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A Contrary Wind a variation on Mansfield Park edition by Lona Manning Literature Fiction eBooks

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A Contrary Wind a variation on Mansfield Park edition by Lona Manning Literature Fiction eBooks

Even among those who love Mansfield Park, reservations about its heroine Fanny Price niggle below the surface. Her shyness, her timidity and her lack of belief in herself inspire irritation and apologies even in those who deeply sympathize with her. Early on in this book, a single decision by Miss Price unleashes the fierce Fanny. Now, when I say fierce, do not get the wrong idea. She is still shy, timid and too good for her own good. But remember the time she said no to well-meaning but clueless Uncle Bertram when she insisted she marry a man she knew she could not love? That girl is on display in the first pages of this book. Consistent in character with canon, but with different circumstances, she grows in confidence and resolution. Out from under the stately shrubberies of Mansfield Park, she is forced to take charge of her own life.

A Contrary Wind draws deeply from history to make slavery and the crusade for abolition, two issues central to both Mansfield Park and Fanny's adventures, important spurs for plot here. Historical characters are artfully woven into events. Also, characters from other Austen novels pop up. What will the babe-in-the-woods Fanny do when she is lost and runs into the handsome and insinuating William Elliott? And, when the children she cares for as a governess come down with scarlet fever, will they -- and she -- survive the barbaric medical practices common to that day?

I do have some personal nitpicks with A Contrary wind. It describes Edmund as dark-haired when Austen has him and his family "fair," which I take to mean blond. Similarly, Fanny should be blonde or at least have light brown hair rather than a plain brown. Fanny is also described several times in Mansfield Park by different characters as quite pretty, but here she is barely a step up from plain. And, while Henry Crawford has his uses for Fanny in A Contrary Wind, he never seems as taken with her as Austen indicated in saying that Henry really loved Fanny. I
think that is a key point and I was sorry to see it somewhat lost here.

Still, all in all, this book is well-researched and professionally written, and deserves a large readership. It can be enjoyed without your reading Mansfield Park, but I would not be surprised if you find yourself loving and understanding the original even more.


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A Contrary Wind a variation on Mansfield Park edition by Lona Manning Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

I rarely give five-star reviews, but I'm impressed enough with the quality of this work that I feel it's appropriate.

I do not, as a rule, read any Austen-related fiction. I am a very hardcore Austen fan and it drives me crazy when modern authors try to mimic her style, and use the vernacular of her time. They always, always get it wrong. But Lona Manning is the exception! Her writing is not Austen, of course, but it is so good that she manages to blend it seamlessly with actual passages from Mansfield Park. Her grasp of the vernacular of the Regency era is incredibly well-researched and accurate. Manning has a very deft hand with this. It leaves you free to immerse yourself in an Austen-esque world without cringing every 2 sentences.

I know Mansfield Park very well, having read it at least 20 times. I could recognize each juncture where the original text was brought in, and it delighted me every time. It was always cleverly done, and made perfect sense.

The re-imagining of the story was very entertaining, and I found Fanny's decision to leave Mansfield and become a governess very plausible. She pulls a Jane Eyre. Of course she would want independence and to take control of her own life!

And the shining point of this book for me was Manning's Mary Crawford. She absolutely nailed the character in a way that was skillfully done and a lot of fun to read.

There were, however, some leaps of character that were too far to be believable for me. There are certain points in the story where Fanny compromises her ethics in a way that the real Fanny, I feel, would absolutely not have done. However this is a creative retelling and as such, certain things are going to go against our own personal beliefs about these characters. It's an interesting thought exercise.

There were also a few new characters I never much warmed to. I skipped a couple of sections about them near the end when I was anxious to find out what would happen the original Mansfield Park cast. But this was not a major problem for me, as the story was for the most part gripping and well-paced.

I personally was a little sad about the ending (though I don't want to spoil anything). I composed a few extra paragraphs in my head to make myself feel better. But a sequel could also take care of that!

And, by the way, there are also a number of small Easter-eggs for true Austen fans, such as the name of the woman Fanny applies for the post of governess (I won't spoil it).

All in all, if you're a Mansfield Park fan and looking for spinoff fiction by an author that really understands MP, this is the book for you. It comes highly recommended by one very picky Austen fan.
Having read and been delighted by a number of Austen variations on previous occasions, I was most interested in Manning's adaptation of Mansfield Park. While not my favourite of Austen's works, I was intrigued as to what might be done to the classic novel to provide genuinely viable alternate outcomes for the characters, and hopefully to make Fanny Price more interesting than I found her in the original classic.

Lona Manning's recreation of Mansfield Park, its inhabitants and neighbours did not disappoint. I found myself drawn into Austen's world where the Bertram family prosper and their cousin, Fanny, is stifled amongst them. From that point, Manning's variation is interwoven seamlessly with the original until Austen's story is found to be completely changed. More than once, I had to think back and remind myself of what had happened in the original text, until I gave up on doing that and simply allowed myself to be carried away by Manning's narrative.

'A Contrary Wind' is well-written, keeping in step with the language and writing style used by Austen to tell her stories, while being mercifully less wordy about some of the characters' more trifling thoughts and decisions than Mansfield Park itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and consider it to be one of the finest Austen variations I have had the pleasure to read.
Even among those who love Mansfield Park, reservations about its heroine Fanny Price niggle below the surface. Her shyness, her timidity and her lack of belief in herself inspire irritation and apologies even in those who deeply sympathize with her. Early on in this book, a single decision by Miss Price unleashes the fierce Fanny. Now, when I say fierce, do not get the wrong idea. She is still shy, timid and too good for her own good. But remember the time she said no to well-meaning but clueless Uncle Bertram when she insisted she marry a man she knew she could not love? That girl is on display in the first pages of this book. Consistent in character with canon, but with different circumstances, she grows in confidence and resolution. Out from under the stately shrubberies of Mansfield Park, she is forced to take charge of her own life.

A Contrary Wind draws deeply from history to make slavery and the crusade for abolition, two issues central to both Mansfield Park and Fanny's adventures, important spurs for plot here. Historical characters are artfully woven into events. Also, characters from other Austen novels pop up. What will the babe-in-the-woods Fanny do when she is lost and runs into the handsome and insinuating William Elliott? And, when the children she cares for as a governess come down with scarlet fever, will they -- and she -- survive the barbaric medical practices common to that day?

I do have some personal nitpicks with A Contrary wind. It describes Edmund as dark-haired when Austen has him and his family "fair," which I take to mean blond. Similarly, Fanny should be blonde or at least have light brown hair rather than a plain brown. Fanny is also described several times in Mansfield Park by different characters as quite pretty, but here she is barely a step up from plain. And, while Henry Crawford has his uses for Fanny in A Contrary Wind, he never seems as taken with her as Austen indicated in saying that Henry really loved Fanny. I
think that is a key point and I was sorry to see it somewhat lost here.

Still, all in all, this book is well-researched and professionally written, and deserves a large readership. It can be enjoyed without your reading Mansfield Park, but I would not be surprised if you find yourself loving and understanding the original even more.