Podcasts about Mansfield Park

Theatre kids, rise up! Today we meet John Yates and the young people decide to put on a play. Edmund is NOT a fan of this idea. Julia finally gets her answers about Henry's feelings.Topics discussed include the pettiness of theatre kids, Edmund and Tom's power struggles, Jane Austen's involvement with theatre, Edmund's overall wussiness, the plot of Lovers' Vows, and Julia's comeback.The young people of Mansfield Park are making theatre, and so is our very own audio producer, Graham! Come see him in a brand-new work called The Marble in My Mouth on January 9th and 10th at 7:00 and 8:30 PM! Performances are at Stella Adler Center for the Arts in New York City. Get your tickets HERE! Patron Study Questions this week come from Judith, Diana L., Kaitlyn, and Avi.Topics discussed include the modern equivalence of Lovers' Vows, theatre kids flirting with each other, the characters' feelings about the play, and Fanny's reaction to the play at the end of the chapters.Becca's Study Questions: Topics discussed include how theatre is moving the story along and the scandal of Maria's participation in the play.Funniest Quote(s): “As he said this, each looked towards their mother. Lady Bertram, sunk back in one corner of the sofa, the picture of health, wealth, ease, and tranquility, was just falling into a gentle doze, while Fanny was getting through the few difficulties of her work for her.”“If I must give my opinion, I have always thought it the most insipid play in the English language - I do not wish to make objections, I shall be happy to be of any use, but I think we could not choose worse.”Questions moving forward: Who's watching this play? Will Julia participate? Will Fanny try to stop the play? Will Fanny try to stop it?Who wins the chapters? Julia!!!Glossary of Terms and Phrases: baize (n): a coarse, typically green woolen material resembling felt, used especially for covering pool, snooker, and billiard tables.by the ears: to cause to dispute or quarrelGlossary of People, Places, and Things: Austenland, Only Murders in the Building, Spring Awakening, Spring Awakening, Hair, Rent, Prince Faggot, The Vagina Monologues, ZanessaNext Episode: Mansfield Park Chapters 15-16Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon! Check out our merch at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/

Nick Cohen and Dr Bharat Tandon, academic, novelist & Booker Prize judge, discuss Jane Austen's astonishing legacy before delving into a detailed analysis of her enduring popularity and literary significance. They explored themes of claustrophobia in Austen's works, particularly how her novels depict the constraints of patriarchal structures and economic relations for women, while also examining the misinterpretation of her writing by modern figures like Milo Yiannopoulos. The discussion concluded with an analysis of Austen's subtle political commentary in "Mansfield Park" and her innovative narrative style, emphasising the importance of returning to the original texts for a deeper understanding of her work.Bharat and Nick discuss the theme of claustrophobia in the works of early 19th-century women writers, particularly focusing on Jane Austen. They explore how Austen's novels, such as "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice," depict the inescapable constraints of patriarchal structures and economic relations for women. Bharat highlighted the significance of the number 27 in Austen's fiction, representing the age at which women might lose economic security and be forced into undesirable marriages.Nick compares Austen's portrayal of a claustrophobic society to modern experiences of social media, where individuals are constantly under scrutiny. They also discussed Austen's innovative narrative style, which allows readers to connect with marginalised female characters while highlighting their societal constraints.Slavery in Austen's 'Mansfield ParkBharat and Nick discuss the portrayal of slavery in Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park," analyzing whether the novel is complicit with the social injustices of its time. Bharat argues that while the novel acknowledges the economic and ethical presence of slavery, it does not easily draw the conclusion that Austen is complicit with it. Instead, he suggests that the novel highlights the socio-economic guilt of the early 19th century without offering a solution, reflecting the characters' anxious avoidance of discussing slavery.Read all about it! Dr Bharat Tandon is a writer and lecturer at the University of East Anglia's School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing.A graduate in English literature from Trinity College, Cambridge, Bharat then taught at Cambridge from 1995 to 2006, and at Oxford from 2006-11, before joining the UEA in 2012. His research and teaching interests take in British literature from 1700 to the present day, and American literature from 1900. His doctoral research was on Jane Austen, and he has worked in detail on other nineteenth-century novelists such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy, as well as on British Modernist writers such as Henry Green. In addition to his academic research and teaching, he been active since 1994 as a commentator on contemporary British and American fiction and culture, writing regularly for publications such as The Times Literary Supplement and The Daily Telegraph.Nick Cohen's @NickCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Though Jane Austen went largely unrecognized in her own lifetime—four of her six novels were published anonymously, and the other two only after her death—her name is now synonymous with the period romance. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz choose their personal favorites from her œuvre—“Emma,” “Persuasion,” and “Mansfield Park”—and attempt to get to the heart of her appeal. Then they look at how Austen herself has been characterized by readers and critics. We know relatively little about Austen as a person, but that hasn't stopped us from trying to understand her psyche. It's a difficult task in part because of the double-edged quality to her writing: Austen, although renowned for her love stories, is also a keen satirist of the Regency society in which these relationships play out. “I think irony is so key, but also sincerity,” Schwartz says. “These books are about total realism and total fantasy meeting in a way that is endlessly alluring.”This episode originally aired on June 12, 2025. Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Pride and Prejudice,” by Jane Austen“Persuasion,” by Jane Austen“Emma,” by Jane Austen“Mansfield Park,” by Jane Austen“Sense and Sensibility,” by Jane Austen“Northanger Abbey,” by Jane Austen“Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen” (The New Republic)Emily Nussbaum on “Breaking Bad” and the “Bad Fan” (The New Yorker)“How to Misread Jane Austen,” by Louis Menand (The New Yorker)“Miss Austen” (2025—)“Pride and Prejudice” (2005)Scenes Through Time's “Mr. Darcy Yearning for 10 Minutes” SupercutNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Emma:While matchmaking for friends and neighbors, a young 19th Century Englishwoman nearly misses her own chance at love.Mans Field Park:Fanny, born into a poor family, is sent away to live with wealthy uncle Sir Thomas, his wife and their four children, where she'll be brought up for a proper introduction to society.Support the showOETA - Home

Good morning. ‘Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.' So says Jane Austen of Fanny Price in Mansfield Park. But she could equally have said it of herself. Jane Austen's 250th birthday this week is being widely celebrated on this network. She was swathed in the practice of faith: her father and two of her brothers were ordained, and two visits to church on Sunday were her lifelong pattern. She certainly knew the shortcomings of religion: parodying the servility and self-importance of the parson Mr Collins, she says he ‘was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society.' Her gift is to turn the interactions of family and community, and especially the elaborate dance and fragility of finding a marriage partner, into a whole moral universe. Her characters transcend their surroundings. One, Mr Bennet, says laconically, ‘For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?' Another, Mr Knightley, says poignantly to Emma Woodhouse, ‘If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.' It's a truth universally acknowledged that it's never been clear what it actually means to be a Christian. Some insist on adherence to specific doctrines. Others on obedience to identifiable moral codes. Others point to formation in a traditional culture. A woman of her time, Jane Austen's participation in worship and devotion was socially conventional. But she has her own answers to this perennial question. If she were to identify a favourite parable, my guess is she'd choose the story of the two sons, one of whom refused his father's request to go into the vineyard, but did; while his brother said, ‘I will,' but didn't. For Austen, Christianity's about actions not words. ‘Christian' is more of a verb than a noun. The many suitors are sifted out not by their protestations of love, but by their true character. Of Fanny Price, we're told, ‘She made herself indispensable to those she loved.' Which connects Jane Austen in a significant way to Christmas. For the Christmas story's not about what God says. It's about what God does. In Northanger Abbey, Isabella Thorpe exclaims, ‘There's nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves. It's not my nature.' Coming in person as a vulnerable baby is communicating by action rather than by word. Maybe Jane Austen knew exactly what she thought being a Christian meant. It meant not loving by halves. Perhaps she's more of a theologian than she's usually given credit for.

Jane Austen was born in the 16th of December, 1775, which means this month marks her 250th birthday. Jane lived a quiet, mostly happy life in the English countryside, surrounded by the balls, romantic intrigues and family dramas that fill her novels. Her writing was always her true passion. She glimpsed success, with 4 books becoming wildly popular in her lifetime. But she died tragically young, depriving the world of her talent. Her stories have been adapted and re imagined countless times. And in this, Jane's 250th year, she continues to be a mainstay in pop culture. But let's look past the endearing characters and timeless stories, and met the woman holding the quill. Let's get to know Jane Austen... Sense and Sensibility (1811) Pride and Prejudice (1813) Mansfield Park (1814) Emma (1816) Northanger Abbey (1818, posthumous) Persuasion (1818, posthumous) Lady Susan (1871, posthumous) Join me every Tuesday when I'm Spilling the Tea on History! Check out my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/lindsayholiday Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091781568503 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyteatimelindsayholiday/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyteatime Please consider supporting me at https://www.patreon.com/LindsayHoliday and help me make more fascinating episodes! Intro Music: Baroque Coffee House by Doug Maxwell Music: Butterflies in love by Sir Cubworth #HistoryTeaTime #LindsayHoliday Please contact ⁠⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠⁠ if you would like to advertise on this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE AUSTEN!!!! Sir Thomas's return looms on the horizon, Mary Crawford tells us how she really feels about Dr. Grant, Fanny gives us some real main character energy, Big T comes home from Weymouth, Henry Crawford continues to be a naughty boy, Fanny has her first ball, and a mysterious new person arrives.Topics discussed include job security, how much we love our dental hygienists, a continued reminder of where Mansfield Park's wealth comes from, Mary's compliment for Fanny, Cassiopeia, the Jane Austen Cinematic Universe, Becca's mom's love life, and Edmund's lack of rizz.The Office spoilers at 13:52 - 14:40!!!Patron Study Questions this week come from Avi, Linnea, Angelika, Emily, Liz, and Ghenet. Topics discussed include Mary's opinions, Edmund shutting down Fanny's feelings, nature's purpose in the book, the lack of romance at the ball, Maria and Julia's relationship, why Sir Thomas is in danger, and Mary's booty.Becca's Study Questions: Topics discussed include Sir Thomas's return, Big T in relation to the rest of his family, and Maria and Henry's affair.Funniest Quote: “Which is, perhaps, more in favour of his liking Julia best, than you, Fanny, may be aware; for I believe it often happens that a man, before he has quite made up his own mind, will distinguish the sister or intimate friend of the woman he is really thinking of more than the woman herself."Questions moving forward: Who is the mystery man? Is Sir Thomas coming back?Who wins the chapters? Fanny!Glossary of Terms and Phrases:Glossary of People, Places, and Things: The Office, Truth or Beard, A Cinderella Story, Gilmore GirlsNext Episode: Mansfield Park Chapters 13-14Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon! Check out our merch at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/

