Mansfield Park (Amazon Classics Edition)
By: Jane Austen / Narrated By: Mary Jane Wells
Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
A “rediscovered” classic that became a favorite now becomes a TREASURE!
I’ll be the first to admit it: Mansfield Park has never been my favorite Austen. After all, Fanny Price, the heroine, is soooo mealy-mouthed and timid and prudish. And Edmund as the Hero? Good cow, man! Was there EVER such a stick in the mud?!?
But! Once upon a time, Amazon sold Classics for a mere pittance, and for another mere pittance, you could buy the companion audiobook, oooooor audiobook(s) as a multitude of narrators were offered. NATurally, I snapped up, like, a gazillion and six per classic, so I got to hear the various “takes” each narrator had on the characters, the spin they gave, the nuances each added.
And Mansfield Park STILL was not a favorite… Until I came along the version by Frances Barber! Whoozieee! Fanny developed a backbone during that fine narrator’s performance, and it came about so that I liked the whole dang book. Edmund, however, remained a stick in the mud, and I booed roundly each time I came to the end.
Enter Mary Jane Freaking Wells! My absolute FAVORITE female narrator for Historical Romances! This version, with the veritable She-Genius at the helm, was recently released and was instantly snapped up by yours truly.
Ahhhhhhh!!!
So we still have Fanny Price, taken in by the wealthy Bertram family to alleviate a mother’s burden (She has oooooodles of kidlets running around the place, too many mouths to feed), and immediately young Fanny feels herself to be a fish out of water. Throughout the novel, her common sense, her strong morals, are at odds with her vivacious and lively cousins. I’ve heard the book described as: A bunch of rich kids put on a play and some stuff happens. Welllll, that’s kinda true as the play becomes a large and sore point with Fanny, now a young woman, knowing that her upstanding and judgmental (And conveniently absent) Uncle Sir Thomas would NOT approve of the young folks putting on a small theatrical (The play chosen isn’t respectable, really). Fanny sticks to her guns… so is she a TOTAL Debbie Downer, or does the girl have grit?
In the Frances Barber version, she has grit. Alas, with Mary Jane Wells, she does indeed come off as a bit of a fuddy duddy, but we never come to feel that sneering loathing we might feel when a Goody-Two-Shoes rears her head and casts the first stone. Rather, with Ms. Wells, throughout the audiobook, Fanny is ever the staunch and upright figure, forever aghast, a bit mealy-mouthed, but she’s complemented by an Edmund who is NOT a stick in the mud, but who is a steady character (HUZZAH! I didn’t desPISE Edmund!). With this narration, the two characters play off each other really well, so I could see an attachment forming rather than the in-your-face Happily Ever After I experienced from other audiobook versions (Ms. Barber’s included).
Fanny meets with condemnation, reprobation, deals with a bit of a maybe-ex, maybe-not-ex cad who decides he’s vastly in love with her. She deals with Edmund’s infatuation with the alluring Mary Crawford; she is ever a humble servant to Lady Bertram; and she suffers the daily slings and arrows of contempt, abuse, and sore treatment at the hands of the despicable Mrs. Norris (Soooo well done by Ms. Wells!).
Nope, it’s not the best Austen, that would HAVE to be Persuasion in my opinion, but what a treat to have this new version tucked into my Library. After all, the author penned only six completed works, so I’ll take what I can get.
It’s just that it’s oh so verrrrry nice to come out from an experience just absolutely tickled to death…!
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