Mansfield Park

And then, between 1812 and 1814. "Mansfield Park" was written

at Chawton Cottage, and published in July of the latter year

by the Mr. Egerton who had given to the world its two

predecessors. When the novel reached a second edition, its

publication was taken over by John Murray, who was also

responsible for bringing out its successor, "Emma." As bearing

on the introduction of naval officers into the story, in this

novel and in "Persuasion," it must be remembered that Jane

Austen's two youngest brothers, Francis and Charles, both

served in the Navy during the French wars, and both rose to

the rank of admiral; Jane herself lived at Southampton from

1805 to 1809, and was, therefore, in a position to visit

Portsmouth, and to see the sailor's life ashore.

_I.--Sir Thomas Bertram's Family Connections_

Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the

good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the

county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a

baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of a handsome

house and large income. She had two sisters to be benefited by her

elevation; and such of their acquaintances as thought Miss Ward and Miss

Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria did not scruple to predict their

marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so

many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to

deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself

obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her

brother-in-law's, with scarcely any private fortune; and Miss Frances

fared yet worse.

Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not

contemptible, Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend, in the

living of Mansfield, an income of very little less than a thousand a

year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her

family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, named Price, without

education, fortune, or connections, did it very thoroughly. To escape

remonstrance, she never wrote to her family on the subject till actually

married.

Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper

remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely

giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs.

Norris had a spirit of activity which could not be satisfied till she

had written a long and angry letter to Fanny. Mrs. Price, in her turn,

was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended both sisters in

its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the

pride of Sir Thomas, as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself,

put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period.

By the end of eleven years, however, Mrs. Price could no longer afford

to cherish pride or resentment, or to lose one connection that might

possibly assist her. A very small income, a large and still increasing

family, a husband disabled for active service, but not the less equal to

company and good liquor, made her eager to regain the friends she had so

carelessly sacrificed; and she addressed Lady Bertram a letter which

spoke so much contrition and despondence as could not but dispose them

all to a reconciliation. The letter re-established peace and kindness.

Sir Thomas sent friendly advice and professions, Lady Bertram dispatched

money and baby-linen for the expected child, and Mrs. Norris wrote the

letters.

Within a twelvemonth a more important advantage to Mrs. Price resulted

from her letter. Mrs. Norris, who was often observing to the others that

she seemed to be wanting to do more for her poor sister, proposed that

the latter should be entirely relieved from the charge and expense of

her eldest daughter, Fanny, a girl of ten; and Sir Thomas, after

debating the question, assented. The division of gratifying sensations

in the consideration of so benevolent a scheme ought not, in strict

justice, to have been equal; for, while Sir Thomas was fully resolved to

be the real and consistent patron of the selected child, Mrs. Norris had

not the least intention of being at any expense whatever in her

maintenance. As far as walking, talking and contriving reached, she was

thoroughly benevolent, and nobody knows better how to dictate liberality

to others; but her love of money was equal to her love of directing, and

she knew quite as well how to save her own as to spend that of her

friends.

Fanny Price proved to be small for her age, with no glow of complexion

or any other striking beauty; exceedingly timid and shy, and shrinking

from notice; but her air, though awkward, was not vulgar, her voice was

sweet, and when she spoke her countenance was pretty. Sir Thomas and

Lady Bertram received her very kindly; and Sir Thomas, seeing how much

she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating. But he

had to work against a most untoward gravity of deportment; and Lady

Bertram, without taking half so much trouble, by the mere aid of a

good-humoured smile, became immediately the less awful character of the

two.

The young people were all at home, and sustained their share in the

introduction very well, with much good humour and little embarrassment.

They were a remarkably fine family; the sons, Tom and Edmund, boys of

seventeen and sixteen, very well looking; the daughters, Maria, aged

thirteen, and Julia, twelve, decidedly handsome.

But it took a long time to reconcile Fanny to the novelty of Mansfield

Park, and to the separation from everybody she had been used to. Nobody

meant to be unkind, but nobody put himself out of the way to secure her

comfort. She was disheartened by Lady Bertram's silence, awed by Sir

Thomas's grave looks, and quite overcome by Mrs. Norris's admonitions.

Her elder cousins mortified her by reflections on her size, and abashed

her by noticing her shyness; Miss Lee, the governess, wondered at her

ignorance; and the maidservants sneered at her clothes. It was not till

Edmund found her crying one morning on the attic stairs, and comforted

her, that things began to mend for her. He was ever afterwards her true

friend, and next to her dear brother William, first in her affections;

and from that day she grew more comfortable.