Greg Jenner is joined in Regency England by historian Dr Lucy Worsley and actor Sally Phillips to learn all about the life and works of literary legend Jane Austen on the 250th anniversary of her birth in December 1775.It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of England's best-loved authors, and the creator of such indelible characters as Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Emma Woodhouse and Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Whether you have read one of her six books – Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park – or seen one of the many adaptations, most of us have some experience with Austen. But her life story and how it influenced her writing is perhaps less well-known. This episode explores her early life as the daughter of a rural clergyman, takes a peek inside the books a teenage Jane was reading, and delves into her romantic and familial relationships to see what shaped Austen into the formidable literary talent she was. And it asks a key question: was Jane Austen, who wrote such wonderful women characters, a feminist?This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Clara Chamberlain and Charlotte Emily Edgeshaw Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Tuesday is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, so today I spoke to John Mullan, professor of English Literature at UCL, author of What Matters in Jane Austen. John and I talked about how Austen's fiction would have developed if she had not died young, the innovations of Persuasion, wealth inequality in Austen, slavery and theatricals in Mansfield Park, as well as Iris Murdoch, A.S. Byatt, Patricia Beer, the Dunciad, and the Booker Prize. This was an excellent episode. My thanks to John!TranscriptHenry Oliver (00:00)Today, I am talking to John Mullen. John is a professor of English literature at University College London, and he is the author of many splendid books, including How Novels Work and the Artful Dickens. I recommend the Artful Dickens to you all. But today we are talking about Jane Austen because it's going to be her birthday in a couple of days. And John wrote What Matters in Jane Austen, which is another book I recommend to you all. John, welcome.John Mullan (00:51)It's great to be here.Henry Oliver (00:53)What do you think would have happened to Austin's fiction if she had not died young?John Mullan (00:58)Ha ha! I've been waiting all this year to be asked that question from somebody truly perspicacious. ⁓ Because it's a question I often answer even though I'm not asked it, because it's a very interesting one, I think. And also, I think it's a bit, it's answerable a little bit because there was a certain trajectory to her career. I think it's very difficult to imagine what she would have written.John Mullan (01:28)But I think there are two things which are almost certain. The first is that she would have gone on writing and that she would have written a deal more novels. And then even the possibility that there has been in the past of her being overlooked or neglected would have been closed. ⁓ And secondly, and perhaps more significantly for her, I think she would have become well known.in her own lifetime. you know, partly that's because she was already being outed, as it were, you know, of course, as ⁓ you'll know, Henry, you know, she published all the novels that were published in her lifetime were published anonymously. So even people who were who were following her career and who bought a novel like Mansfield Park, which said on the title page by the author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, they knew they knew.John Mullan (02:26)were getting something by the same author, they wouldn't necessarily have known the author's name and I think that would have become, as it did with other authors who began anonymously, that would have disappeared and she would have become something of a literary celebrity I would suggest and then she would have met other authors and she'd have been invited to some London literary parties in effect and I think that would have been very interesting how that might have changed her writing.John Mullan (02:54)if it would have changed her writing as well as her life. She, like everybody else, would have met Coleridge. ⁓ I think that would have happened. She would have become a name in her own lifetime and that would have meant that her partial disappearance, I think, from sort of public consciousness in the 19th century wouldn't have happened.Henry Oliver (03:17)It's interesting to think, you know, if she had been, depending on how old she would have been, could she have read the Pickwick papers? How would she have reacted to that? Yes. Yeah. Nope.John Mullan (03:24)Ha ha ha ha ha!Yes, she would have been in her 60s, but that's not so old, speaking of somebody in their 60s. ⁓ Yes, it's a very interesting notion, isn't it? I mean, there would have been other things which happened after her premature demise, which she might have responded to. I think particularly there was a terrific fashion for before Dickens came along in the 1830s, there was a terrific fashion in the 1820s for what were called silver fork novels, which were novels of sort of high life of kind of the kind of people who knew Byron, but I mean as fictional characters. And we don't read them anymore, but they were they were quite sort of high quality, glossy products and people loved them. And I'm I like to think she might have reacted to that with her sort of with her disdain, think, her witty disdain for all aristocrats. know, nobody with a title is really any good in her novels, are they? And, you know, the nearest you get is Mr. Darcy, who is an Earl's nephew. And that's more of a problem for him than almost anything else. ⁓ She would surely have responded satirically to that fashion.Henry Oliver (04:28)Hahaha.Yes, and then we might have had a Hazlitt essay about her as well, which would have been all these lost gems. Yes. Are there ways in which persuasion was innovative that Emma was not?John Mullan (04:58)Yes, yes, yes, yes. I know, I know.⁓ gosh, all right, you're homing in on the real tricky ones. Okay, okay. ⁓ That Emma was not. Yes, I think so. I think it took, in its method, it took further what she had done in Emma.Henry Oliver (05:14)Ha ha.This is your exam today,John Mullan (05:36)which is that method of kind of we inhabit the consciousness of a character. And I I think of Jane Austen as a writer who is always reacting to her own last novel, as it were. And I think, you know, probably the Beatles were like that or Mozart was like that. think, you know, great artists often are like that, that at a certain stage, if what they're doing is so different from what everybody else has done before,they stop being influenced by anybody else. They just influence themselves. And so I think after Emma, Jane Austen had this extraordinary ⁓ method she perfected in that novel, this free indirect style of a third-person narration, which is filtered through the consciousness of a character who in Emma's case is self-deludedly wrong about almost everything. And it's...brilliantly tricksy and mischievous and elaborate use of that device which tricks even the reader quite often, certainly the first time reader. And then she got to persuasion and I think she is at least doing something new and different with that method which is there's Anne Elliot. Anne Elliot's a good person. Anne Elliot's judgment is very good. She's the most cultured and cultivated of Jane Austen's heroines. She is, as Jane Austen herself said about Anne Elliot, almost too good for me. And so what she does is she gives her a whole new vein of self-deception, which is the self-deception in the way of a good person who always wants to think things are worse than they are and who always, who, because suspicious of their own desires and motives sort of tamps them down and suppresses them. And we live in this extraordinary mind of this character who's often ignored, she's always overhearing conversations. Almost every dialogue in the novel seems to be something Anne overhears rather than takes part in. And the consciousness of a character whodoesn't want to acknowledge things in themselves which you and I might think were quite natural and reasonable and indeed in our psychotherapeutic age to be expressed from the rooftops. You still fancy this guy? Fine! Admit it to yourself. ⁓ No. So it's not repression actually, exactly. It's a sort of virtuous self-control somehow which I think lots of readers find rather masochistic about her. Henry Oliver (08:38)I find that book interesting because in Sense and Sensibility she's sort of opposed self-command with self-expression, but she doesn't do that in Persuasion. She says, no, no, I'm just going to be the courage of, no, self-command. know, Eleanor becomes the heroine.John Mullan (08:48)Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But with the odd with the odd burst of Mariannes, I was watching the I thought execrable Netflix ⁓ persuasion done about two or three years ago ⁓ with the luminous Dakota Johnson as as you know, as Anne Elliot. You could not believe her bloom had faded one little bit, I think.John Mullan (09:23)And ⁓ I don't know if you saw it, but the modus operandi rather following the lead set by that film, The Favourite, which was set in Queen Anne's reign, but adopted the Demotic English of the 21st century. similarly, this adaptation, much influenced by Fleabag, decided to deal with the challenge of Jane Austen's dialogue by simply not using it, you know, and having her speak in a completely contemporary idiom. But there were just one or two lines, very, very few from the novel, that appeared. And when they appeared, they sort of cried through the screen at you. And one of them, slightly to qualify what you've just said, was a line I'd hardly noticed before. as it was one of the few Austin lines in the programme, in the film, I really noticed it. And it was much more Marianne than Eleanor. And that's when, I don't know if you remember, and Captain Wentworth, they're in Bath. So now they are sort of used to talking to each other. And Louisa Musgrove's done her recovering from injury and gone off and got engaged to Captain Benwick, Captain Benwick. So Wentworth's a free man. And Anne is aware, becoming aware that he may be still interested in her. And there's a card party, an evening party arranged by Sir Walter Elliot. And Captain Wentworth is given an invitation, even though they used to disapprove of him because he's now a naval hero and a rich man. And Captain Wentworth and Anna making slightly awkward conversation. And Captain Wentworth says, you did not used to like cards.I mean, he realizes what he said, because what he said is, remember you eight years ago. I remember we didn't have to do cards. We did snogging and music. That's what we did. But anyway, he did not used to like cards. And he suddenly realizes what a giveaway that is. And he says something like, but then time brings many changes. And she says, she cries out, I am not so much changed.Henry Oliver (11:23)Mm. Mm, yes, yes. Yep.Yes.Cries out, yeah.John Mullan (11:50)It's absolutely electric line and that's not Eleanor is it? That's not an Eleanor-ish line. ⁓ Eleanor would say indeed time evinces such dispositions in most extraordinary ways. She would say some Johnsonian thing wouldn't she? so I don't think it's quite a return to the same territory or the same kind of psychology.Henry Oliver (12:05)That's right. Yes, yes, yeah.No, that's interesting, yeah. One of the things that happens in Persuasion is that you get this impressionistic writing. So a bit like Mrs. Elliot talking while she picks strawberries. When Lady Russell comes into Bath, you get that wonderful scene of the noises and the sounds. Is this a sort of step forward in a way? And you can think of Austen as not an evolutionary missing link as such, but she's sort of halfway between Humphrey Clinker and Mr. Jangle.Is that something that she would have sort of developed?John Mullan (12:49)I think that's quite possible. haven't really thought about it before, but you're right. think there are these, ⁓ there are especially, they're impressionistic ⁓ passages which are tied up with Anne's emotions. And there's an absolutely, I think, short, simple, but extraordinarily original one when she meets him again after eight years. And it says something like, the room was full, full of people. Mary said something and you're in the blur of it. He said all that was right, you know, and she can't hear the words, she can't hear the words and you can't hear the words and you're inside and she's even, you're even sort of looking at the floor because she's looking at the floor and in Anne's sort of consciousness, often slightly fevered despite itself, you do exactly get this sort of, ⁓ for want of a better word, blur of impressions, which is entirely unlike, isn't it, Emma's sort of ⁓ drama of inner thought, which is always assertive, argumentative, perhaps self-correcting sometimes, but nothing if not confidently articulate.John Mullan (14:17)And with Anne, it's a blur of stuff. there is a sort of perhaps a kind of inklings of a stream of consciousness method there.Henry Oliver (14:27)I think so, yeah. Why is it that Flaubert and other writers get all the credit for what Jane Austen invented?John Mullan (14:35)Join my campaign, Henry. It is so vexing. It is vexing. sometimes thought, I sometimes have thought, but perhaps this is a little xenophobic of me, that the reason that Jane Austen is too little appreciated and read in France is because then they would have to admit that Flaubertdidn't do it first, you know. ⁓Henry Oliver (14:40)It's vexing, isn't it?John Mullan (15:04)I mean, I suppose there's an answer from literary history, which is simply for various reasons, ⁓ some of them to do with what became fashionable in literary fiction, as we would now call it. Jane Austen was not very widely read or known in the 19th century. So it wasn't as if, as it were, Tolstoy was reading Jane Austen and saying, this is not up to much. He wasn't. He was reading Elizabeth Gaskell.Jane Eyre ⁓ and tons of Dickens, tons, every single word Dickens published, of course. ⁓ So Jane Austen, know, to cite an example I've just referred to, I Charlotte Bronte knew nothing of Jane Austen until George Henry Lewis, George Eliot's partner, who is carrying the torch for Jane Austen, said, you really should read some. And that's why we have her famous letter saying, it's, you know, it's commonplace and foolish things she said. But so I think the first thing to establish is she was really not very widely read. So it wasn't that people were reading it and not getting it. It was which, you know, I think there's a little bit of that with Dickens. He was very widely read and people because of that almost didn't see how innovative he was, how extraordinarily experimental. It was too weird. But they still loved it as comic or melodramatic fiction. But I think Jane Austen simply wasn't very widely read until the late 19th century. So I don't know if Flaubert read her. I would say almost certainly not. Dickens owned a set of Jane Austen, but that was amongst 350 selecting volumes of the select British novelists. Probably he never read Jane Austen. Tolstoy and you know never did, you know I bet Dostoevsky didn't, any number of great writers didn't.Henry Oliver (17:09)I find it hard to believe that Dickens didn't read her.John Mullan (17:12)Well, I don't actually, I'm afraid, because I mean the one occasion that I know of in his surviving correspondence when she's mentioned is after the publication of Little Dorrit when ⁓ his great bosom friend Forster writes to him and says, Flora Finching, that must be Miss Bates. Yes. You must have been thinking of Miss Bates.John Mullan (17:41)And he didn't write it in a sort of, you plagiarist type way, I he was saying you've varied, it's a variation upon that character and Dickens we wrote back and we have his reply absolutely denying this. Unfortunately his denial doesn't make it clear whether he knew who Miss Bates was but hadn't it been influenced or whether he simply didn't know but what he doesn't… It's the one opportunity where he could have said, well, of course I've read Emma, but that's not my sort of thing. ⁓ of course I delight in Miss Bates, but I had no idea of thinking of her when I... He has every opportunity to say something about Jane Austen and he doesn't say anything about her. He just says, no.Henry Oliver (18:29)But doesn't he elsewhere deny having read Jane Eyre? And that's just like, no one believes you, Charles.John Mullan (18:32)Yes.Well, he may deny it, but he also elsewhere admits to it. Yeah.Henry Oliver (18:39)Okay, but you know, just because he doesn't come out with it.John Mullan (18:43)No, no, it's true, but he wouldn't have been singular and not reading Jane Austen. That's what I'm saying. Yes. So it's possible to ignore her innovativeness simply by not having read her. But I do think, I mean, briefly, that there is another thing as well, which is that really until the late 20th century almost, even though she'd become a wide, hugely famous, hugely widely read and staple of sort of A levels and undergraduate courses author, her real, ⁓ her sort of experiments with form were still very rarely acknowledged. And I mean, it was only really, I think in the sort of almost 1980s, really a lot in my working lifetime that people have started saying the kind of thing you were asking about now but hang on free and direct style no forget flow bear forget Henry James I mean they're terrific but actually this woman who never met an accomplished author in her life who had no literary exchanges with fellow writersShe did it at a little table in a house in Hampshire. Just did it.Henry Oliver (20:14)Was she a Tory or an Enlightenment Liberal or something else?John Mullan (20:19)⁓ well I think the likeliest, if I had to pin my colours to a mast, I think she would be a combination of the two things you said. I think she would have been an enlightenment Tory, as it were. So I think there is some evidence that ⁓ perhaps because also I think she was probably quite reasonably devout Anglican. So there is some evidence that… She might have been conservative with a small C, but I think she was also an enlightenment person. I think she and her, especially her father and at least a couple of her brothers, you know, would have sat around reading 18th century texts and having enlightened discussions and clearly they were, you know, and they had, it's perfect, you know, absolutely hard and fast evidence, for instance, that they would have been that they were sympathetic to the abolition of slavery, that they were ⁓ sceptics about the virtues of monarchical power and clear-eyed about its corruption, that they had no, Jane Austen, as I said at the beginning of this exchange, had no great respect or admiration for the aristocratic ruling class at all. ⁓ So there's aspects of her politics which aren't conservative with a big C anyway, but I think enlightened, think, I mean I, you know, I got into all this because I loved her novels, I've almost found out about her family inadvertently because you meet scary J-Night experts at Jane Austen Society of North America conferences and if you don't know about it, they look at scants. But it is all interesting and I think her family were rather terrific actually, her immediate family. I think they were enlightened, bookish, optimistic, optimistic people who didn't sit around moaning about the state of the country or their own, you know, not having been left enough money in exes will. And...I think that they were in the broadest sense enlightened people by the standard of their times and perhaps by any standards.Henry Oliver (22:42)Is Mansfield Park about slavery?John Mullan (22:45)Not at all, no. I don't think so. I don't think so. And I think, you know, the famous little passage, for it is only a passage in which Edmund and Fanny talk about the fact it's not a direct dialogue. They are having a dialogue about the fact that they had, but Fanny had this conversation or attempt at conversation ⁓ a day or two before. And until relatively recently, nobody much commented on that passage. It doesn't mean they didn't read it or understand it, but now I have not had an interview, a conversation, a dialogue involving Mansfield Park in the last, in living memory, which hasn't mentioned it, because it's so apparently responsive to our priorities, our needs and our interests. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I think it's a it's a parenthetic part of the novel. ⁓ And of course, there was this Edward Said article some decades ago, which became very widely known and widely read. And although I think Edward Said, you know, was a was a wonderful writer in many ways. ⁓I think he just completely misunderstands it ⁓ in a way that's rather strange for a literary critic because he says it sort of represents, you know, author's and a whole society's silence about this issue, the source of wealth for these people in provincial England being the enslavement of people the other side of the Atlantic. But of course, Jane Auster didn't have to put that bit in her novel, if she'd wanted really to remain silent, she wouldn't have put it in, would she? And the conversation is one where Edmund says, know, ⁓ you know, my father would have liked you to continue when you were asking about, yeah, and she says, but there was such terrible silence. And she's referring to the other Bertram siblings who indeed are, of course, heedless, selfish ⁓ young people who certainly will not want to know that their affluence is underwritten by, you know, the employment of slaves on a sugar plantation. But the implication, I think, of that passage is very clearly that Fanny would have, the reader of the time would have been expected to infer that Fanny shares the sympathies that Jane Austen, with her admiration, her love, she says, of Thomas Clarkson. The countries leading abolitionists would have had and that Edmund would also share them. And I think Edmund is saying something rather surprising, which I've always sort of wondered about, which is he's saying, my father would have liked to talk about it more. And what does that mean? Does that mean, my father's actually, he's one of these enlightened ones who's kind of, you know, freeing the slaves or does it mean, my father actually knows how to defend his corner? He would have beenYou know, he doesn't he doesn't feel threatened or worried about discussing it. It's not at all clear where Sir Thomas is in this, but I think it's pretty clear where Edmund and Fanny are.Henry Oliver (26:08)How seriously do you take the idea that we are supposed to disapprove of the family theatricals and that young ladies putting on plays at home is immoral?John Mullan (26:31)Well, I would, mean, perhaps I could quote what two students who were discussing exactly this issue said quite some time ago in a class where a seminar was running on Mansfield Park. And one of the students can't remember their names, I'm afraid. I can't remember their identities, so I'm safe to quote them. ⁓ They're now probably running PR companies or commercial solicitors. And one of them I would say a less perceptive student said, why the big deal about the amateur dramatics? I mean, what's Jane Austen's problem? And there was a pause and another student in the room who I would suggest was a bit more of an alpha student said, really, I'm surprised you asked that. I don't think I've ever read a novel in which I've seen characters behaving so badly as this.And I think that's the answer. The answer isn't that the amateur dramatics themselves are sort of wrong, because of course Jane Austen and her family did them. They indulged in them. ⁓ It's that it gives the opportunity, the license for appalling, mean truly appalling behaviour. I mean, Henry Crawford, you know, to cut to the chase on this, Henry Crawford is seducing a woman in front of her fiance and he enjoys it not just because he enjoys seducing women, that's what he does, but because it's in front of him and he gets an extra kick out of it. You know, he has himself after all already said earlier in the novel, oh, I much prefer an engaged woman, he has said to his sister and Mrs. Grant. Yes, of course he does. So he's doing that. Mariah and Julia are fighting over him. Mr. Rushworth, he's not behaving badly, he's just behaving like a silly arse. Mary Crawford, my goodness, what is she up to? She's up to using the amateur dramatics for her own kind of seductions whilst pretending to be sort of doing it almost unwillingly. I mean, it seems to me an elaborate, beautifully choreographed elaboration of the selfishness, sensuality and hypocrisy of almost everybody involved. And it's not because it's amateur dramatics, but amateur dramatics gives them the chance to behave so badly.Henry Oliver (29:26)Someone told me that Thomas Piketty says that Jane Austen depicts a society in which inequality of wealth is natural and morally justified. Is that true?John Mullan (29:29)Ha⁓Well, again, Thomas Piketty, I wish we had him here for a good old mud wrestle. ⁓ I would say that the problem with his analysis is the coupling of the two adjectives, natural and morally right. I think there is a strong argument that inequality is depicted as natural or at least inevitable, inescapable in Jane Austen's novels.but not morally right, as it were. In fact, not at all morally right. There is a certain, I think you could be exaggerated little and call it almost fatalism about that such inequalities. Do you remember Mr. Knightley says to Emma, in Emma, when he's admonishing her for her, you know, again, a different way, terribly bad behavior.Henry Oliver (30:38)At the picnic.John Mullan (30:39)At the picnic when she's humiliatedMiss Bates really and Mr Knightley says something like if she'd been your equal you know then it wouldn't have been so bad because she could have retaliated she could have come back but she's not and she says and he says something like I won't get the words exactly right but I can get quite close he says sinceher youth, she has sunk. And if she lives much longer, will sink further. And he doesn't say, ⁓ well, we must have a collection to do something about it, or we must have a revolution to do something about it, or if only the government would bring in better pensions, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't sort of rail against it as we feel obliged to. ⁓ He just accepts it as an inevitable part of what happens because of the bad luck of her birth, of the career that her father followed, of the fact that he died too early probably, of the fact that she herself never married and so on. That's the way it is. And Mr Knightley is, I think, a remarkably kind character, he's one of the kindest people in Jane Austen and he's always doing surreptitious kindnesses to people and you know he gives the Bates's stuff, things to eat and so on. He arranges for his carriage to carry them places but he accepts that that is the order of things. ⁓ But I, you know Henry, I don't know what you think, I think reading novels or literature perhaps more generally, but especially novels from the past, is when you're responding to your question to Mr. Piketty's quote, is quite a sort of, can be quite an interesting corrective to our own vanities, I think, because we, I mean, I'm not saying, you know, the poor are always with us, as it were, like Jesus, but... ⁓ You know, we are so ⁓ used to speaking and arguing as if any degree of poverty is in principle politically remediable, you know, and should be. And characters in Jane Austen don't think that way. And I don't think Jane Austen thought that way.Henry Oliver (33:16)Yes, yes. Yeah.The other thing I would say is that ⁓ the people who discuss Jane Austen publicly and write about her are usually middle class or on middle class incomes. And there's a kind of collective blindness to the fact that what we call Miss Bates poverty simply means that she's slipping out of the upper middle class and she will no longer have her maid.