Sure, his new found friends of the UHB know why. He wears a raincoat (albeit with a warm lining as he explains) in midwinter, and a ‘snob’ for public transit. A self-professed socialist, Tom comes from the other side of the track. He stands for everything that’s the opposite of the UHB. It has two characters that are a type of Fanny Price. Stillman’s Metropolitan is set in 1990 NYC. As Jane ends the book, Fanny gets the final praise, and an oblivious, but decent, Edmund as her ultimate reward. But it’s her being principled and virtuous that make her stick out like a sore thumb. Fanny Price is unadorned, impoverished, athletically challenged, a misfit and outsider when she enters the upper class home of Sir Thomas Bertram.
In Mansfield Park, Jane presented a heroine that is a contrarian.
From his treatment of his characters, he is gentle and forbearing, albeit incisive, just enough to elicit some knowing chuckles. Stillman’s Metropolitan is not so much an acerbic satire but a gentle poke and descriptive vignettes of the young UHB’s lifestyle and thinking. If she were to write the screenplay, Jane would probably be less subtle. Debutante parties? Jane would be surprised to hear they still exist in the 20th century. She would be amused by the characters in this comedy of manners and their social commentaries. Wait a minute, UHB? ‘ Urban Haute Bourgeoisie‘? Isn’t that the kind of targets that would have interested Jane? Our astute Jane who loved to wield her pen, piercing through the façade of the rich and privileged, shaking the underlying status quo of society of her time? Jane would have loved Stillman’s film. What does Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, published in 1814 England, have in common with a bunch of upper class college freshmen/women in 1990 New York City, calling themselves UHB ( Urban haute bourgeoisie), worrying about an ‘escort’ shortage for their debutante parties during their Christmas break? For those wondering how that came about, do seek out Stillman’s film Love & Friendship (2016), or his movie-tie-in book Love & Friendship: In Which Jane Austen’s Lady Susan Vernon Is Entirely Vindicated.īut Janeites may not have noticed, back in 1990, five years before the pivotal year of wet shirt Darcy’s mortifying encounter with Lizzy Bennet, another Austen character was vindicated, Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.
Thanks to New York born and raised director Whit Stillman, one of Jane Austen’s characters in her juvenilia, Lady Susan Vernon, had a field day last year.
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