Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park is a rarelit fandom based on the novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1814. Mansfield Park fights with Northanger Abbey for the title of Austen's least appreciated novel, yet inspires some of the Austenworld's most interesting and varied fanfiction.
==Canon==
Mansfield Park has been described as Pride and Prejudice with Anne de Bourgh as the heroine. The most vibrant characters are Mary and Henry Crawford, who function as the villains. Mrs Norris, perhaps the nastiest character in the whole of Austen, is a work of genius (and the inspiration for Filch's cat). On the other hand, Edmund Bertram is Austen's least colourful hero, while shy, moralistic and physically frail Fanny Price can be difficult for modern fans to empathise with.
===Adaptations===
There have been three adaptations. A 1983 miniseries is no longer well known. A 1999 film, directed by Patricia Rozema, starred Frances O'Connor, Jonny Lee Miller and James Purefoy. Not particularly faithful to the novel, it drew elements from Austen's life and juvenilia, and foregrounded f/f elements. A 2007 television film starred Billie Piper, and is even less faithful to the original. Neither of the recent adaptations include a Fanny recognisable from the novel.
==Fannish Responses==
==Fandom==
Although part of the broader Austen fandom and served by the same fannish infrastructure, Mansfield Park fandom is somewhat different from that of other novels. As none of the adaptations is particularly popular, picspam is less common than for other Austen. There is a lot of discussion, with popular topics including:
*the character of Fanny Price;
*the possibility of redemption for Henry and Mary Crawford;
*the slavery question;
*comparisons with Pride and Prejudice;
*the adaptations.
===Fanny Wars===
Disputes over the character of Fanny led to this warning for subscribers to AUSTEN-L:
==Fanfiction==
As of July 2013, the Jane Austen Fanfiction Index lists just over 130 Mansfield Park stories (a significant underestimate of the total), the earliest dating from 1997. The Derbyshire Writers' Guild has the largest online collection, with around 110 stories. [See Austen fandom for a breakdown of fanfiction by novel.] The novel inspires rather different fanfiction than the other Austen novels, which almost entirely generate gen or het works in the canonical pairings. MP fandom is known for its noncanonical (Fuck with Canon) pairings, although the canonical Fanny/Edmund also has a following. The most common noncanonical pairings are Mary/Edmund and particularly Henry/Fanny; there is also occasional slash, femslash and incest. Rare pairings include Mary/Henry & Fanny/Tom in het, Henry/Edmund & Henry/William in slash, and Mary/Fanny & Mary/Maria in femslash. Redeemed-Henry is a popular trope.
A little fanfiction has been written about the novel's many minor characters. Occasional pre-stories have been published exploring the courtship of the three Ward sisters. Fanny's younger sister Susan gets a few romances, sometimes with Edmund's older brother Tom. The fate of the disgraced Bertram sister Maria Rushworth is told in some stories. Fanny's elder brother William, a naval lieutenant, features in a few works with more of an Age of Sail feel. He's often fanonically pictured under the command of Persuasion's Frederick Wentworth.
The fandom has benefited from Yuletide, which has generated many widely recommended stories over the years, exploring a range of noncanonical pairings. The challenge may well have helped to popularise these, although pre-Yuletide examples of Henry/Fanny exist. 
There are multiple popular crossovers with Pride and Prejudice which pair MP characters with a wide range of P&P characters. Crossovers with other Austen novels are also common, and Fanny and the Crawfords pop up in crossovers with other sources. Modern AUs have also been written, but are much less frequent than for Pride and Prejudice.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
*Bird of Paradise (link) by Jane Greensmith. Fanny character study, closer to canon than most fanfiction (2001)
*Regrets and Reminiscences by afrai. Earliest Yuletide story, perhaps the first MP slash (2004)
*Henry & William by Imogene Lovelace. Convincing take on the rare pairing of Henry with William Price (2007)
*Everingham by Katharine T. Hugely popular novella, which offers an optimistic version of Fanny/Henry with perhaps the definitive redeemed-Henry (2008)
*Love and Marriage by solvent90. Dark take on Fanny/Henry and Mary/Edmund (2008)
*As the Starling Said by Minerva McTabby. Best-known MP femslash (2008)
*Comprehension by shallowness. Short Henry/Fanny happy ending (2010) 
*Symmetry by Ankaret. Crawford sibcest (2010)
*Mansfield End by Ione. Henry/Fanny AU novella (2013)
*By Degrees by scioscribe. Fanny/Mary AU novelette (2017)
====Crossovers====
*A More Prosperous Trial of the State by Victoria CL. Hugely long P&P crossover sequel, unusually centered on Mr Rushworth (2007)
*The Dancing Monkeys by Ione. Unusual crossover with Persuasion in which Crawford finds himself aboard the Laconia whose crew includes William Price (2009)
*i'll write you harmony in c by magneticwave. Modern AU novella, crossover with P&P, with Crawford paired with Mary Bennet (2012)
===Meta===
*Mansfield Park and Pride and Prejudice -- Structural parallels and oppositions. Repost of 1996 AUSTEN-L post by Bethany Grenald comparing the structure of the two novels; perhaps the origin of the MP is anti-P&P idea
*Mansfield Park Ate My Brain by Minerva McTabby. Wide-ranging review of the novel and its lit crit whilst writing As the Starling Said (2009)
*Rediscovering Mansfield Park by anghraine. On comparisons with Pride and Prejudice (2009)
*Mansfield Park and Slavery by Stultiloquentia (2019)
==Archives==
*AO3 -- 35 stories
*Bits of Ivory -- 19 stories
*Derbyshire Writers' Guild -- a little over 100 stories (via search page)
*ff.net -- 46 stories
*Yuletide -- 8 stories from Yuletides 2004–8
==Recs==
*Austen recs by anghraine -- includes several MP
*MP@Crack Van
*MP@Espresso Recommendations
*MP@Fancake
==Fansites==
*Mansfield Park fan site by Margaret Smythe -- essays, links to fanfiction (offline)
*Mansfield Park blog by Chris Dornan
*Mansfield Park blog by miss sneyd
==References==
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