_II.--Cupid at Mansfield Park_

The first event of any importance in the family's affairs was the death

of Mr. Norris, which happened when Fanny was about fifteen, and

necessarily introduced alterations and novelties. Mrs. Norris, on

quitting the parsonage, removed first to the Park, and then arranged to

take a small dwelling in the village belonging to Sir Thomas and called

the White House. The living had been destined for Edmund, and in

ordinary circumstances would have been duly given to some friend to hold

till he were old enough to take orders. But Tom's extravagances had been

so great as to render a different disposal of the next presentation

necessary, and so the reversion was sold to a Dr. Grant, a hearty man of

forty-five, fond of good eating, married to a wife about fifteen years

his junior, and unprovided with children.

The Grants had scarcely been settled in Mansfield a year, when, for the

better settlement of his property in the West Indies, Sir Thomas had

found it expedient to go to Antigua, and he took his elder son with him,

in the hope of detaching him from some bad connections at home. Neither

person was missed.

Lady Bertram did not at all like to have her husband leave her; but she

was not disturbed by any alarm for his safety or solicitude for his

comfort, being one of those persons who think nothing can be dangerous

or difficult or fatiguing to anybody but themselves. Before very long

she found that Edmund could quite sufficiently supply his father's

place. On this occasion the Miss Bertrams, who were now fully

established among the belles of the neighbourhood, were much to be

pitied, not for their sorrow, but for their want of it. Their father was

no object of love to them; he had never seemed the friend of their

pleasures, and his absence was unhappily most welcome.

Fanny's relief, and her consciousness of it, were quite equal to her

cousins'; but a more tender nature suggested that her feelings were

ungrateful, and she really grieved because she could not grieve.

Meantime, taking advantage of her sister's indolence, Mrs. Norris acted

as chaperon to Maria and Julia in their public engagements, and very

thoroughly relished the means this afforded her of mixing in society

without having horses to hire.

Fanny had no share in the festivities of the season; but she enjoyed

being avowedly useful as her aunt's companion, and talked to Lady

Bertram, listened to her and read to her with never a thought of envying

her cousins their gaieties. About this time Maria, who was now in her

twenty-first year, got engaged to a rich but heavy country gentleman

called Rushworth, merely because he had an income larger than her

father's and could give her a house in town; while Tom returned safely

from the West Indies, bringing an excellent account of his father's

health, but telling the family that Sir Thomas would be detained in

Antigua for several months longer.

Such was the state of affairs in the month of July; and Fanny had just

reached her eighteenth year when the society of the village received an

addition in the brother and sister of Mrs. Grant, a Mr. and Miss

Crawford, the children of her mother by a second marriage. They were

young people of fortune, the son having a good estate in Norfolk, the

daughter twenty thousand pounds. They had been brought up by their

father's brother and his wife, Admiral and Mrs. Crawford; and it was

Mrs. Crawford's death, and the consequent installation of the admiral's

mistress in the house, that had forced them to find another home. Mary

Crawford was remarkably pretty; Henry, though not handsome, had air and

countenance; the manners of both were lively and pleasant; and Mrs.

Grant gave them credit for everything else.

The young people were pleased with each other from the first. Miss

Crawford was most allowably a sweet, pretty girl, while the Miss

Bertrams were the finest young women in the country. Mr. Crawford was

the most agreeable young man Julia and Maria had ever known. Before he

had been at Mansfield a week the former lady was quite ready to be

fallen in love with; while as for the latter she did not want to see or

to understand. "There could be no harm in her liking an agreeable

man--everybody knew her situation--Mr. Crawford must take care of

himself."

A young woman, pretty, lively, witty, playing on a harp as elegant as

herself, was enough to catch any man's heart. Without studying the

business, however, or knowing what he was about, Edmund was beginning,

at the end of a week of such intercourse, to be a good deal in love with

Mary Crawford; and, to the credit of the lady, it may be added that,

without his being a man of the world or an elder brother, without any of

the arts of flattery or the gaieties of small-talk, he began to be

agreeable to her. He taught her to ride on a horse which he had given to

Fanny; he was always going round to see her at the parsonage; and,

although he disapproved of the flippancy with which she talked of her

relations, of religion, and of his future profession of clergyman, he

was never weary of discussing her and of confessing his admiration of

her to Fanny.

Harry Crawford was not so constant as his sister. On an expedition to

Sotherton Court (Mr. Rushworth's place) he flirted with Julia on the way

down, and with Maria when Sotherton was reached, leaving poor Mr.

Rushworth no resource but to declare to Fanny his surprise at anyone

calling so undersized a man as his rival handsome.

Some rehearsals of a play called "Lovers' Vows," in which Harry left

Maria happy and expectant and Julia furious by assigning the parts of

the lovers to the elder sister and to himself, made Mr. Rushworth even

jealous. But this theatrical scheme, to which even Edmund had been

forced to lend a reluctant co-operation--merely with a view of

preventing outside actors being introduced--happily came to nothing,

thanks to the unexpected arrival of Sir Thomas.

