Synopses & Reviews
"Nobody, I believe, has ever found it possible to like the heroine of
Mansfield Park." --Lionel Trilling
In this ingenious new twist on Mansfield Park, the famously meek Fanny Price--whom Jane Austen's own mother called "insipid"--has been utterly transformed; she is now a rich heiress who is spoiled, condescending, and generally hated throughout the county. Mary Crawford, on the other hand, is now as good as Fanny is bad, and suffers great indignities at the hands of her vindictive neighbor. It's only after Fanny is murdered on the grounds of Mansfield Park that Mary comes into her own, teaming-up with a thief-taker from London to solve the crime.
Featuring genuine Austen characters--the same characters, and the same episodes, but each with a new twist--MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK is a brilliantly entertaining novel that offers Jane Austen fans an engaging new heroine and story to read again and again.
Review
"[Fanny Price is] a monster of complacency and pride...under a cloak of cringing self-abasement." --Kingsley Amis, author of
What Became of Jane Austen? And Other Questions
Synopsis
Nobody, I believe, has ever found it possible to like the heroine of Mansfield Park. --Lionel Trilling
In this ingenious new twist on Mansfield Park, the famously meek Fanny Price--whom Jane Austen's own mother called insipid--has been utterly transformed; she is now a rich heiress who is spoiled, condescending, and generally hated throughout the county. Mary Crawford, on the other hand, is now as good as Fanny is bad, and suffers great indignities at the hands of her vindictive neighbor. It's only after Fanny is murdered on the grounds of Mansfield Park that Mary comes into her own, teaming-up with a thief-taker from London to solve the crime.
Featuring genuine Austen characters--the same characters, and the same episodes, but each with a new twist--MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK is a brilliantly entertaining novel that offers Jane Austen fans an engaging new heroine and story to read again and again.
Synopsis
Complete with romance, intrigue, and crimes of the heart, MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK is an irreverent new twist on an old classic.
About the Author
LYNN SHEPHERD, who received a doctorate in English literature from Oxford University, lives in London. She first had the idea of writing "an authentic Austen murder" nearly ten years ago.
Reading Group Guide
Reading Group Discussion Questions
1. There have been many sequels and prequels written to Jane Austens novels over the years. Do you think its legitimate to re-work Austen in this way? Does Murder at Mansfield Park shed any new light on the original book?
2. Fanny Price in Mansfield Park is very unlike a typical Austen heroine—in fact its Mary Crawford who is much closer to Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse. What do you think about the role and idea of the heroine, both in Austens novel(s) and in this one?
3. Two of the central episodes of Mansfield Park are the theatricals and the visit to Sotherton, both of which are echoed and re-worked in this novel. How do these scenes advance the plot, and develop our understanding of the characters in both books?
4. One of the consequences of the murder in this novel is that the servants at Mansfield Park suddenly take on a new role and importance. What effect does this have?
5. The laying out of the corpse in Chapter XII could be seen as a nineteenth century version of the post mortem scenes that are now common in modern detective fiction. Are there other episodes or aspects to the plot of this book that also recall contemporary thrillers?
6. Kingsley Amis famously described the Fanny Price of Mansfield Park as "a monster of complacency and pride who, under a cloak of cringing self-abasement, dominates and gives meaning to the novel."These words have been deliberately echoed in this book, as a reflection on the Fanny Price of Murder at Mansfield Park. What do you think about the character of Fanny in both books?
7. Do you think the Henry Crawford committed the earlier killing at Enfield? Why? Or why not?
8. Many critics have suggested that Jane Austen interferes with the plot of Mansfield Park towards the end, to achieve the ending she wants, when the natural trajectory of the story would have had Mary marrying Edmund, and Henry marrying Fanny (which is, of course, what happens in this novel). What do you think?
9. Do you think the Mary Crawford of Murder at Mansfield Park makes the right choice of husband at the end? Who would you have chosen?
10. Jane Austen had a very close relationship with her brothers and sister, and in Mansfield Park she makes a point of stressing the importance of the ties of blood between "children of the same family…with the same first associations and habits." What do you think about the relationship between Mary and Henry as sister and brother in the two novels?