Joan Aiken picks up the pen of her forerunner, Jane Austen, in this charming sequel to Mansfield Park.
Joan Aiken was born in Sussex in 1924. She was the daughter of the American poet, Conrad Aiken; her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge, is also a novelist. Before joining the 'family business' herself, Joan had a variety of jobs, including working for the BBC, the United Nations Information Centre and then as features editor for a short story magazine. Her first children's novel, The Kingdom of the Cave, was published in 1960. Joan Aiken wrote over a hundred books for young readers and adults and is recognized as one of the classic authors of the twentieth century. Amanda Craig, writing in The Times, said, 'She was a consummate story-teller, one that each generation discovers anew.' Her best-known books are those in the James III saga, of which The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was the first title, published in l962 and awarded the Lewis Carroll prize. Both that and Black Hearts in Battersea have been filmed. Her books are internationally acclaimed and she received the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the United States as well as the Guardian Award for Fiction in this country for The Whispering Mountain. Joan Aiken was decorated with an MBE for her s
"I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Joan Aiken gives the story a fresh
twist with a plausible explanation for Henry Crawford’s supposed
perfidy in Mansfield Park which allows him to become a possible
suitor for Susan. And the introduction of several lively new
characters ensures that Mansfield Revisited is a stand-alone story.
Aiken also captures Jane Austen’s tone excellently; the language
and vocabulary are exactly right, as are the touches of irony and
humour."
*The Historical Novel Society*
"I finished the book in one day . . . gosh darn it, Mansfield Park
Revisited was good . . . Aiken has a canny ability to stay true to
the developed Austen characters and seamlessly integrate and expand
into leading roles the characters that were tertiary in the
original work."
*austenblog.com*
"Aiken is by far one of the most talented writers to attempt an
Austen sequel and Mansfield Park Revisited is truly worthy of
resurrection. She has respectfully continued Austen’s story by
expanding her characters, adapting the language for the modern
reader, accurately including the social mantle and believably
turning our concerns for the two main antagonists Mary and Henry
Crawford at the end of Mansfield Park into sympathies, which given
their principles and past bad behaviour is quite an
accomplishment."
*austenprose.com*
"Jane Austen would wholeheartedly have approved of what her
colleague Joan Aiken did to her Mansfield Park characters. This
reissued sequel is exactly what the doctor ordered for people who
loved Fanny Price . . . A book worthy of Miss Austen herself"
*Bookwitch*
"A period drama written at its most entertaining!"
*Burnley Express*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |