's ghost. he talks to Lewis, who is experienced in the paranormal and Lewis helps him to accept his complicated relationship with Jardine and forgive him. When he goes back home, to his surprise, Loretta arrives. She tells him that she cancelled her flight, and wants to be with him. he is delighted and they become engaged.

Absolute Truths Part II

Charles turns to Jon Darrow, now an old man and a recluse, for help and advice, but in the months after Lyle's death, times are very hard for him. He worries about Neville's work on the Cathedral appeal, as his dean is very reluctant to show his accounts to the other clergy who are involved. He goes to dinner at the Aysgarths, where he meets Loretta Staviski, the American lady he had romanced briefly many years ago. HE and Charley have a row because his son insists on repeating gossip about Michael to him and Charles loses his temper and calls him a bastard. In a desperate attempt to make up to his son, he goes to London with him.. and thenre he runs into Sheila, the widow of a felllow clergyman. She is now living in a small flat in London and she and he talk about their lives, and Charles feeling desperately lonely, winds up in bed with her. He realises that this was a terrible mistake as she will now almost certain expect, as a respectable clerical widow, that he will marry her when his mourning period is over. He returns to Starbridge but Jon is busy looking after his younger son Nick, who has come home from Africa. Charles invites Martin, Jon's older son, who is gay and an actor, to come and stay with him, to keep him company till Jon is able to help him again. He dines with Martin and Harriet March, a sculptor who has been doing a model of Aysgarths hands and who is close friends with Neville. He finds himself flirting with her and worries about his weakness for women.

Absolute Truths Part I

Charles is very hard working and he is devoted to his wife and 2 sons, one of whom is not his biological son. Neville has tried to get over his romance with Venetia and commit himself again to his marriage to Dido.. He also works very hard and is currently engaged in raising money to maintain the cathedral's structure. Charles has had problems with his 2 boys, Charley, the elder has become a clergyman and he is something of a prig. Charles soemtimes finds him hard going, prone to moralise and to tell tales on his brother. Michael however is a womaniser who likes to drink. He started off studying medicine but was thrown out of medical school for wild behaviour, and has now just gone into the BBC where he is a trainee TV producer. Charles worries about him, as the 2 of them are always having rows. but he has Lyle to turn to for comfort, they had a rocky start to their marriage but have grown closer as they got older. Then, after Charles has had a very busy day at his work, he goes home and Lyle collapses and dies, in front of him. He has now lost the wife who was his friend and who was a buffer between him and the boys.

Absolute Truths

This is the final novel of the Starbridge series, its set in the 1960s, a couple of years after Neville Aysgarth's affair with Venetia Flaxton. He is still Dean of the Cathedral, and Charles is still the Bishop and there is tension between them. M/F

Persuasion Final Part

Louisa is badly shaken by her fall and is nursed by Mrs Harville.. Anne has to go back to Bath but is relieved that the girl is recovering slowly from her injury. In Bath she visits Mrs Smith and finds that she knew WIlliam Elliot in her younger days, and is horrified when Mrs Smith tells her that Elliot behaved very badly towards her and her late husband. He got Mr Smith into debt, then later when she herself was ill and in financial trouble, he refused to help her try and improve her financial position. She tells Anne that she hoped that he might have reformed now that he is older and that he seems to genuinely care for Anne herself. Anne is disappointed by her friend not telling her this earlier but accepts that as a helpless invalid, she is not always able to control her own life. She assures Mrs Smith that she has never cared for William and would not marry him. She meets Charles Musgrove and his family who are staying at an inn, in Bath, buying clothes for Henrietta's wedding. Charles tells her that Louisa is now engaged to James Benwick, that he became friends with her while she was recovering from her injuries and she is now a quieter, gentler girl. Wentworth, in the room with the family, writes her a letter telling her that he loves her and never loved Louisa, and they become engaged.