⁓ It doesn't actually mean, she'll still be living on a lot more than a factory worker, who at that time would have been living on a lot more than an agricultural worker, and who would have been living on a lot more than someone in what we would think of as destitution, or someone who was necessitous or whatever. So there's a certain extent to which I actually think what Austin is very good at showing is the... ⁓ the dynamics of a newly commercial society. So at the same time that Miss Bates is sinking, ⁓ I forget his name, but the farmer, the nice farmer, Robert Martin, he's rising. And they all, all classes meet at the drapier and class distinctions are slightly blurred by the presence of nice fabric.John Mullan (34:24)Mr. Robert Martin. Henry Oliver (34:37)And if your income comes from turnips, that's fine. You can have the same material that Emma has. And Jane Austen knows that she lives in this world of buttons and bonnets and muslins and all these new ⁓ imports and innovations. And, you know, I think Persuasion is a very good novel. ⁓ to say to Piketty, well, there's nothing natural about wealth inequality and persuasion. And it's not Miss Bates who's sinking, it's the baronet. And all these admirals are coming up and he has that very funny line, doesn't he? You're at terrible risk in the Navy that you'd be cut by a man who your father would have cut his father. And so I think actually she's not a Piketty person, but she's very clear-eyed about... quote unquote, what capitalism is doing to wealth inequality. Yeah, yeah.John Mullan (35:26)Yes, she is indeed. Indeed.Clear-eyed, I think, is just the adjective. I mean, I suppose the nearest she gets to a description. Yeah, she writes about the classes that she knows from the inside, as it were. So one could complain, people have complained. She doesn't represent what it's like to be an agricultural worker, even though agricultural labour is going on all around the communities in which her novels are set.And I mean, I think that that's a sort of rather banal objection, but there's no denying it in a way. If you think a novelist has a duty, as it were, to cover the classes and to cover the occupations, then it's not a duty that Jane Austen at all perceived. However, there is quite, there is something like, not a representation of destitution as you get in Dickens.but a representation of something inching towards poverty in Mansfield Park, which is the famous, as if Jane Austen was showing you she could do this sort of thing, which is the whole Portsmouth episode, which describes with a degree of domestic detail she never uses anywhere else in her fiction. When she's with the more affluent people, the living conditions, the food, the sheer disgustingness and tawdryness of life in the lodgings in Portsmouth where the Price family live. And of course, in a way, it's not natural because ⁓ in their particular circumstances, Lieutenant Price is an alcoholic.They've got far too many children. ⁓ He's a useless, sweary-mouthed boozer ⁓ and also had the misfortune to be wounded. ⁓ And she, his wife, Fanny's mother, is a slattern. We get told she's a slattern. And it's not quite clear if that's a word in Fanny's head or if that's Jane Austen's word. And Jane Austen...Fanny even goes so far as to think if Mrs. Norris were in charge here, and Mrs. Norris is as it were, she's the biggest sadist in all Jane Austen's fiction. She's like sort Gestapo guard monquet. If Mrs. Norris were in charge, it wouldn't be so bad here, but it's terrible. And Jane Austen even, know, she describes the color of the milk, doesn't she? The blue moats floating in the milk.She dis- and it's all through Fanny's perception. And Fanny's lived in this rather loveless grand place. And now it's a great sort of, ⁓ it's a coup d'etat. She now makes Fanny yearn for the loveless grand place, you know, because of what you were saying really, Henry, because as I would say, she's such an unsentimental writer, you know, andyou sort of think, you know, there's going to be no temptation for her to say, to show Fanny back in the loving bosom of her family, realising what hollow hearted people those Bertrams are. You know, she even describes the mark, doesn't she, that Mr Price's head, his greasy hair is left on the wall. It's terrific. And it's not destitution, but it's something like a life which must be led by a great sort of rank of British people at the time and Jane Austen can give you that, she can.Henry Oliver (39:26)Yeah, yeah. That's another very Dickensian moment. I'm not going to push this little thesis of mine too far, but the grease on the chair. It's like Mr. Jaggers in his horse hair. Yes. That's right, that's right. ⁓ Virginia Woolf said that Jane Austen is the most difficult novelist to catch in the act of greatness. Is that true?John Mullan (39:34)Yes, yes, yes, it is these details that Dickens would have noticed of course. Yes.Yes.⁓ I think it is so true. think that Virginia Woolf, she was such a true, well, I think she was a wonderful critic, actually, generally. Yeah, I think she was a wonderful critic. you know, when I've had a couple of glasses of Rioja, I've been known to say, to shocked students, ⁓ because you don't drink Rioja with students very often nowadays, but it can happen. ⁓ But she was a greater critic than novelist, you know.Henry Oliver (39:54)Yeah.Best critic of the 20th century. Yes, yes. Yeah. And also greater than Emson and all these people who get the airtime. Yes, yes.John Mullan (40:20)You know.I know, I know, but that's perhaps because she didn't have a theory or an argument, you know, and the Seven Types, I know that's to her credit, but you know, the Seven Types of Ambiguity thing is a very strong sort of argument, even if...Henry Oliver (40:31)Much to her credit.But look, if the last library was on fire and I could only save one of them, I'd let all the other critics in the 20th century burn and I'd take the common reader, wouldn't you?John Mullan (40:47)Okay. Yes, I, well, I think I agree. think she's a wonderful critic and both stringent and open. I mean, it's an extraordinary way, you know, doesn't let anybody get away with anything, but on the other hand is genuinely ready to, to find something new to, to anyway. ⁓ the thing she said about Austin, she said lots of good things about Austin and most of them are good because they're true. And the thing about… Yes, so what I would, I think what she meant was something like this, that amongst the very greatest writers, so I don't know, Shakespeare or Milton or, you know, something like that, you could take almost a line, yes? You can take a line and it's already glowing with sort of radioactive brilliance, know, and ⁓ Jane Austen, the line itself, there are wonderful sentences.)Mr. Bennett was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humor, reserve and caprice that the experience of three and 20 years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. I mean, that's as good as anything in Hamlet, isn't it? So odd a mixture and there he is, the oddest mixture there's ever been. And you think he must exist, he must exist. But anyway, most lines in Jane Austen probably aren't like that and it's as if in order to ⁓ explain how brilliant she is and this is something you can do when you teach Jane Austen, makes her terrific to teach I think, you can look at any bit and if everybody's read the novel and remembers it you can look at any paragraph or almost any line of dialogue and see how wonderful it is because it will connect to so many other things. But out of context, if you see what I mean, it doesn't always have that glow of significance. And sometimes, you know, the sort of almost most innocuous phrases and lines actually have extraordinary dramatic complexity. but you've got to know what's gone on before, probably what goes on after, who's in the room listening, and so on. And so you can't just catch it, you have to explain it. ⁓ You can't just, as it were, it, as you might quote, you know, a sort of a great line of Wordsworth or something.Henry Oliver (43:49)Even the quotable bits, you know, the bit that gets used to explain free and direct style in Pride and Prejudice where she says ⁓ living in sight of their own warehouses. Even a line like that is just so much better when you've been reading the book and you know who is being ventriloquized.John Mullan (43:59)Well, my favourite one is from Pride and Prejudice is after she's read the letter Mr Darcy gives her explaining what Wickham is really like, really, for truth of their relationship and their history. And she interrogates herself. And then at the end, there's ⁓ a passage which is in a passage of narration, but which is certainly in going through Elizabeth's thoughts. And it ends, she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd. And I just think it's, if you've got to know Elizabeth, you just know that that payoff adjective, absurd, that's the coup de grace. Because of course, finding other people absurd is her occupation. It's what makes her so delightful. And it's what makes us complicit with her.Henry Oliver (44:48)Yeah.That's right.John Mullan (45:05)She sees how ridiculous Sir William Lucas and her sister Mary, all these people, and now she has absurded herself, as it were. So blind partial prejudice, these are all repetitions of the same thought. But only Elizabeth would end the list absurd. I think it's just terrific. But you have to have read the book just to get that. That's a whole sentence.You have to have read the book to get the sentence, don't you?Henry Oliver (45:34)Yep, indeed. ⁓ Do we love Jane Austen too much so that her contemporaries are overshadowed and they're actually these other great writers knocking around at the same time and we don't give them their due? Or is she in fact, you know, the Shakespeare to their Christopher Marlowe or however you want to.John Mullan (45:55)I think she's the Shakespeare to their Thomas Kidd or no even that's the... Yes, okay, I'm afraid that you know there are two contradictory answers to that. Yes, it does lead us to be unfair to her contemporaries certainly because they're so much less good than her. So because they're so much less good than her in a way we're not being unfair. know, I mean... because I have the profession I have, I have read a lot of novels by her immediate predecessors. I mean, people like Fanny Burnie, for instance, and her contemporaries, people like Mariah Edgeworth. And ⁓ if Jane Austen hadn't existed, they would get more airtime, I think, yes? And some of them are both Burnie and Edgeworth, for instance. ⁓ highly intelligent women who had a much more sophisticated sort of intellectual and social life than Jane Austen ⁓ and conversed with men and women of ideas and put some of those ideas in their fiction and they both wrote quite sophisticated novels and they were both more popular than Jane Austen and they both, having them for the sort of carpers and complainers, they've got all sorts of things like Mariah Regworth has some working-class people and they have political stuff in their novels and they have feminist or anti-feminist stuff in their novels and they're much more satisfying to the person who's got an essay to write in a way because they've got the social issues of the day in there a bit, certainly Mariah Regworth a lot. ⁓ So if Jane Austen hadn't come along we would show them I think more, give them more time. However, you know, I don't want to say this in a destructive way, but in a certain way, all that they wrote isn't worth one paragraph of Jane Austen, you know, in a way. So we're not wrong. I suppose the interesting case is the case of a man actually, which is Walter Scott, who sort of does overlap with Jane Austen a bit, you know, and who has published what I can't remember, two, three, even four novels by the time she dies, and I think three, and she's aware of him as a poet and I think beginning to be aware of him as a novelist. And he's the prime example of somebody who was in his own day, but for a long time afterwards, regarded as a great novelist of his day. And he's just gone. He's really, you know, you can get his books in know, Penguin and Oxford classics in the shops. I mean, it's at least in good big book shops. And it's not that he's not available, but it's a very rare person who's read more than one or even read one. I don't know if you read lots of Scott, Henry.Henry Oliver (49:07)Well, I've read some Scott and I quite like it, but I was a reactionary in my youth and I have a little flame for the Jacobite cause deep in my heart. This cannot be said of almost anyone who is alive today. 1745 means nothing to most people. The problem is that he was writing about something that has just been sort of forgotten. And so the novels, know, when Waverly takes the knee in front of the old young old pretender, whichever it is, who cares anymore? you know?John Mullan (49:40)Well, yes, but it can't just be that because he also wrote novels about Elizabeth I and Robin Hood and, you know... ⁓Henry Oliver (49:46)I do think Ivanhoe could be more popular, yeah.John Mullan (49:49)Yeah, so it's not just that this and when he wrote, for instance, when he published Old Mortality, which I think is one of his finest novels, I mean, I've read probably 10 Scott novels at nine or 10, you know, so that's only half or something of his of his output. And I haven't read one for a long time, actually. Sorry, probably seven or eight years. He wrote about some things, which even when he wrote about and published about, readers of the time couldn't have much known or cared about. mean, old mortalities about the Covenant as wars in the borderlands of Scotland in the 17th century. I mean, all those people in London who were buying it, they couldn't give a damn about that. Really, really, they couldn't. I mean, they might have recognized the postures of religious fanaticism that he describes rather well.But even then only rather distantly, I think. So I think it's not quite that. I think it's not so much ignorance now of the particular bits of history he was drawn to. I think it's that in the 19th century, historical fiction had a huge status. And it was widely believed that history was the most dignified topic for fiction and so dignified, it's what made fiction serious. So all 19th century authors had a go at it. Dickens had a go at it a couple of times, didn't he? I think it's no, yes, yes, think even Barnaby Rudge is actually, it's not just a tale of two cities. Yes, a terrific book. But generally speaking, ⁓ most Victorian novelists who did it, ⁓ they are amongst, you know, nobodyHenry Oliver (51:22)Very successfully. ⁓ a great book, great book.John Mullan (51:43)I think reads Trollope's La Vendée, you know, people who love Hardy as I do, do not rush to the trumpet major. it was a genre everybody thought was the big thing, know, war and peace after all. And then it's prestige faded. I mean, it's...returned a little bit in some ways in a sort of Hillary man, Tellish sort of way, but it had a hugely inflated status, I think, in the 19th century and that helped Scott. And Scott did, know, Scott is good at history, he's good at battles, he's terrific at landscapes, you know, the big bow wow strain as he himself described it.Henry Oliver (52:32)Are you up for a sort of quick fire round about other things than Jane Austen?John Mullan (52:43)Yes, sure, try me.Henry Oliver (52:44)Have you used any LLMs and are they good at talking about literature?John Mullan (52:49)I don't even know what an LLM is. What is it? Henry Oliver (52:51)Chat GPT. ⁓ John Mullan (53:17)⁓ God, goodness gracious, it's the work of Satan.Absolutely, I've never used one in my life. And indeed, have colleagues who've used them just to sort of see what it's like so that might help us recognise it if students are using them. And I can't even bring myself to do that, I'm afraid. But we do as a...As a department in my university, we have made some use of them purely in order to give us an idea of what they're like, so to help us sort of...Henry Oliver (53:28)You personally don't feel professionally obliged to see what it can tell you. Okay, no, that's fine. John Mullan (53:32)No, sorry.Henry Oliver (53:33)What was it like being a Booker Prize judge?heady. It was actually rather heady. Everybody talks about how it's such a slog, all those books, which is true. But when you're the Booker Prize judge, at least when I did it, you were treated as if you were somebody who was rather important. And then as you know, and that lasts for about six months. And you're sort of sent around in taxes and give nice meals and that sort of thing. And sort of have to give press conferences when you choose the shortlist. and I'm afraid my vanity was tickled by all that. And then at the moment after you've made the decision, you disappear. And the person who wins becomes important. It's a natural thing, it's good. And you realize you're not important at all.Henry Oliver (54:24)You've been teaching in universities, I think, since the 1990s.John Mullan (54:29)Yes, no earlier I fear, even earlier.Henry Oliver (54:32)What are the big changes? Is the sort of media narrative correct or is it more complicated than that?John Mullan (54:38)Well, it is more complicated, but sometimes things are true even though the Daily Telegraph says they're true, to quote George Orwell. ⁓ you know, I mean, I think in Britain, are you asking about Britain or are you asking more generally? Because I have a much more depressing view of what's happened in America in humanities departments.Henry Oliver (54:45)Well, tell us about Britain, because I think one problem is that the American story becomes the British story in a way. So what's the British story?John Mullan (55:07)Yes, yes, think that's true.Well, I think the British story is that we were in danger of falling in with the American story. The main thing that has happened, that has had a clear effect, was the introduction in a serious way, however long ago it was, 13 years or something, of tuition fees. And that's really, in my department, in my subject, that's had a major change.and it wasn't clear at first, but it's become very clear now. So ⁓ it means that the, as it were, the stance of the teachers to the taught and the taught to the teachers, both of those have changed considerably. Not just in bad ways, that's the thing. It is complicated. So for instance, I mean, you could concentrate on the good side of things, which is, think, I don't know, were you a student of English literature once?Henry Oliver (55:49)Mm-hmm.I was, I was. 2005, long time ago.John Mullan (56:07)Yes. OK.Well, I think that's not that long ago. mean, probably the change is less extreme since your day than it is since my day. But compared to when I was a student, which was the end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s, I was an undergraduate. The degree of sort of professionalism and sobriety, responsibility and diligence amongst English literature academics has improved so much.You know, you generally speaking, literature academics, they are not a load of ⁓ drunken wastrels or sort of predatory seducers or lazy, work shy, ⁓ even if they love their own research, negligent teachers or a lot of the sort of the things which even at the time I recognise as the sort of bad behaviour aspects of some academics. Most of that's just gone. It's just gone. You cannot be like that because you've got everybody's your institution is totally geared up to sort of consumer feedback and and the students, especially if you're not in Oxford or Cambridge, the students are essentially paying your salaries in a very direct way. So there have been improvements actually. ⁓ those improvements were sort of by the advocates of tuition fees, I think, and they weren't completely wrong. However, there have also been some real downsides as well. ⁓ One is simply that the students complain all the time, you know, and in our day we had lots to complain about and we never complained. Now they have much less to complain about and they complain all the time. ⁓ So, and that seems to me to have sort of weakened the relationship of trust that there should be between academics and students. But also I would say more if not optimistically, at least stoically. I've been in this game for a long time and the waves of student fashion and indignation break on the shore and then another one comes along a few years later. And as a sort of manager in my department, because I'm head of my department, I've learned to sort of play the long game.And what everybody's hysterical about one moment, one year, they will have forgotten about two or three years later. So there has been a certain, you know, there was a, you know, what, what, you know, some conservative journalists would call kind of wokery. There has been some of that. But in a way, there's always been waves of that. And the job of academics is sort of to stand up to it. and in a of calm way. Tuition fees have made it more difficult to do that I think.Henry Oliver (59:40)Yeah. Did you know A.S. Byatt? What was she like?John Mullan (59:43)I did.⁓ Well...When you got to know her, you recognized that the rather sort of haughty almost and sometimes condescending apparently, ⁓ intellectual auteur was of course a bit of a front. Well, it wasn't a front, but actually she was quite a vulnerable person, quite a sensitive and easily upset person.I mean that as a sort of compliment, not easily upset in the sense that sort of her vanity, but actually she was quite a humanly sensitive person and quite woundable. And when I sort of got to know that aspect of her, know, unsurprisingly, I found myself liking her very much more and actually not worrying so much about the apparent sort of put downs of some other writers and things and also, you know, one could never have said this while she was alive even though she often talked about it. I think she was absolutely permanently scarred by the death of her son and I think that was a, you know, who was run over when he was what 11 years old or something. He may have been 10, he may have been 12, I've forgotten, but that sort of age. I just think she was I just think she was permanently lacerated by that. And whenever I met her, she always mentioned it somehow, if we were together for any length of time.Henry Oliver (1:01:27)What's your favourite Iris Murdoch novel?John Mullan (1:01:33)I was hoping you were going to say which is the most absurd Aris Murdoch novel. ⁓ No, you're an Aris Murdoch fan, are you? Henry Oliver (1:01:38)Very much so. You don't like her work?John Mullan (1:01:59)Okay. ⁓ no, it's, as you would say, Henry, more complicated than that. I sort of like it and find it absurd. It's true. I've only read, re-read in both cases, two in the last 10 years. And that'sThat's not to my credit. And both times I thought, this is so silly. I reread the C to C and I reread a severed head. And I just found them both so silly. ⁓ I was almost, you know, I almost lost my patience with them. But I should try another. What did I used to like? Did I rather like an accidental man? I fear I did.Did I rather like the bell, which is surely ridiculous. I fear I did. Which one should I like the most?Henry Oliver (1:02:38)I like The Sea, the Sea very much. ⁓ I think The Good Apprentice is a great book. There are these, so after The Sea, the Sea, she moves into her quote unquote late phase and people don't like it, but I do like it. So The Good Apprentice and The Philosopher's Pupil I think are good books, very good books.John Mullan (1:02:40)I've not read that one, I'm afraid. Yes, I stopped at the sea to sea. I, you know, once upon a time, I'm a bit wary of it and my experience of rereading A Severed Head rather confirmed me in my wariness because rereading, if I were to reread Myris Murdoch, I'm essentially returning to my 18 year old self because I read lots of Myris Murdoch when I was 17, 18, 19 and I thought she was deep as anything. and to me she was the deep living British novelist. And I think I wasn't alone ⁓ and I feel a little bit chastened by your advocacy of her because I've also gone along with the ⁓ general readership who've slightly decided to ditch Irish Murdoch. her stock market price has sunk hugely ⁓ since her death. But perhaps that's unfair to her, I don't know. I've gone a bit, I'll try again, because I recently have reread two or three early Margaret Drabble novels and found them excellent, really excellent. And thought, ⁓ actually, I wasn't wrong to like these when I was a teenager. ⁓Henry Oliver (1:04:11)The Millstone is a great book.John Mullan (1:04:22)⁓ yes and actually yes I reread that, I reread the Garrick year, the Millstone's terrific I agree, the the Garrick year is also excellent and Jerusalem the Golden, I reread all three of them and and and thought they were very good. So so you're recommending the Philosopher's Apprentice. I'm yeah I'm conflating yes okay.Henry Oliver (1:04:31)first rate. The Good Apprentice and the Philosopher's Pupil. Yeah, yeah. I do agree with you about A Severed Head. I think that book's crazy. What do you like about Patricia Beer's poetry?John Mullan (1:04:56)⁓ I'm not sure I am a great fan of Patricia Beer's poetry really. I got the job of right, what? Yes, yes, because I was asked to and I said, I've read some of her poetry, but you know, why me? And the editor said, because we can't find anybody else to do it. So that's why I did it. And it's true that I came.Henry Oliver (1:05:02)Well, you wrote her... You wrote her dictionary of national... Yes.John Mullan (1:05:23)I came to quite like it and admire some of it because in order to write the article I read everything she'd ever published. But that was a while ago now, Henry, and I'm not sure it puts me in a position to recommend her.Henry Oliver (1:05:35)Fair enough.Why is the Dunciad the greatest unread poem in English?John Mullan (1:05:41)Is it the greatest unread one? Yes, probably, yes, yes, I think it is. Okay, it's great because, first of all, great, then unread. It's great because, well, Alexander Poet is one of the handful of poetic geniuses ever, in my opinion, in the writing in English. Absolutely genius, top shelf. ⁓Henry Oliver (1:05:46)Well, you said that once, yes.Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yes. Top shelf, yeah.John Mullan (1:06:09)And even his most accessible poetry, however, is relatively inaccessible to today's readers, sort of needs to be taught, or at least you have to introduce people to. Even the Rape of the Lock, which is a pure delight and the nearest thing to an ABBA song he ever wrote, is pretty scary with its just densely packed elusiveness and...Henry Oliver (1:06:27)YouJohn Mullan (1:06:38)You know, and as an A level examiner once said to me, we don't set Pope for A level because it's full of irony and irony is unfair to candidates. ⁓ Which is true enough. ⁓ So Pope's already difficult. ⁓ Poetry of another age, poetry which all depends on ideas of word choice and as I said, literary allusion and The Dunciad is his most compacted, elusive, dense, complicated and bookish poems of a writer who's already dense and compact and bookish and elusive. And the Dunceyad delights in parodying, as I'm sure you know, all the sort of habits of scholarly emendation and encrustation, which turn what should be easy to approach works of literature into sort of, you know, heaps of pedantic commentary. And he parodies all that with delight. But I mean, that's quite a hard ask, isn't it? And ⁓ yeah, and I just and I think everything about the poem means that it's something you can only ever imagine coming to it through an English literature course, actually. I think it is possible to do that. I came to it through being taught it very well and, you know, through because I was committed for three years to study English literature, but it's almost inconceivable that somebody could just sort of pick it up in a bookshop and think, ⁓ this is rather good fun. I'll buy this.Henry Oliver (1:08:26)Can we end with one quick question about Jane Austen since it's her birthday? A lot of people come to her books later. A lot of people love it when they're young, but a lot of people start to love it in their 20s or 30s. And yet these novels are about being young. What's going on there?John Mullan (1:08:29)Sure, sure.Yes.I fear, no not I fear, I think that what you describe is true of many things, not just Jane Austen. You know, that there's a wonderful passage in J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace where the reprehensible protagonist is teaching Wordsworth's Prelude.to a group of 19 and 20 year olds. And he adores it. He's in his mid fifties. And he, whilst he's talking, is thinking different things. And what he's thinking is something that I often think actually about certain works I teach, particularly Jane Austen, which is this book is all about being young, but the young find it tedious. Only the aging.You know, youth is wasted on the young, as it were. Only the aging really get its brilliance about the experience of being young. And I think that's a sort of pattern in quite a lot of literature. So, you know, take Northanger Abbey. That seems to me to be a sort of disly teenage book in a way.It's everything and everybody's in a hurry. Everybody's in a whirl. Catherine's in a whirl all the time. She's 17 years old. And it seems to me a delightfully teenage-like book. And if you've read lots of earlier novels, mostly by women, about girls in their, you know, nice girls in their teens trying to find a husband, you know, you realize that sort ofextraordinary magical gift of sort Jane Austen's speed and sprightliness. You know, somebody said to me recently, ⁓ when Elizabeth Bennet sort of walks, but she doesn't walk, she sort of half runs across the fields. You know, not only is it socially speaking, no heroine before her would have done it, but the sort of the sprightliness with which it's described putsthe sort of ploddingness of all fiction before her to shame. And there's something like that in Northanger Abbey. It's about youthfulness and it takes on some of the qualities of the youthfulness of its heroine. know, her wonderful oscillations between folly and real insight. You know, how much she says this thing. I think to marry for money is wicked. Whoa. And you think,Well, Jane Austen doesn't exactly think that. She doesn't think Charlotte Lucas is wicked, surely. But when Catherine says that, there's something wonderful about it. There is something wonderful. You know, only a 17 year old could say it, but she does. And but I appreciate that now in my 60s. I don't think I appreciated it when I was in my teens.Henry Oliver (1:11:55)That's a lovely place to end. John Mullen, thank you very much.John Mullan (1:11:58)Thanks, it's been a delight, a delight. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

