18th century studies

Following is part one of my end-of-term essay for my core course in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King's College London, Autumn 2017 In the wake of the sexual assault cases that have rattled Hollywood and beyond, seeing a film co-executive produced by Harvey Weinstein is problematic: On the one hand, knowing someone like he had his hand in the mix cannot help but color the viewing. When Sir Thomas says to Fanny in a less-than-platonic way, “You’ve grown in health and, I dare say, beauty,” though it’s almost verbatim what’s in the text, knowing what one knows about Weinstein makes it a difficult moment. Even so, films should be judged on individual merit, like paintings or books, and it would be impossible to remove every bad actor from the annals of artistic history. In the 1999 Miramax film “Mansfield Park”, adapted from the Jane Austen 1814 classic and from her letters and early journals, lovers of the long eighteenth-century are in for a treat. Not only does the film perf...