In this episode, we read Chapters 26 to 30 of Mansfield Park. We talk about Fanny’s preparations for the ball, the amber cross, her emotion reactions after Edmund gives her the chain, her post-ball meeting with Mary, and the scene where Henry tells Mary he plans to marry Fanny.

We discuss Lady Bertram, then Ellen talks about what is meant by being ‘out’, and Harriet follows this with some information about balls and dancing. Harriet also talks about how adaptations and modernisations treat these chapters.

Things we mention:

General and character discussion:

• John Wiltshire [Editor], The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen: Mansfield Park (2005)
• Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical (2016) [sees the amber cross and chain as a metaphor for slavery and Christianity]
• Jillian Heydt-Stevenson, Jane Austen’s Unbecoming Conjunctions: Subversive Laughter, Embodied History(2005) [sees the amber cross, chain and necklace as a sexual metaphor]
• The topaz crosses that belonged to Jane and Cassandra Austen:

Credit: Jane Austen’s House Museum, photography by Peter Smith * Adrian Dickens, Jewels of the Regency (2022 – YouTube video of presentation to the Jane Austen Society of Australia) * Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern, Talking of Jane Austen (1943) * The Daily Knightley (2021) [podcast] * John Sutherland, Can Jane Eyre be happy?(2000) * William Hogarth, The Painter and his Pug (1745) * The Regency novels of Georgette Heyer (1902-1974)

Historical discussion:

• Tea with Cassiane YouTube videos about Regency dancing
  • 5 Things That Jane Austen Films Always Get Wrong About the Dancing (2020)
  • A Regency Dancer Analyzes Jane Austen’s Ballroom Scenes (2021)
  • A Regency Dancer Reads Jane Austen Part 2 (Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and The Watsons) (2022)

Popular culture discussion:

• Adaptations:
  • BBC, Mansfield Park (1983) – starring Sylvestra Le Touzel and Nicholas Farrell (6 episodes)
  • Miramax, Mansfield Park (1999) – starring Frances O’Connor and Jonny Lee Miller
  • ITV, Mansfield Park (2007) – starring Billie Piper and Blake Ritson
• Modernisations:
  • YouTube, Foot in the Door Theatre, From Mansfield With Love (2014-2015)

For a list of music used, see this episode on our website.