Tag Archives: Mansfield Park

A Dinner to Rival Mansfield Park

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She arrived after a dinosaur dig. 

And turned the school house into an elegant dining hall.

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Everyone had a place or rather a part, unlike the Mansfield Park play. 

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Salad to begin with . . .

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Conversation starters . . . . under the ? that you see on the table . . .

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A friendly game . . .

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And of course dessert with pumpkin spiced lattes . . .

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And who was there? 

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Sad you missed the drink or want to make it for your next party?

Pumpkin Spice Latte

  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 tbsp canned pumpkin
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, and a pinch of ginger)
  • 1/2 cup brewed espresso or 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee

Cook all of the ingredients in a Crockpot for approximately 2 hours.

Mansfield Park discussion questions

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1. Fanny sits and waits often in this book, explain how her time of sitting in the heat at the Rushworth’s estate, while the other characters come and go around her epitomizes the entire plot of the book.

2. Does Fanny Price remind you of Cinderella? Why?

3. Is there any comedy in Mansfield Park? When? Are there any comedic characters?

4. What makes Edmond more interested in Mary Crawford when Fanny is right there all along?

5. How are Lady Bertram, Mrs. Norris, and Mrs. Price and Maria, Julia and Fanny similar?

6. Of all the Jane Austen books you’ve read how did this one compare?

Hope you enjoyed the book! See you Monday night!

Pre-Friday Funny…

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I don’t know about you, but for me this has been an extremely long week. And it was supposed to be a short week following the holiday weekend! A literary agent’s blog that I enjoy reading had linked to this video. Since we’re reading Jane Austen this month, and our heroine of Mansfield Park makes an appearance, I thought it would be fun to share it with you.

Hope this brightens your Thursday! Enjoy the Jane Austen fun!

Jane Austen

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I’m supposed to be telling you all a little more information about our author of this month’s book, Mansfield Park. I want to tell you more about Jane and how she could have drawn from her own life’s inspiration to write this story, but that would be telling a bit too much for those of you who haven’t read the whole thing.

If you want to know more, you can go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_austen

Mansfield park was written after a 10 year break in her writing, and was a huge success when it was published. I hope you’re reading it and enjoying it as much as the populace of England in the 1814s.

From Austen’s Time to Ours: An Introduction to Mansfield Park

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Well, this blog post is late. We’ve been scrambling around getting ready for a trip to Ohio this weekend and between getting some last minute tasks at work finished and packing, it has been a little crazy. As I sit here at my in-laws’ house outside of Dayton, it strikes me how different our society is from the one Jane Austen describes in her novels like this month’s book club selection, Mansfield Park.

The pace of life in the late 1700s society that Austen describes always seems so slow compared to what we experience today. People sit around in drawing rooms and talk, play cards and embroider after dinner. They never seem to go to work. When they visit friends and relatives, they stay at their houses for months— a visit of several weeks would be short. In contrast, We’re making a whirlwind trip and staying with family for a few days, then we will be back to our fast paced life and the frantic day-to-day activities associated with work, taking care of our little boy and the house, and working with the youth of our church.

Mansfield Park gives us a glimpse of that society gone by as Fanny, one of Austen’s most sweet and demure characters, goes to live with her aunt and uncle Bertram and to be raised alongside her cousins. After growing up together, their lives have hit a very predictable rhythm, until brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford come to the area and start to shake things up at Mansfield Park.

As you read the book, I wonder if you will be struck like I was by how even though the times we live in are so different from the 1700s, the characters of people are very much the same. You could transplant Fanny, her cousins, her aunts and uncles and the Crawfords into our time and Austen’s warnings against the consequences of selfishness and the impulsiveness of youth and her views of love and relationships would still ring true to us today.

I hope you enjoy Mansfield Park as I have, and we also hope you will join us for September’s discussion and “fancy” dinner party. We’ll have more details for you soon. If you missed the Evite, leave a comment, and we’ll make sure to send one to you so we know you’re coming and we can get you information.

Happy reading!