Chapter 20

Aug 20, 2007 13:16

LibriVox audiorecording of Mansfield ParkEdmund’s first object the next morning was to see his father alone, and give him a fair statement of the whole acting scheme, defending his own share in it as far only as he could then, in a soberer moment, feel his motives to deserve, and acknowledging, with perfect ingenuousness, that his concession had ( Read more... )

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Comments 12

sekl August 20 2007, 15:31:16 UTC
Mrs. Norris was a little confounded and as nearly being silenced as ever she had been in her life

I love that line because of course, you can imagine the momentary pause she takes before rushing to her defense. Sir Thomas never scratches the surface of things. It's the only reason he can still hope to have a sensible conversation with her, he doesn't know her at all.

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elliejgirl August 20 2007, 19:36:02 UTC
I know. It's about as close as Mrs. Norris comes to getting bitch slapped. She's always talking though, and I think it would require a great deal of personal fortitude and intelligence to actually get the better of her. Or perhaps a muzzle.

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sekl August 20 2007, 20:21:24 UTC
The muzzle sounds like an economical idea...

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elliejgirl August 20 2007, 22:54:42 UTC
I just had this lovely vision of Edmund and Tom holding Mrs. Norris down while the girls put a muzzle over her mouth. Hmmmm.... methinks the Puritans had a punishment for gossips that involved putting a spike of some kind against the tongue so that they couldn't talk. I've never been one for Puritanical Punishments, but Mrs. Norris may make me change my mind.

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elliejgirl August 20 2007, 19:40:53 UTC
Henry's quite a bit of work, isn't he? He spends all this time 'courting' Maria and then when he 'has' her, he just leaves town. Fanny's the only one who really sees the game that he was playing.

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sekl August 20 2007, 20:20:46 UTC
He's missing out on Heaven's last best gift again.

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elettaria August 21 2007, 11:50:28 UTC
There was a bit earlier on where his sisters decided to send him away if he really was causing trouble with Maria, and this is what has happened. Pity they didn't do it earlier.

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tovah623 November 9 2007, 14:22:53 UTC
Where was that?

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selki August 20 2007, 20:31:09 UTC
Mrs. Norris contrived to remove one article from his sight that might have distressed him. The curtain, over which she had presided with such talent and such success, went off with her to her cottage, where she happened to be particularly in want of green baize.

Aw, how *giving* of Mrs. Norris, to relieve Sir Thomas of the green baize curtain!

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elliejgirl August 20 2007, 22:42:05 UTC
I got the miniseries from netflix, and in it she's going on and on about how the curtain won't go to waste because she can use it for her windows. Sir Thomas just told her that he didn't care about the waste.

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cheshire_c August 20 2007, 22:23:20 UTC
I always feel so sorry for Maria at this point. I don't particularly like her character -- too selfish and arrogant for general sympathy -- but to have the man you love and idolize leave so casually, and to be faced with marriage to a dope... Pretty depressing.

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elliejgirl August 20 2007, 22:46:27 UTC
I know. I don't like her very much, either, but she's kind of stuck. She can't just dump Rushworth herself, without having someone else to immediately marry, otherwise her reputation will be forever ruined. It would be scandelous enough for her to break with Rushworth in the first place, but she would have a difficult time getting anyone else to marry her if she just ended things with him.

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