The gang is headed to Sotherton! We tour the chapel, Mary learns that Edmund is planning to be a clergyman (much to her dismay), and Fanny gets left alone in the woods for an hour. Topics discussed include Maria's men-juggling act, the stick up Fanny's butt, whether 5'9" is short, our nightmare blunt rotation, the debauchery of big cities, fences we've climbed in our youths, and how Mr. Rushworth runs.Patron Study Questions this week come from Avi, Ghenet, Linnea, and Judith. Topics discussed include Jane Austen's commentary on the clergy and how Edmund's profession will play out in the book, who is the better option between Henry Crawford and Mr. Rushworth, whether Edmund will be a good example for his parishioners, and whether we'd feel differently about Mary Crawford if she were our main character.Becca's Study Questions: Topics discussed include Fanny as the consummate observer, Maria's role in the story, and morality in Austen.Funniest Quote: “Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.”Questions moving forward: Will Maria and Julia talk about their boy troubles? Will Fanny ever get her own love story?Who wins the chapters? Fanny, with an honorable mention for Mrs. Rushworth.Glossary of Terms and Phrases:ague (n): malaria or some other illness involving fever and shivering.bon mot (n): a witty remark.ha-ha (n): a ditch with a wall on its inner side below ground level, forming a boundary to a park or garden without interrupting the view.heath (n):a dwarf shrub with small leathery leaves and small pink or purple bell-shaped flowers, characteristic of heathland and moorland.prosing (v): talking tediously.volubility (n): the quality of talking fluently, readily, or incessantly; talkativeness.Glossary of People, Places, and Things: You Belong With Me, Misery BusinessNext Episode: Mansfield Park Chapters 11-12Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon! Check out our merch at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/

