Sense & Sensuality: Erotic Fantasies in the World of Jane Austen by J. Blackmore

Author:J. Blackmore [Blackmore, J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub

The Amber Cross

MeiLin Miranda

with excerpts from

Jane Austen's Mansfield Park

Few weighted Fanny Price's opinion very heavily; she was a poor relation of the Bertrams of Mansfield Park and not a daughter of the house, after all. By contrast, her cousins Maria and Julia were much thought of, much petted--much spoiled. To Fanny, it was not spoiling but only her cousins' due. They were everything that she was not--beautiful, accomplished, clever, well-regarded by everyone; while she had been told over and over since her arrival as a ten-year-old girl how plain, stupid, and inconsequential she was in comparison, and how she must be grateful and retiring above all, seeking neither attention or her own will.

Fanny believed this with all her heart, and never put herself forward even when she ought. She was a timid girl by nature, afraid of her stern uncle Sir Thomas, and taken for granted as a helpmeet by her aunt, the languid and dozy Lady Bertram. Then there was her shriller aunt, Lady Bertram's busy, energetic sister Mrs. Norris, who did nothing to ease her gentle niece's life and did much to make it harder. A typical exchange:

"I do beseech and entreat you not to be putting yourself forward, and talking and giving your opinion as if you were one of your cousins--as if you were dear Maria, or Julia. That will never do, believe me. Remember, wherever you are, you must be the lowest and last."

"Yes, ma'am, I should not think of anything else," Fanny would reply, with unfeigned humility.

Of her two male cousins, the eldest, Tom, thought little of her, or anyone else. Edmund, however, was all kindness, watching over her since her arrival at Mansfield Park with real concern for, and gentleness toward, his little cousin. Sir Thomas had worried at first that perhaps one of his sons might form an attachment to the penniless girl, but her retiring nature and unremarkable looks made that prospect unlikely, and when Sir Thomas left for Antigua on business, he departed convinced nothing would happen in that corner. As for attachments, one was made, but it was unrequited: Fanny's love for Edmund went unspoken, and completely unnoticed by everyone, to her great relief. Edmund felt nothing for her than brotherly regard, she was sure, though he was one of the only two people Fanny knew loved her: Edmund, and her brother William, a midshipman in the Navy.

Fanny did have one opinion, though silently held. All of their present troubles arose from the arrival of Henry and Mary Crawford at the Parsonage.

The Crawfords were the half-siblings of the vicar's wife, Mrs. Grant. To Fanny, their arrival had changed Mrs. Grant; while always cheerful and pleasant, she had become almost vivacious, entering into every scheme and freak, and conducting herself in a manner most unlike what Fanny considered appropriate for a vicar's wife. Dr. Grant himself had become more retiring; a disposition to indolence collapsed into near-somnolence, leaving his wife to her own devices. "I'm afraid Mary and Henry have worn him quite ragged!" she laughed.

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