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Background and Research Materials
If you’d like more details about some of the historical events, people, or social customs referenced in this story, visit www.lonamanning.ca/research for lots of interesting background details, including lots more about Percy Bysshe Shelley and Peterloo.
Alternate Ending — a Note to the Reader
At the conclusion of my Mansfield trilogy, we at last see Julia Bertram Price, Maria Bertram Crawford Orme, Portia Owen Bertram, Prudence Imlay Price, Susan Price Miller, Madame Orly-Duchesne and Fanny Price Gibson all happily married to the men they love. And perhaps Richard Owen and Mrs. Bellingham will take a trip down the aisle in future years.
But, what if you, gentle reader, had your heart set on Fanny marrying Edmund Bertram? Yes, there are a few people—me, for example—who like Edmund Bertram. “Let us not desert one another; we are an injured body.”
In the introduction to her edition of Mansfield Park, Jane Sturrock writes: [I]n Mansfield Park, Austen provides alternative narratives, other possible outcomes, as she does in no other novel.” Fanny surmises what her mother might have been, if she had made a better marriage, and how well her Aunt Norris would have coped with nine children and a narrow income. “Readers are permitted to know that Mary Crawford would have made a good wife for Edmund Bertram,” and Fanny would have eventually married Henry Crawford, if Maria Bertram had stayed married to Mr. Rushworth.
In solidarity with the Edmund Bertram fans out there, may I say that if Fanny had accepted Edmund Bertram’s wedding proposal there in the rain amidst the shrubbery, they would have been very happy together.
Acknowledgements
I could not have written the book I wanted to write without doing research. Back when I went to university, there was no such thing as the internet or on-line journals. Now, I can digitally visit the university library from my home. Thank you, Simon Fraser University, for granting library access to this old alumna. Thank you to the kind librarians in Ireland who answered my enquiries. Librarians are awesome.
My son Joseph Manning served as my helpful and encouraging first reader.
Thanks to my beta readers for your encouragement. My writing buddies A.E. Walnofer, Calista Hunter and Allie Cresswell gave me excellent advice, some of which I was wise enough to listen to.
Dramatis Personae
Persons in bold face are real persons. Persons in italics are characters originally created by Jane Austen. The rest are fictional characters created for this variation.
Portsmouth
Mrs. Frances Price, widow of the late William Price (Sr.), lieutenant of Marines
Fanny Price, her oldest daughter
Susan Price, another daughter
Charles Price, her youngest son
Betsey Price, her youngest daughter
(Other Price sons not living at home: William, John, Richard, Sam, Tom)
William Gibson, a friend of the family and suitor of Fanny
Mr. Miller, a prosperous baker
Jacob Miller, his son, in love with Susan
Eliza, an unsatisfactory servant
Bristol
Mrs. Harriet Butters, Fanny’s benefactress
Madame Orly, her lady’s maid
Mr. Birtle, president of the Bristol Society for the Suppression of Vice
Mr. Henry Hunt, a celebrated radical orator
Belfast
Edmund Bertram, a clergyman and schoolmaster, second son of Sir Thomas
Mary Crawford Bertram, his wife
Thomas, Cyrus Crawford and Anna Imogen, their children
Dr. and Mrs. Ritchie
Captain Templeton, a man who does not improve upon acquaintance
Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm
London
Margaret Fraser Meriwether, a happily married young lady
Mr. Nathaniel Meriwether, a uxorious husband
Maria Bertram Crawford, sister of Edmund, widow of Henry Crawford
Henry Crawford, Jr., son of the late Henry Crawford
Admiral Crawford, uncle to Henry and Mary Crawford
Mr. Greville, Mr. Fenwick, and Mr. Orme, suitors to Maria Crawford (whose names are taken from Jane Austen’s favourite novel, Sir Charles Grandison)
John Price, another son of Frances and William Price, clerk at the Thames River police office
Richard Price, yet another Price son, third mate with the East India Company
Prudence Imlay, book-seller and aspiring poet
Mr. Ives, jailer at Surrey Gaol in Southwark
Benjamin Walker, Luddite and informer
Mrs. Godwin, second wife of William Godwin, proprietress of a bookshop
Newcastle
William Price, ship captain
Julia Bertram Price, his wife (and his cousin)
Italy
Percy Bysshe Shelley, an obscure poet with radical views
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, his wife, authoress of Frankenstein
Claire (also known as Mary Jane or Clare or Clara) Clairmont, Mary’s step-sister, erstwhile lover of Lord Byron
Paolo Foggi, an untrustworthy servant
Lucenza, a romantically inclined lady’s maid
Admiral Sir Thomas Fremantle, an eminent British sailor, and his wife Betsey. Fremantle was staying at Bagni di Lucca at this time.
Roberts, an English valet (name unknown)
Madame Ciampi, a disapproving landlady
Lt. Vannini, a policeman
Rebecca Robinson, an expatriate Englishwoman, friend of the Shelleys and Mr. Godwin. In real life, her name was Maria Gisborne
Mr. Robinson (Gisborne), her tedious husband
Dr. Roskilly, an eminent English surgeon in Naples
Northamptonshire
Mr. and Mrs. Owen, parents of at least four children
Mr. Owen, their son, who I have named Richard
Their three daughters, grown up – whom I have named Portia, Sarah and Helen
Mrs. Norris, sister to Mrs. Price and Lady Bertram, a censorious self-regarding busybody
Christopher Jackson, Mansfield Park’s carpenter
Dick Jackson, his son
Mr. John Shepherd, a solicitor, from the novel Persuasion
Two Clay grandsons, sons of Penelope Clay from Persuasion, whom I have named Henry and John
Manchester—Peterloo
Henry Lomax, owner of the White Lion Inn, member of the Cheshire militia
Mrs. Lomax may have existed but