Mansfield Park has been hit by the theatrical bug, and shenanigans and intrigue are afoot. Please take your seat and silence all devices, because this episode we're peeking behind the green baize curtain of Lovers' Vows. You can find us online at https://www.thethingaboutausten.com and follow us on Instagram @TheThingAboutAusten. You can email us at TheThingAboutAusten@gmail.com and head over to https://www.redbubble.com/people/aboutausten/shop to check out our podcast related merch.

Today, things begin to grow in the rice pudding. Mr. Rushworth has the hots for landscaping, Molly gets bitchcrackers for Miss Crawford, and the tides turn on our affections for Edmund when he lends out Fanny's mare. Topics discussed include hear me out cakes, apricots, Mary Crawford's poor breeding, what values we take from our families, Jane Austen's beautiful descriptions of love and how we're getting it in a different way in this book, regifting, Fanny as a chronically ill and/or anxious girlie, and pug the basset hound.Patron Study Questions this week come from Ghenet, Avi, Spring, Diana L., Angelika, Katie, Linnea, Marija, and Melissa. Topics discussed include POV shifting, landscaping and architecture, chronic illness in Austen, Edmund's manipulation of Fanny, Fanny's relationship to the servants, the number of monologues in this book, Edmund being more like his family than we thought, and all things Mary Crawford.Becca's Study Questions: Topics discussed include Edmund and Fanny's conversation about Mary and the romance brewing between Edmund and Mary.Funniest Quote: “The tree thrives well beyond a doubt, madam. The soil is good, and I never pass it without regretting that the fruit should be so little worth the trouble of gathering.”Questions moving forward: If not her cousin, then whomst?Who wins the chapters? The horse

