Mansfield Park, Jane Austen - Pam Perkins (essay date 1993)
Pam Perkins (essay date 1993)
SOURCE: “A Subdued Gaiety: The Comedy of Mansfield Park,” in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 48, No. 1, June, 1993, pp. 1-25.
[In the following essay, Perkins examines Mansfield Park for its juxtaposition of two traditions of literary comedy—the sentimental humor of feminine development and Restoration wit.]
At the beginning of Shirley, Charlotte Brontë warns readers fresh from the Gothic thrills of Jane Eyre not to expect anything like her earlier work. What they are about to read, she informs them, is mere lenten fare, “something unromantic as Monday morning.” Aggrieved Jane Austen fans, finding Mansfield Park rather heavy going after the “light, bright, and sparkling” Pride and Prejudice, might think that Austen would have been well-advised to include a similar disclaimer in her subdued follow-up to a popular success. Numerous hostile readers...
[The entire page is 10171 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