_III.--Fanny in Society_

Maria was now expecting the man she loved to declare himself; but

instead of making such a declaration of attachment, Harry Crawford left

the neighbourhood almost immediately on the plea of having to meet his

uncle at Bath. Maria, wounded and indignant, resolved that, though he

had destroyed her happiness, he should not know that he had done so. So

when her father, having, in an evening spent at Sotherton, discovered

what a very inferior young man Mr. Rushworth was, and having noticed

Maria's complete indifference to him, offered to give up the connection

if she felt herself unhappy in the prospect of it, she merely thanked

him, and said she had not the smallest desire of breaking through her

engagement, and was not sensible of any change of opinion or inclination

since her forming it. In a few weeks' time she was married to Mr.

Rushworth; and after a day or two spent at Sotherton, the wedded pair

went off to Brighton, where they were joined by Julia Bertram.

Meantime, Fanny, as the only young lady left at the Park, became of

importance. Sir Thomas decided that she was pretty; Miss Crawford

cultivated her society; and Mrs. Grant asked her to dinner. This

last-mentioned attention disturbed Lady Bertram.

"So strange!" she said. "For Mrs. Grant never used to ask her."

"But it is very natural," observed Edmund, "that Mrs. Grant should wish

to procure so agreeable a visitor for her sister."

"Nothing can be more natural," said Sir Thomas, after a short

deliberation; "nor, were there no sister in the case, could anything, in

my opinion, be more natural. Mrs. Grant's showing civility to Miss

Price, to Lady Bertram's niece, could never want explanation. The only

surprise I can feel is that this should be the first time of its being

paid. Fanny was right in giving only a conditional answer. She appears

to feel as she ought. But, as I conclude that she wishes to go, since

all young people like to be together, I can see no reason why she should

be denied this indulgence."

"Upon my word, Fanny," said Mrs. Norris, "you are in high luck to meet

with such attention and indulgence. You ought to be very much obliged to

Mrs. Grant for thinking of you, and to your aunt for letting you go, and

you ought to look upon it as something extraordinary; for I hope you are

aware that there is no real occasion for your going into company in this

sort of way, or ever dining out at all; and it is what you must not

depend upon ever being repeated. Nor must you be fancying that the

invitation is meant as a compliment to you; the compliment is intended

to your uncle and aunt and me. Mrs. Grant thinks it a civility due to

_us_ to take a little notice of you, or else it would never have come

into her head, and you may be certain that if your cousin Julia had been

at home you would not have been asked."

Mrs. Norris fetched breath, and went on.

"I think it right to give you a hint, Fanny, now that you are going into

company without any of us; and 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 Mrs. Rushworth or Julia.

That will never do, believe me. Remember, wherever you are, you must be

the lowest and last; and though Miss Crawford is in a manner at home at

the Parsonage, you are not to be taking place of her. And as to coming

away at night, you are to stay just as long as Edmund chooses."

"Yes, ma'am. I should not think of anything else."

"And if it should rain--which I think likely, for I never saw it more

threatening for a wet evening in my life--you must manage as well as you

can, and not be expecting the carriage to be sent for you."

"Walk!" said Sir Thomas, in a tone of unanswerable dignity, and, coming

further into the room: "My niece walk to an engagement at this time of

the year! Fanny, will twenty minutes after four suit you?"

A few weeks later Fanny was made happy by a visit from her brother

William, now, through Sir Thomas's influence, a midshipman; and soon the

former intercourse between the families at the Park and at the Parsonage

was revived, Sir Thomas perceiving, in a careless way, that Mr.

Crawford, who was back again at Mansfield, was somewhat distinguishing

his niece.

Harry, indeed, was beginning to be rather piqued by Fanny's

indifference.

"I do not quite know what to make of Miss Fanny," he said to his sister.

"Is she solemn? Is she queer? Is she prudish? I can hardly get her to

speak. I never was so long in company with a girl in my life, trying to

entertain her, and succeeded so ill! Never met with a girl who looked so

grave on me."

"Foolish fellow!" said Mary. "And so this is her attraction after all!

This it is--her not caring for you--which gives her such a soft skin and

makes her so much taller, and produces all these charms and graces! I do

desire that you will not be making her really unhappy. A little love,

perhaps, may animate and do her good; but I will not have you plunge her

deep, for she is as good a little creature as ever lived, and has a

great deal of feeling."

"It can be but for a fortnight," said Harry, "and if a fortnight can

kill her she must have a constitution which nothing could save! No, I

will not do her any harm. I only want her to look kindly on me, to give

me smiles as well as blushes, to keep a chair for me by herself wherever

we are, and be all animation when I take it and talk to her; to think as

I think, to be interested in all my possessions and pleasures, try to

keep me longer at Mansfield, and feel when I go away that she shall

never be happy again. I want nothing more."