In today's episode, we're talking about chapters 3-5 of Mansfield Park. Mr. Norris is dead! Will Fanny move in with Mrs. Norris? Sir Thomas goes to Antigua! Will he come back? Fanny's horse dies! Will she ever ride again? We meet SEVERAL new characters. Will our girls marry them?Topics discussed include the way incomes from livings work (correct us if we're wrong!), rice pudding lasagna, Molly's continued cousing-shipping, Sir Thomas's West Indies estate and the slavery funding the wealth in England during this era, abolitionist judge Lord Mansfield, our first proposal, whether the Crawfords are people of color, people getting duped into the bad marriage, and the ins and outs of outs.Patron Study Questions this week come from Ghenet, Avi, and Linnea. Topics discussed include Anne's autonomy in the family, the specter of slavery hanging over Mansfield Park, and why Mrs. Norris wanted to adopt Fanny in the first place.Becca's Study Questions: Topics discussed include Edmund and Fanny's dynamic, the Crawfords' role in the story this far, getting Mary Crawford's POV, the similarities between Fanny and Mary, and what Henry teaches us about Maria and Julia.Funniest Quote:“The earliest intelligence of the travellers safe arrival in Antigua after a favorable voyage, was received; though now before Mrs. Norris had been indulging in very dreadful fears, and trying to make Edmund participate in them whenever she could get him alone; and as she depended on being the first person made acquainted with any fatal catastrophe, she had already arranged the manner of breaking it to all the others, when Sir Thomas's assurances of their both being alive and well, made it necessary to lay by her agitation and affectionate preparatory speeches for a while.”Questions moving forward: Will Henry be an interest for Fanny? Is Sir Thomas shipwrecked? Will Big T and Mary Crawford fall in love?Who wins the chapters? Henry CrawfordGlossary of Terms and Phrases:apoplectic (adj): overcome with anger; extremely indignant.esprit de corps (n): a feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty shared by the members of a particular group.evincing (v): reveal the presence ofinvective (n): insulting, abusive, or highly critical language.pecuniary (adj): relating to or consisting of money.plied (v): provide someone with (food or drink) in a continuous or insistent way.preferment (n): promotion or appointment to a position or office.Glossary of People, Places, and Things: Kahlil Greene, Lord Mansfield, Anxiety (Doechii), Miss Austen, Alfie Enoch, Regé-Jean Page, LaKeith Stanfield, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Hunger GamesNext Episode: Mansfield Park Chapters 6-7Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon! Check out our merch at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/

Many country houses claim to be the inspiration for Pemberley, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park, but few houses have such tangible links to Jane Austen as Chawton House in Hampshire.On this week's podcast - the penultimate episode in our series on the HHA Collections Awards shortlisted candidates - Jane Austen's world comes to life at Chawton House, the historic Hampshire estate once owned by her brother and now home to a unique library celebrating early women's writing. In this episode, Chawton House Chief Executive Katie Childs shares the fascinating history of the house, its deep connections to Austen's life and work, and the remarkable collection of rare books by women authors from the 1600s to the early 1800s. Together, we explore how Chawton House continues to champion women's voices and inspire new generations of readers and researchers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlie and Nikki May (This Motherless Land) discuss her childhood in Lagos and moving to England, various ways Nikki's story changed over time (quite a lot!), the Nigerian women's relay team of 1992, and the upcoming TV adaptations of both This Motherless Land and Wahala. Please note that there is some swearing in this episode. General references: About the Nigerian Women's Relay team win at the 1992 Olympics Rocks (2019) Nikki made the shortlist of the Nigerian Prize for Literature Books mentioned by name or extensively: Enid Blyton: The Famous Five (series) Jane Austen: Pride And Prejudice Jane Austen: Emma Jane Austen: Mansfield Park Nikki May: Wahala Nikki May: This Motherless Land Release details: recorded 29th July 2025; published 27th October 2025 Where to find Nikki online: Website || Instagram Where to find Charlie online: Website || Instagram || TikTok Discussions 01:50 Being inspired by Jane Austen and Mansfield Park and introducing the way that the book is inspired by Nikki's own life 05:27 Expanding on how this book is inspired by Nikki's childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, and later move to England 08:52 About Nikki's brother, to whom This Motherless Land is dedicated 09:56 Talking about the Ikoyi club in Nigeria Nikki's family was a part of 11:03 The story changed so much during the writing! We discuss a few different areas - Liv, romance, JoJo 16:10 Somewhat like Funke, Nikki changed her name when she moved to England. We also discuss switching between Nigerian English and British English 20:33 Funke's father's grief 23:42 Brief discussion on how Jane Austen's sister couldn't attend her funeral 24:53 Easter eggs - carnation milk, and differences with food between the nations in this context 27:39 Could Liv have been believed about Kate? 29:27 The story beyond the pages and brief info about both This Mother Land's and Wahala's TV adaptations 33:40 Making each book different 35:30 What Nikki is writing at the moment; discussing ageism and the difference between men and women in that context 39:53 About Billy the parrot 41:06 Nikki's dogs and doing a combined dog and plot walk

December 16th will mark the 250th birthday of the renowned English novelist Jane Austen, and “Janeites” (as her fans call themselves) are aflutter worldwide. In this episode of the TRADITION Podcast Mali Brofsky chats with Yaffa Aranoff about her recent essay “The Perils of Gentle Selfishness: Jane Austen's Emma and Halakhic Morality,” TRADITION 57:1 (Winter 2025). Brofsky and Aranoff are both avid lovers of Austen's writing, and in this conversation they discuss  how her novel Emma interacts with Aranoff's reading of Hazal's understanding of the principle to not “put a stumbling block before the blind,” revealing the depths of Austen's wisdom and Hazal's ethical sensitivity. The conversation concludes with a few words about Austen's literary skill as it is conveyed through Mansfield Park, which was Brofsky's pick for our 2025 Summer Book Endorsements.  They also consider Austen's philosophy of virtue and the ways it is conveyed in her writing. Altogether, this episode serves as a demonstration of engagement with “the best” in literature, showing how it can redound to our growth as thinking religious beings. Yaffa Aranoff teaches at Midreshet Lindenbaum's Darcheynu program and at other institutions in Jerusalem. Mali Brofsky, a member of TRADITION's editorial board, is a senior faculty member at MMY and a social worker in private practice. Watch a video recording of this conversation.The post Jane Austen and Halakhic Morality first appeared on Tradition Online.

