The
Mansfield Park post for which you've all been waiting!
As a rule of thumb, I read the book first.
Book: As was my experience with
Emma, I was rather ambivalent on finishing the book and preferred watching the story to reading it. (Unlike
Emma, I
did read the book first instead of getting to it while in the middle of the mini-series.)
This opinion may change on rereads, because it may just take being familiar with the characters to really appreciate the more subtle wit.
My greatest frustration as a reader was that the ending does seem better suited to the swift happily-ever-after of stage and screen. Now, given that much of the story revolves around poor decisions made while one is deluded by love and desire, I'm not sure if that's entirely a good thing. What I really wanted
was Henry/Fanny--him sticking it out or her giving him a smidgen of encouragement--it's a book, that's all it would have taken... another hundred pages of Edmund realizing that it was actually Fanny he was in love with and not the picture he'd created of Mary Crawford.1983 BBC Mini-SeriesThe award for worst hairstyle goes to Mary for her perm. Runner-up is Edmund for dutch-girl-hat hair and Yates is an Honorable Mention for whatever weirdness was going on at the back of his head. It was a close run race between the two gentlemen, but Edmund took precedence because he had more screentime.
It's so nice when the first criticism goes to the make-up department instead of the script.
If I were to rank my favorite adaptations of Jane Austen's novels today, I think I'd put this one in the #2 slot, right behind the '95
Sense and Sensibility.
The worst choice the script made, in my opinion, was cutting a scene with Sir Thomas and Maria.
In the book, when Sir Thomas has met Rushworth, he offers to break the engagement and she refuses. Its loss is understandable since we don't see anything Fanny isn't present for or told, but the lack changes one's impression of Maria's choices.
(It's rather strange to hear the English pronunciation of Maria. It sounds like Moriah, which I read as another name entirely.)
I liked the little touches like having Lady Bertram carry out her promise of gifting Fanny with a puppy.
There are significant looks between the Crawford siblings that hint toward a lack of seriousness in their intents, which makes the ending that much more expected. And we see how Fanny has a slightly clearer view of earlier behavior than anyone else, which makes her stubbornness commendable and yet still regrettable when a single kind word might have changed the course of the story....
Twigs, re: Tom
I think we did see that he'd changed at the end; if only in a very small way. More or less every other time we see him interact with Fanny he comes up behind her and scares her. The last time, he greeted her in a decorous fashion. Audio DramaIt was done by the
BBC in 2003. And... I don't think it quite understands how to show, and not tell, in audio form. It's not until the end of the third episode that we're informed our narrator is Jane Austen herself, which is an interesting idea but would work better if I'd known that from the beginning.
The scenes in the beginning are quite fragmented and the characterizations run contrary to expectation. And even once things start evening out in the third and fourth episodes, Fanny still feels like an afterthought.