jigsaws in Mansfield Park
Posted by Caroline on August 17, 1998 at 14:34:30:
In response to jigsaw puzzles & board games, written by Bob Whitworth on August 17, 1998 at 11:55:32
] Now, as to board games. There were plenty of board games during the Regency period. In fact, the first purely English board game was created by Thomas Jeffrys and published in 1759 by Carington Bowles. Patterned after the old gambling game famous at inns (called “The Game of Goose”)Jeffrys took a map of Europe and made a game that was wholly acceptablt to children and their parents.
In Mansfield Park, The young Bertram sisters mock Fanny because she 'cannot put together a map of Europe'. I always assumed that they meant a jigsaw puzzle map . However, it might, I suppose, be a game like this, and they might have been mocking her not because shedidn't know the names and the shapes, but because she wasn't used to having toys like this.
Thanks, Bob! Illuminating, as always!
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