Jane Austen News - Issue 90

What's the Jane Austen News this week?  

  In the Jane Austen News last week, we mentioned that a Fanny Price vs. Mary Crawford debate would be taking place this week between two Austen-inspired novelists, Kyra Kramer and Lona Manning. The question up for discussion each day this week is different, and given the first two days of debate, there's at least a week's-worth of discussions to be had when it comes to Team Mary vs. Team Fanny. On Monday the question was simply one of whose side are you on and why? Who was the real heroine and moral victor in Mansfield Park? Kyra was definitely Team Mary:

"Fanny Price was a wet hen with all the vivacity of a damp dishcloth." "He [Edmund] spoke to Mary like she was filth, just because she had more mercy on Maria than he did. Even though Mary was willing to sacrifice her own brother’s happiness to save Edmund’s sister from ostracization, based on nothing more than Mary’s warm feelings for the Bertram family, he threw her offer back with excessive rudeness and condemnation."

While Lona was quick to defend Fanny and retorted that Mary was using Fanny for her own ends:

"Fanny is an audience, not a confidante, for Mary." "I would argue that Mary is often insincere."

Then, on Tuesday the question was - "Was Fanny Price sweetly timid, or a backstabbing brat?" Lorna argued that Fanny had no choice but to show some reciprocal friendship for Mary, despite not feeling warmly towards her. "Given the difference in their ages, social situations and most importantly, the force of their personalities, how was Fanny going to look Mary Crawford in the eye and say, “no thanks, let’s not be friends”? What ought she have done?" Kyra on the other hand thought that Fanny had no problem upsetting people's expectations of her when she wanted to, and for that reason was more backstabbing than timid: "She was pressured by people she respected to wed Henry Crawford, too, but she found the wherewithal to refuse that. Agreeing to write Mary was above and beyond polite return visits, too. Letter writing was a serious business, and the Regency equivalent of pledging friendship (not mere acquaintanceship) between two young, unmarried women. If they had been older, married ladies then letters would have been less of a big deal. Fanny knew she was implying a friendship that simply wasn’t there." We'll be sure to let you know in the next Jane Austen News post how the rest of the week of debates goes.

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