Monday, August 26, 2024

Ten of the best balls in literature

In 2010 at the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best balls in literature.

One novel on the list:
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Fanny Price cannot bloom unseen for ever. Sir Thomas Bertram stages a ball at which she will come out into society. She gets to dance with Edmund, which is nice, but has Henry Crawford at her too, with all his sexy compliments. By three o'clock in the morning Fanny is all "knocked up", as her brother delicately puts it.
Read about the other titles on the list.

Mansfield Park is among Amanda Craig's best books about nannies, Salley Vickers's favorite books about family dynamics and Travis Elborough's top ten books featuring parks. Maria Bertram in Mansfield Park is among Melissa Albert's five fictional characters who deserved better than they got.

--Marshal Zeringue