RAVES for Mary Crawford:
Of Austen's MANSFIELD PARK the great critic, Lionel Trilling observed: "Jane
Austen's character was conceived as 'all pungency and wit' to win the admiration
of almost any reader. Her mind is lively and competent as her body; she can
bring not only a horse but a conversation to a gallop.... Yet he laments, in the
end 'we are asked to believe that she is not to be admired....' Here Barrett frees
Mary Crawford to become herself at last.