"Moderation itself!" replied Mary. "I can have no scruples now. Well,

you will have opportunities enough of endeavouring to recommend

yourself, for we are a great deal together."

Harry was unable to make any impression on Fanny; and though he fell

deeply in love with her, got her brother William made lieutenant, and,

after a ball given in her honour by Sir Thomas, proposed to her, he was

unable to win her favour. She was in love with Edmund; and Edmund was

torn between love for Mary, despair of winning her, and disapproval of

her principles.

_IV.--Wedding Bells at Mansfield_

Mr. William Price, second lieutenant of H.M.S. Thrush, having obtained a

ten days' leave of absence, again went down to see his sister; and Sir

Thomas, as a kind of medicinal project on his niece's understanding,

just to enable her to contrast with her father's shabby dwelling an

abode of wealth and plenty like Mansfield Park, arranged that she should

accompany her brother back to Portsmouth, and spend a little time with

her own family. Within four days from their arrival William had to sail;

and Fanny could not conceal it from herself that the home he had left

her in was, in almost every respect, the very reverse of what she could

have wished. It was the abode of noise, disorder and impropriety. Nobody

was in his right place; nothing was done as it ought to be. She could

not respect her parents as she had hoped. Her father was more negligent

of his family, worse in his habits, coarser in his manners, than she had

been prepared for. He did not want abilities; but he had no curiosity,

and no information beyond his profession. He read only the newspaper and

the Navy List. He talked only of the dockyard, the harbour, Spithead,

and the Motherbank. He swore and he drank; he was dirty and gross.

She had never been able to recall anything approaching to tenderness in

his former treatment of herself. There had remained only a general

impression of roughness, and now he scarcely ever noticed her but to

make her the object of a coarse joke.

Her disappointment in her mother was greater. There she had hoped much,

and found almost nothing. She discovered, indeed, that her mother was a

partial, ill-judging parent, a dawdle, a slattern, who neither taught

nor restrained her children, whose house was the scene of mismanagement

and discomfort from beginning to end, and who had no talent, no

conversation, no affection towards herself; no curiosity to know her

better, no desire of her friendship, and no inclination for her company

that could lessen her sense of such knowledge.

At the end of the fourth week of her visit Harry Crawford came to see

Fanny, made himself very agreeable to her and her family, and then went

back to town to see his sister, and to meet such friends as Edmund

Bertram and the Rushworths. Fanny heard from Mary of Maria's fine house

in Wimpole Street, of the splendours of the first party, and of the

attentions paid to Julia by that would-be amateur actor, the Honourable

John Yates; while from Edmund she gathered that his hopes of securing

Mary were weaker than those he had cherished when he had left Mansfield,

and that he was more satisfied with all that he saw and heard of Harry

Crawford.

"I cannot give her up, Fanny," Edmund wrote of Mary. "She is the only

woman in the world whom I could ever think of as a wife." Mary, on her

part, hearing of a serious illness which had prostrated Tom Bertram,

could not forbear saying to the same correspondent: "Poor young man! If

he is to die, there will be two poor young men less in the world. I put

it to your conscience whether 'Sir' Edmund would not do more good with

all the Bertram property than any other possible 'sir.'" She also told

Fanny that Mrs. Rushworth, in the absence of her husband on a visit to

his mother at Bath, had been spending the Easter with some friends at

Twickenham, and that her brother Harry had also been passing a few days

at Richmond.

The interval of a few days afforded a commentary on this last piece of

news. It turned out that Mrs. Rushworth, having succumbed once more to

the protestations of Harry Crawford, had left her house in Wimpole

Street to live with him, and that her sister Julia had eloped to

Scotland to be married to Mr. Yates. On the occurrence of this

distressing news, Fanny was summoned back to Mansfield Park, and was

escorted down there by Edmund, who described to her his final interview

with Mary. It seemed that Mary's distress at her brother's folly was so

much more keenly expressed than any sorrow for his sin that Edmund's

conscience left him no alternative but to make an end of their

acquaintance.

Indeed, before many weeks had passed, he ceased to care about Miss

Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny as Fanny herself could

desire; and before many months had gone, the cousins were united. Nor

was this the only happy event that occurred at Mansfield. Harry Crawford

and Mrs. Rushworth having quarrelled and parted, and Sir Thomas having

refused to allow his elder daughter to come home, Mrs. Norris cast off

the dust of Mansfield from her feet, and went to live with her niece in

an establishment arranged for them in another county. While as for Tom,

he gradually regained his health, without regaining the thoughtlessness

and selfishness of his previous habits, and was, in fact, improved

forever by his illness.

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