Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Mansfield Park, you've been wronged.

I just finished Mansfield Park, and in my post-Austen flurry, I scrambled to find the movie version which I loved so much more than any other Austen adaptation. I remember falling completely in love with it, even though my sister, the Austen expert, didn't enjoy it as much as myself. Let me excuse myself by mentioning that before that movie, I had never read any of her books, so I had no idea that they were doing it completely wrong.

Are there any good Mansfield Park adaptations out there? Patricia Rozema's film totally changes her character, the 2007 Billie Piper also tweaks her character, and the 1983 Mansfield Park is so old it's almost impossible to watch. I say this after watching maybe 40 minutes of each version, just because the faults of each were so overwhelming I couldn't watch anymore at the time.

Fanny Price is a weak character in the beginning, and I didn't enjoy reading about her poor health and timid manners, but after having dealt with the dramas of the Crawfords, she really turns out to be very strong and iron willed. That resolve of hers is what I love about Fanny!

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