Mansfield Park and Shakespeare
I've been slowly making my way through an excellent audiobook version of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, and I came across this passage the other day; I thought I'd share it because I not only find it true in this age, but I think it's fascinating to know it was just as true in Austen's time as it is now...
"But Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how. It is a part of an Englishman's constitution. His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them everywhere; one is intimate with him by instinct. No man of any brain can open at a good part of one of his plays without falling into the flow of his meaning immediately."
(From Chapter 34, Volume II, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen)If only I had some sophomore English students to torture with this quotation...
Hi friend! Love this. Which audio version do you like?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joyce - it's the unabridged version read by Johanna Ward. I downloaded it from our library's digital book collection. I must confess that I've never heard any other version, but I'm guessing it's not often that a reader is able to capture Austen's dry wit as well as I think this reader does.... Of course, she's no Jim Dale... ;)
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