We're diving into Mansfield Park in this first episode of season five of Pod and Prejudice. In today's chapters, we're taking it back to the generation before our heroine. We meet the Ward sisters who all marry into different social strata and learn how Fanny Price came to Mansfield Park. Topics discussed include the something borrowed, something blue tradition, Mrs. Norris as a charity case, cousins marrying, Sir Wobbles the Pug, the bashing down of Fanny Price, naming girls after their mothers, and wealth as access.Patron Study Questions this week come from Kaitlyn, Linnea, Avi, Ghenet, Melissa, Katie, and Liz. Topics discussed include our first poor MC, the three Ward sisters and their marriages, our impressions of the Bertrams, our predictions for the futures of the kids, Mrs. Norris's influence over Sir Thomas, and why the writing of MP may be so different from the other books we've read.Becca's Study Questions:Topics discussed include Austen's Dickensian turn, why the Bertrams keep Fanny separate, whether Fanny is better off at Mansfield, and why Edmund is so special.Funniest Quote(s):“But there are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.”“Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter: but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny”“I should wish to see them very good friends, and would on no account authorize in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation; but still they cannot be equals.”“It is not very wonderful that with all their promising talents and early information, they should be entirely deficient in the less common acquirements of self-knowledge, generosity, and humility.”Questions Moving Forward: Will the cousins marry?Who wins the chapters? Edmund BertramGlossary of Terms and Phrases:Disoblige (v): offend (someone) by not acting in accordance with their wishes.Deportment (n): a person's behavior or manners.Emulation (n): effort to match or surpass a person or achievement, typically by imitation.Frank (v): to mark (a piece of mail) with an official signature or sign indicating the right of the sender to free mailing.Indolence (n): avoidance of activity or exertion; laziness.Injudicious (adj): showing very poor judgment; unwise.Prognostication (n): the action of foretelling or prophesying future events.Solicitude (n): care or concern for someone or something.Tractable (adj): easy to control or influence.Glossary of People, Places, and Things: Yours, Mine, and Ours, Jane Eyre, A Cinderella Story, Gilmore Girls, The Last of Us, Mean GirlsToday's episode is brought to you by You Pod It, Dude! Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and watch the video on Spotify and Youtube! Follow them on Instagram and TikTok at @youpodit!Molly's edition of Mansfield Park can be found here.Next Episode: Mansfield Park Chapters 3-5Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon! Check out our merch at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/

Greg Jenner is joined in Regency England by historian Dr Lucy Worsley and actor Sally Phillips to learn all about the life and works of literary legend Jane Austen on the 250th anniversary of her birth in December 1775. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Austen is one of England's best-loved authors, and the creator of such indelible characters as Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Emma Woodhouse and Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Whether you have read one of her six books – Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park – or seen one of the many adaptations, most of us have some experience with Austen. But her life story and how it influenced her writing is perhaps less well-known. This episode explores her early life as the daughter of a rural clergyman, takes a peek inside the books a teenage Jane was reading, and delves into her romantic and familial relationships to see what shaped Austen into the formidable literary talent she was. And it asks a key question: was Jane Austen, who wrote such wonderful women characters, a feminist? If you're a fan of iconic authors, Regency romances and women succeeding in a man's world, you'll love our episode on Jane Austen. If you want more incredible women authors with Dr Lucy Worsley, check out our episode on Agatha Christie. For more from Sally Phillips, listen to our episode on Fairy Tales. And for more Regency romance, there's our episode on Georgian Courtship. You're Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past. Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Clara Chamberlain and Charlotte Emily Edgeshaw Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

We're joined by Graham today to answer YOUR questions for our season finale!Topics discussed include our Persuasion dream adaptation, the theme of persuasion in other Austen novels, the way Taylor Swift defined our lives, Persuasion's message to modern audiences, chronic illness in Austen, our Persuasion murder mystery, our Mansfield Park predictions (and some spoilers), the Wuthering Heights remake, our Austen superlatives, and marzipan.Glossary of People, Places, and Things: Anne of Avenue A, Sarah Snook, Succession, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Pedro Pascal, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, The Last of Us, David Corenswet, Fleetwood Mac - Silver Springs, Mad Men, Agatha Christie, Wuthering Heights, Emerald FennellNext episode: Becoming JaneTeepublic is now Dashery! Check out our new merch store at https://podandprejudice.dashery.com.Our show art was created by Torrence Browne, and our audio is produced by Graham Cook. For bios and transcripts, check out our website at podandprejudice.com. Pod and Prejudice is transcribed by speechdocs.com. To support the show, check out our Patreon!Instagram: @podandprejudiceTwitter: @podandprejudiceFacebook: Pod and PrejudiceYoutube: Pod and PrejudiceMerch store: https://podandprejudice.dashery.com/

Jane Austen's House ist heute ein Museum, das jährlich einen sogenannten Dress Up Day veranstaltet - also einen Tag, an dem Besucher*innen in Regency Kleidung kommen können. Dieses Jahr gibt es außerdem Workshops, Talks, Spaziergänge u.v.m. Im Podcast hört ihr: Sophie Reynolds vom Jane Austen Museum, Tanzlehrerin Helen Davidge und Schauspielerin Erika Sanderson, die Szenen aus "Emma" spielen. Die Orte, die Julia besucht hat, sind: Jane Austen's House (Chawton Cottage), Chawton House und Alton, Hampshire. Wenn ihr selbst auch einen Jane Austen Urlaub machen wollt, schreibt uns an plaudern@diebuch.at - wir schicken euch gerne mehr Infos. Mehr Fotos vom Event findet ihr auf Instagram unter @die_buch. Gewinnspiel: Gewinnt ein Jane Austen-Buchpaket von Reclam - "Persuasion", "Northanger Abbey" und "Mansfield Park" im englischen Original. Wenn ihr mitmachen wollt, werdet bis 10.9.2025 um 23.59 Uhr Steady-Mitglied von Die Buch. Wählt dafür einfach das Paket "Jane" oder "Isabel" aus und schon seid ihr automatisch im Verlosungstopf! Macht mit unter steady.page/diebuchpodcast Ihr wollt euer Wissen in Sachen Jane Austen testen? Mit Reclams Literatur-Quiz "Jane Austen. Wer kennt ihr Leben und Werk? 50 Fragen und Antworten" könnt ihr das ab sofort tun! Alle Infos findet ihr hier: https://www.reclam.de/produktdetail/jane-austen-wer-kennt-ihr-leben-und-werk-50-fragen-und-antworten-4262461870172 [bezahlte Werbung]

As we celebrate Jane Austen's 250th birthday, her novels are more beloved than ever. But do we see them as she intended? Dr Helena Kelly joins us to discuss the radical nature of Austen and her novels.Show Notes:Carol Ann Lloydwww.carolannlloyd.com@shakeuphistorypatreon.com/carolannlloydThe Tudors by NumbersCourting the Virgin Queen Dr Helena Kelly@msashtondennisJane Austen, The Secret RadicalThe Life and Lies of Charles DickensThe Worlds of Jane Austen (coming Sept 23, 2025)History shows us what's possible.

Send us a textIn this episode our stack of books is tied together with the common theme of being Perfect Pairs...in other words...they go together like a fine dining experience!  Bon Apetit!Featured Books:Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (LH)Manslaughter Park by Tirzah Price (LH)This Motherless Land by Nikki May (LH)These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant (LP)What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown (LP)Books Mentioned in This Episode:The Great Alone by Kristin HannahEducated by Tara WestoverAdditional Books That Go Along With Our Stack:A Contrary Wind: a variation on Mansfield Park by Lona ManningBonwyn: A Fantasy Austen Retelling by Grace J. CroyEdmund Bertram's Diary by Amanda GrangeHatchet by Gary PaulsenFourth of July Creek by Smith HendersonWays to contact us:Join us on Patreon for extra content: https://www.patreon.com/c/BookBumblePodcastFollow us on Instagram - @thebookbumbleFacebook:  Book BumbleOur website:  https://thebookbumble.buzzsprout.comEmail:  bookbumblepodcast@gmail.comSupport the showHey Friends, please rate and review us!

250 years after her birth, Jane Austen is more popular than ever, with the publication of new editions of her novels and numerous new film adaptations in production. But what does it mean to read and edit Jane Austen today through the lens of colonialism, cartography, and race? Scholar Patricia A. Matthew, who recently edited new editions of three Austen novels, joins us to explore the ongoing fascination with Jane and share new research about the Regency era. How wealth from Caribbean sugar plantations and slavery shaped the world depicted in Austen's novels—and how today's readers can confront the economic and imperial histories embedded in Regency-era fiction. During her fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Patricia Matthew examined archival materials, including legal texts, maps, travel logs, and legal documents, to gain a better understanding of colonial sugar plantations in the Caribbean. She looked at how empire and enslavement wealth from the new world, slavery, and race informed (or didn't) the literature and visual culture of the 18th– and 19th–century Britainies. This research now shapes Matthew Patricia's new annotated editions of Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park, and opens up broader conversations about adaptation, nostalgia, and canon formation. From overlooked maps folded into rare archival books to questions of literary escapism and cultural memory, Patricia offers a rich and expansive perspective on Jane Austen, her era, and her legacy in 2025. >> Pre-order Patricia Matthew's new editions of Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey from Penguin Classics, and Mansfield Park from Norton Library. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published August 11, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc. Patricia A. Matthew is Associate Professor of English at Montclair State University, where she teaches courses on the History of the Novel and Romantic abolitionist culture. She writes about Regency-era literature and culture for scholars and the public in journals and publications including Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Women's Writing, Lapham's Quarterly, The Times Literary Supplement, and Slate. She co-edits the Oxford University Press book series Race in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture. She is also director of the Race and Regency Lab and editor of Penguin Random House's 250th anniversary editions of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Winner of fellowships from the National Humanities Center and the British Association for Romanticism Studies, she is currently writing a book about abolition, material culture, and gender for Princeton University Press. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars and movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Sometimes we are lucky enough to even speak with them about their work. And sometimes, they are both a movie star and a movie director. Today that's Embeth Davidtz, director of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, now in theaters and expanding this weekend. Our B-Sides include Feast of July, The Gingerbread Man, Mansfield Park, and Bicentennial Man. We speak with Davidtz about her directorial debut, her incredibly diverse acting career, and adapting from the memoir by Alexandra Fuller. There's extended discussion of Robert Altman's direction of actors, the underrated qualities of Feast of July (a Merchant Ivory production!), and the ambitions of Bicentennial Man. Not to mention the incredible high-wire act by Davidtz's in her dual performance in that Chris Columbus sci-fi epic. There are reflections on working with B-Side friend and frequent guest Alessandro Nivola, the legacy of the Miss Honey character from Matilda, and the “trickery” involved in directing a child like Lexi Venter to an incredibly natural performance.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars and movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Sometimes we are lucky enough to even speak with them about their work. And sometimes, they are both a movie star and a movie director. Today that's Embeth Davidtz, director of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, now in theaters and expanding this weekend. Our B-Sides include Feast of July, The Gingerbread Man, Mansfield Park, and Bicentennial Man. We speak with Davidtz about her directorial debut, her incredibly diverse acting career, and adapting from the memoir by Alexandra Fuller. There's extended discussion of Robert Altman's direction of actors, the underrated qualities of Feast of July (a Merchant Ivory production!), and the ambitions of Bicentennial Man. Not to mention the incredible high-wire act by Davidtz's in her dual performance in that Chris Columbus sci-fi epic. There are reflections on working with B-Side friend and frequent guest Alessandro Nivola, the legacy of the Miss Honey character from Matilda, and the “trickery” involved in directing a child like Lexi Venter to an incredibly natural performance. Be sure to give us a follow on social at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Today: A longtime Mansfield park that once echoed with the sounds of ballgames is about to be transformed into a brand-new golf destination, and it could change the north side in a big way.Support the show: https://richlandsource.com/membersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we welcome Embeth Davidtz. Embeth has her directorial debut, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, hitting theaters nationwide this week. A veteran actor, she is known for roles in Schindler's List, Army of Darkness, Matilda, Fallen, Mansfield Park, Bridget Jones' Diary, Junebug, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Amazing Spider-Man, “Mad Men,” “Ray Donovan,” and “The Morning Show”. In our chat, she shares her backstory, stories from working with Spielberg — and all about her new film which she wrote, directed and starred in. Embeth also offers invaluable advice for actors and filmmakers working today. “The Making Of” is presented by AJA:AJA DRM2-Plus 3RU Frame Unlocks Flexible Mini-Converter ConfigurationsIdeal for production and post environments where signal conversion needs vary, the AJADRM2-Plus is a high-capacity, 3RU Mini-Converter frame houses up to 12 full-size AJA Mini-Converters of any kind, and up to 24 of AJA's compact Mini-Converters. DRM2-Plus boasts flexible cooling and redundant power supply options and an intuitive faceplate design that lets users quickly access installed converters. Learn more about DRM2-Plus.Massive Speed. Big Capacity. DIY Ready.The OWC Express 4M2 delivers up to 32TB of high-performance NVMe storage with real-world speeds up to 3200MB/s over USB4. Built for demanding workflows like 4K/8K editing and VFX, it features thermally controlled fans for quiet, sustained performance. With massive capacity, a compact footprint, and easy drive installation, it's the ultimate DIY solution for creative pros who need speed and flexibility.Browse hereZEISS Summer Savings EventNow through September 1, save up to $4,000 on select Nano Prime lens sets and another $3,000 on the ZEISS Lightweight Zoom LWZ.3.Browse here New Solutions from Videoguys:The SanDisk Professional G-RAID PROJECT 2 is a powerhouse 2-bay storage system built for serious creators. Pre-configured in RAID 0 and featuring Thunderbolt™ 3 connectivity, it delivers the speed and capacity you need for demanding 4K, 8K, and VR video workflows—up to a massive 52TB. With a PRO-BLADE™ SSD Mag slot for ultra-fast offloads and edits, it's the perfect solution for high-performance production environments. Call Videoguys at 800-323-2325 to for free tech advice and to learn more!Visit herePodcast Rewind:July 2025 - Ep. 89…“The Making Of” is created by Michael Valinsky.Advertise your products or services to 205,000 filmmakers, TV production pros, and content creators reading this newsletter — contact us at mvalinsky@me.com Get full access to The Making Of at themakingof.substack.com/subscribe

Jess and Trisha talk about Jane Austen feelings - yours and theirs! - and then get into Kamila Knows Best for book club. Follow the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. To get even more romance recs and news, sign up for our Kissing Books newsletter! Looking to elevate your reading life? Tailored Book Recommendations is here to help! TBR delivers reading recommendations hand-picked just for you by real human book nerds. You can get your recommendations via email, or receive hardcovers or paperbacks in the mail. And with quarterly or annual plans available, TBR has something for every budget. Plans start at just $18! This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. News: We got all caught up in Jane Austen and forgot to talk about it, but check out the After the End Kickstarter! Books Discussed: One and Done by Frederick Smith Whenever You're Ready by Rachel Runya Katz Jana Goes Wild by Farah Heron Daughter of Tides by Kit Rocha Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and Lady Susan - all by Jane Austen Let us know what you're reading, what you're thinking, and what you're thinking about what you're reading! As always, you can find Jess and Trisha at the WIR email address (wheninromance@bookriot.com). You can also find us on Twitter (@jessisreading), or Instagram (@jess_is_reading and @trishahaleybrown), and Jess is even on TikTok (@jess_isreading). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr. Roger E. Moore to explore the lesser-known historical context of the works of Jane Austen, born 250 years ago this year. They question how Austen's novels like 'Northanger Abbey' and 'Mansfield Park' reflect on the dissolution of the monasteries and 18th and 19th-century societal changes. Austen used settings like the ruins of monasteries to comment on the political and social upheavals of her era, adding a sophisticated layer to her tales of romance, family, and fortune.MORE:Dissolution of the Monasterieshttps://open.spotify.com/episode/5OsI7vLHogEtqWiQsGfHgCThe Reformation: What Catholics & Protestants Believedhttps://open.spotify.com/episode/3vZTFiKuIlSfzsQDLQd4ZrPresented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Alice Smith, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Not Just the Tudors is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including Suzannah's series on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

In this episode, Alex Heeney digs into Celine Song's Materialists, a film about Lucy, a matchmaker struggling with her own love triangle. Will Lucy (Dakota Johnson) choose love — in the form of her poor ex John (Chris Evans) — or money with eligible bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal)? And can love and money even co-exist? With its charming cast, elegant blocking, and standout sound design, Materialists could have been a sharp, class-conscious rom-com. But for all its promise, it ends up skimming the surface. You will hear: What works well in the film, including the visual storytelling and sound design Where the film struggles, especially with its thin characterization and reluctance to fully engage with class and money Comparisons with other works, such as Gossip Girl (2007–2012) and Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park (1999), that tackle similar themes with more depth Links Mentioned:

Though Jane Austen went largely unrecognized in her own lifetime—four of her six novels were published anonymously, and the other two only after her death—her name is now synonymous with the period romance. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz choose their personal favorites from her œuvre—“Emma,” “Persuasion,” and “Mansfield Park”—and attempt to get to the heart of her appeal. Then they look at how Austen herself has been characterized by readers and critics. We know relatively little about Austen as a person, but that hasn't stopped us from trying to understand her psyche. It's a difficult task in part because of the double-edged quality to her writing: Austen, although renowned for her love stories, is also a keen satirist of the Regency society in which these relationships play out. “I think irony is so key, but also sincerity,” Schwartz says. “These books are about total realism and total fantasy meeting in a way that is endlessly alluring.”Read, watch, and listen with the critics:“Pride and Prejudice,” by Jane Austen“Persuasion,” by Jane Austen“Emma,” by Jane Austen“Mansfield Park,” by Jane Austen“Sense and Sensibility,” by Jane Austen“Northanger Abbey,” by Jane Austen“Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen” (The New Republic)Emily Nussbaum on “Breaking Bad” and the “Bad Fan” (The New Yorker)“How to Misread Jane Austen,” by Louis Menand (The New Yorker)“Miss Austen” (2025—)“Pride and Prejudice” (2005)Scenes Through Time's “Mr. Darcy Yearning for 10 Minutes” SupercutNew episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week we are resetting after Mansfield Park and getting in the summer spirit with the wacky 80's movie, One Crazy Summer. With young John Cusack, Demi Moore, Bobcat Goldthwait and a plethora of other memorable characters, it is quintessentialy 80's in a very fun way.*re-upload to fix editing glitch

This week we wrap our thoughts on Mansfield Park, talk about what we are planning through the summer, and discover what city in England we should move to.

We've reached the end of Mansfield Park and quite a bit happens in these last few chapters. How will all the pieces land and is the final chapter wrap-up as delightful as usual? Find out if this book maintained its spot as Maya's favorite.

This week is our penultimate episode. Three months pass in Portsmouth and Fanny receives a significant visitor and several very consequential letters.

WARNING: This episode contains spoilers for Miss Austen.Writer Gill Hornby has been a fan of Jane Austen's work since she first read Mansfield Park as a teenager. But it wasn't until Gill moved to the village of Kintbury that she became surrounded by and interested in Jane's life. In her novel, Miss Austen, Gill explores the deep bond between Jane and her loving sister Cassandra. In this episode, Gill talks about writing this heartfelt novel, redeeming Cassandra Austen's legacy, and why she thinks Cassandra burned so many of Jane's letters. 

This week Fanny goes back home to Portsmouth and it is a bit of a culture shock. Will the noise and chaos break her spirits, or can she find the true love she is looking for?

The Austenheads return. For today’s mission, we return to Austen with the 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. This movie is packed with stars, beautiful scenery, and romance…and add in a flatulent horse. But we must also delve into inheritance laws and what is wrong with Mansfield Park. Annette Wierstra with Amanda-Rae Prescott, Sandra Wong, Shelly Brisbin and Moisés Chiullán.

This week the pressure is on and Fanny is feeling the weight of it. Edmund returns and Crawfords prepare to leave, and Fanny can't seem to help but speak her truth.

Jane Austen has had devoted American admirers since her works were first published. In fact, several Americans played a crucial role in preserving and promoting her legacy. Joining us to explore Austen's reputation and reception in America is Professor Juliette Wells, a leading expert on the subject, who will also share the story of avid Austen collector Alberta H. Burke and preview some of the Austen treasures set to be displayed at the Morgan Library's upcoming exhibit A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250, for which she is guest co-curator.Juliette Wells, Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College, is the author of Reading Austen in America (2017), Everybody's Jane: Austen in the Popular Imagination (2011), and most recently, A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the World's Greatest Novelist (2023). She has edited the 200th-anniversary editions of Persuasion and Emma for Penguin Classics, with a new edition of Mansfield Park slated for release later this year. A former JASNA Traveling Lecturer, Dr. Wells is a regular speaker at the society's Annual General Meetings. She is also the guest co-curator for the upcoming exhibition A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 at the Morgan Library and Museum, which will run from June 6 to September 14, 2025, in celebration of Austen's milestone birthday.For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep23/.*********Visit our website: www.jasna.orgFollow us on Instagram and FacebookSubscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channelEmail: podcast@jasna.org

This week we are covering four emotionally charged chapters. A week of pent up feelings leads to an explosive cliffhanger.

This week we are covering chapters 25 -28 and everything's coming up Fanny. William is in town, everyone is thinking of her, and she is coming out. How will our shy little heroine deal with being the center of attention?

Life is a little busy at the moment so we are taking the next few weeks off, but we didn't want to leave you without episodes to listen to. Please enjoy this re-release of our coverage of Fire Walk With Me. We will be back with the second half of Mansfield Park next week.

Life is a little busy at the moment so we are taking the next few weeks off, but we didn't want to leave you without episodes to listen to. Please enjoy this re-release of our coverage of Fire Walk With Me. We will be back with the second half of Mansfield Park soon.

Life is a little busy at the moment so we are taking the next few weeks off, but we didn't want to leave you without episodes to listen to. Please enjoy this re-release of our coverage of Fire Walk With Me. We will be back with the second half of Mansfield Park soon.

Cooper and Tanner joyfully discuss one of their favorite authors—Jane Austen—and her beloved work, Mansfield Park. A romp of an episode, listen to hear them break down Austen at the height of her craft--even if other books of hers slightly outshine this one in their opinion.FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:@bookinitpodCHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE:https://412podcasting.comSUPPORT US HERE:https://patreon.com/bookinit TEXT US HERE!

This week we are putting down the book to catch-up. We sort some characters, discuss why we all need some Lynch & Austen during these times, sort characters and create our dream adaptation.

A bit of a shorter section this week as we only cover three chapters, 22 - 24. These chapters are all about Fanny, she's finally the center of attention, even if it's not where she prefers to be, and in these chapters she is experiencing a lot of other firsts as well.

This week we are covering chapters 18 - 21 of Mansfield Park and things are changing. Sir Thomas finally returns home, at a very inconvenient time, Lady Bertram puts down her pug, and Maria and Rushworth finally wed.

Today we are thrilled to welcome Nikki May to the show. Her new book This Motherless Land is a reimagining of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Anne was especially intrigued by this because Mansfield Park is the novel of Jane Austen's that seems most overlooked when it comes to retellings. Today, Anne has questions, and Nikki May has answers. Among some of the gems you will hear are Nikki's personal connection to Jane Austen generally and Mansfield Park in particular, the personal experiences that informed This Motherless Land, and the complexity of belonging and not belonging as explored in these pages. Anne and Nikki also discover their shared appreciation for family novels, especially complicated, messy families, and Nikki shares some of her favorites today. Find the full list of titles mentioned at our show notes page at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/451. Our annual traditional holiday gift-giving episode is just around the corner. If you'd like to give a bookish gift to a reader in your life and you'd like our team's help, please email hello@modernmrsdarcy.com with the subject line "Gift Help". In your email, please include details about who are you shopping for, a little bit about their reading life, and any ideas you have or the direction you'd prefer to go. We'll read some of your requests and answer lots of reader inquiries on our upcoming episode.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices