Jane Sighting - Mansfield Park mention

“…a relatively new novel called Mansfield Park was intriguing…”
-link to book listing but I can’t recommend reading it!

 There are a few things that bother me about this statement. Maybe they bother you too, maybe they don’t and you are now muttering “Amelia get over yourself.” So I’ll apologize.

The first thing that bothered me upon reading this is the relatively new part. As we know Mansfield Park was published in May of 1814 by Thomas Egerton and later republished in 1816 by John Murray. So this statement would work if the story was set within a year or two of the publications years. However, the majority of the book takes place in 1820.   I think it would have worked better if the author had chosen either Northanger Abbey or Persuasion both of which were published in 1818.

The second thing that bothered me was the use of intriguing to describe Mansfield Park.  I enjoy the novel and can think of many words to describe it but I can’t think of it as intriguing. Intriguing’s definition is “arousing one’s curiosity or interest; fascinating.” To me this sounds more like Northanger Abbey!

What do you think?

Does anyone else think that it’s great that so many authors want to mention Jane and her works in their works, but wish they would do a bit more research?