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Miss Abigail’s Part, or Version and Diversion
Jane Hartwell, lady's maid to Miss Julia Bertram of Mansfield Park, escapes the pitfalls of the Bertram household only to be hounded by bounty hunters in the streets of London, in this complementry novel to Jane Austen's famous "Mansfield Park"
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1987
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 9, 2017
A romance. Well sometimes they turn out well. Not this one. Too much dialog. Book was more like 3 short stories to me. The author did not seem to know where she wanted to go with the story. I am sorry to have wasted my time on it..
September 30, 2025
Miss Abigail's Part or Version and Diversion is a unique and compelling sequel to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Unlike most Austen sequels, this novel does not focus on Austen's main characters or the elegant ballrooms and refined manners of high society. Instead, it tells the story of Jane Hartwell, a young housemaid who is newly arrived at Mansfield Park. Jane's story runs parallel to the events of Mansfield Park, and we are given a behind-the-scenes look at what was happening below stairs during these events and the daily interactions between the Bertram family and their servants.
More than anything, this novel is about the struggles of the working class during the Regency era. The novel starts at the picturesque estate of Mansfield Park, and readers are quickly shown how difficult a servant's life could be. Eventually Jane leaves Mansfield Park for London and falls in with political activists seeking to improve the lives of the working class. This novel is well-researched and provides a lot of insight into the politics and class structures of the time, and I really enjoyed learning about this aspect of the time period since it is rarely shown in Regency novels.
While I agree with other reviewers that the first half of the book has a different feel than the second half, this did not bother me at all. There were enough plot points connecting the Mansfield Park setting with the London setting to keep me engaged with the story as a whole. I enjoyed both parts to this novel equally - the storyline in Mansfield Park provided an interesting perspective on Austen's novel, and I was completely engrossed in Jane's adventures after she left the Bertram family.
There is an inevitable comparison to Jo Baker's Longbourn (although this novel was published 30 years earlier), and I think readers who enjoyed that novel should try this one.
Trigger warning: This novel contains a scene involving sexual assault. It is not graphically described, but it is there.
Unlike most Austen sequels, this novel does not focus on Austen's main characters or the elegant ballrooms and refined manners of high society. Instead, it tells the story of Jane Hartwell, a young housemaid who is newly arrived at Mansfield Park. Jane's story runs parallel to the events of Mansfield Park, and we are given a behind-the-scenes look at what was happening below stairs during these events and the daily interactions between the Bertram family and their servants.
More than anything, this novel is about the struggles of the working class during the Regency era. The novel starts at the picturesque estate of Mansfield Park, and readers are quickly shown how difficult a servant's life could be. Eventually Jane leaves Mansfield Park for London and falls in with political activists seeking to improve the lives of the working class. This novel is well-researched and provides a lot of insight into the politics and class structures of the time, and I really enjoyed learning about this aspect of the time period since it is rarely shown in Regency novels.
While I agree with other reviewers that the first half of the book has a different feel than the second half, this did not bother me at all. There were enough plot points connecting the Mansfield Park setting with the London setting to keep me engaged with the story as a whole. I enjoyed both parts to this novel equally - the storyline in Mansfield Park provided an interesting perspective on Austen's novel, and I was completely engrossed in Jane's adventures after she left the Bertram family.
There is an inevitable comparison to Jo Baker's Longbourn (although this novel was published 30 years earlier), and I think readers who enjoyed that novel should try this one.
Trigger warning: This novel contains a scene involving sexual assault. It is not graphically described, but it is there.
July 19, 2015
This was quite a fascinating book. It starts as a spinoff from one of Jane Austin's books, Mansfield Park.
In this novel we follow Jane Hartwell, a country girl who first comes to Mansfield Park as a maid/ ladies maid just as the main adventures of Austin's story kick off. Unlike many other Austin inspired novels, our main characters are not those of the Austin novel, Fanny Price and Edmund are barely mentioned, instead we see more of the servants and the other members of the cast, and rarely in flattering light.
As the play comes crashing down with Sir Thomas' return from abroad, Jane Hartwell leaves Mansfield Park and the second part of the novel starts. It is a radical change!
The author clearly wants us to know more of the social inequality, the issues of the day, the unpleasantness that is never more than touched upon in Austin novels. This is exactly the sort of work of fiction I enjoy reading, but following on from an Austin inspired novel it was confusing and I think it gave the novel a sort of literary schizophrenia, I had to put it down for a while at this stage and read something else. The two types of novel are so very different that they do not run smoothly from one to the other.
Very well worth reading though, for anyone who likes reading this era! Unlike Austin or her many fans it is not purely a romance there is much more historical information than you get in many similar era novels. I found the writing style nice and easy to read as well, with none of the pretension that sometimes ends up in historical novels.
Very well done and well worth reading.
In this novel we follow Jane Hartwell, a country girl who first comes to Mansfield Park as a maid/ ladies maid just as the main adventures of Austin's story kick off. Unlike many other Austin inspired novels, our main characters are not those of the Austin novel, Fanny Price and Edmund are barely mentioned, instead we see more of the servants and the other members of the cast, and rarely in flattering light.
As the play comes crashing down with Sir Thomas' return from abroad, Jane Hartwell leaves Mansfield Park and the second part of the novel starts. It is a radical change!
The author clearly wants us to know more of the social inequality, the issues of the day, the unpleasantness that is never more than touched upon in Austin novels. This is exactly the sort of work of fiction I enjoy reading, but following on from an Austin inspired novel it was confusing and I think it gave the novel a sort of literary schizophrenia, I had to put it down for a while at this stage and read something else. The two types of novel are so very different that they do not run smoothly from one to the other.
Very well worth reading though, for anyone who likes reading this era! Unlike Austin or her many fans it is not purely a romance there is much more historical information than you get in many similar era novels. I found the writing style nice and easy to read as well, with none of the pretension that sometimes ends up in historical novels.
Very well done and well worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews