Welcome to Litsy!

Edmund remains totally disapproving of the whole home am-dram concept, but when Tom suggests bringing in some rando to join the fun, he's absolutely aghast. The impropriety! Tom also tries to get Fanny to join in, but our girl's morals are iron-clad and she refuses. The same cannot be said for Edmund who decides that joining in himself would be the lesser of two evils and in a total weaksauce move, he tries to get Fanny to absolve him. Boy, bye.

So I've just read the play from Mansfield Park 🤓

Short, quick paced, and easy to read, Lovers' Vows is an entertaining little play with some humour. I picked it up to gain a deeper understanding of Mansfield Park, and it will be valuable when thinking about role choices and relationships in the novel. However, I'm not sure the play would linger with me on its own merits.

#JaneAustenThenAndNow @Crinoline_Laphroaig

"A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk they had been talking of; and standing back, well shaded and sheltered, and looking over a ha-ha into the park, was a comfortable-sized bench, on which they all sat down"

As a gardener I love a good ha-ha mention. In June I hosted a Garden Club tour of my garden. My topic was In The Garden with Jane Austen and how it inspired me. Oh course I dressed the part. ?

Oh my godddd, here we go! Suddenly the gang turns into the most cringe theatre kids ever. As a lifelong member of that circle, I can confirm that the level of drama we see here lives on in every high school theatre club, community theatre troupe, and, yes, some professional companies. We even still have stodgy killjoys like Edmund trying to kill the vibe, largely in the form of vile conservatives defunding the NEA (oops, did I say it out loud?).

Mary Crawford showing her true colors in today's chapters: she likes Edmund a lot but his job isn't nearly grand or important enough for her and she tries to persuade him out of taking orders, even though he thinks the role of the clergyman is an important one. They're at an impasse and she flies off to play harp, and then in a maddening display of weakness and male blindness, he proceeds to...sing her praises?! Edmund, she may be pretty, but no.

Everyone continues to be terrible! The gang visits Sotherton and:

-Julia sits with Henry and Maria is a pouty asshole about it
-Mary Crawford shoves her foot directly in her mouth by being pointedly bitchy about the clergy
-Henry flirts with (engaged) Maria all day like the manwhore he is
-Fanny's left on her own again and doesn't even get to see the avenue she came for?!

On the bright side (?), I learned about the window-tax (link in comments).

#BookReport

I read Beach Read and Sjøkuer og andre utryddelser

I continued with my yearlong reads on the right

I continued The Flower Farm on audio

I continued Little Dorrit #WhatTheDickens. Last week was also the beginning of a new month, so I started two new buddy reads; Mansfield Park #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and Tombland #ShardlakeBR

I‘ve also started Hunchback

Edmund and Fanny hang out to judge Mary Crawford but ultimately he's like, "but she's super feminine so it's fine" and goes to listen to her play the harp every single day. Then she starts riding Fanny's horse every day, too, and our girl is stuck at home to cut roses and run needless errands. Edmund feels bad and invites her on the Sotherton visit where Fanny and Mary gleefully catch sight of Edmund at the same time, giving real Pam/Karen vibes.

Rushworth is just another in a long line of tacky blowhards with no taste destroying much-loved places of natural beauty. "Ye fallen avenues, once more I mourn your fate unmerited." #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

Man, this book is full of selfish, thoughtless people: sisters Bertram and Norris set Fanny off on an emotional roller coaster about her living situation without giving two shits; nobody cares that she doesn't have a horse, ie access to fresh air and exercise; Sir Thomas heads off for a year to his slave plantation; and Henry Crawford comes out the gate as a feckless, self-centered ass who won't house his own sister. Shades of behavior to come...