The Card Game Jane Austen Hid in Mansfield Park

I have reread Mansfield Park more times than I would like to admit, and every single time I slow down at chapter 25. Nothing huge happens there, honestly. Nobody elopes and nobody gets a shocking letter. It is just a dinner at the Parsonage and a round of cards, but that card game is doing really a lot of work, and it is way more fun than most people remember!

The game is called Speculation, and you may possibly have skimmed right past it like I did the first time. It was a real game, Austen played it herself, and once you know how it works, the scene opens up like a second story tucked inside the first.

The Evening at the Parsonage

Here is the setup. After dinner with the Grants, the older lot sit down to whist and the rest are left over for a round game. Lady Bertram cannot choose, so she asks her husband, “Whist and speculation; which will amuse me most?” Sir Thomas recommends Speculation, and Austen slips in that he was a whist player himself and perhaps would not much enjoy having her as a partner. That line truly makes me laugh every time.

Neither Lady Bertram nor Fanny has ever played, so Henry Crawford sits between them and teaches both. Fanny has the rules in about three minutes. Lady Bertram never does, and later tells Mrs. Grant it is “a very odd game”, since she is never to see her cards and Mr. Crawford does all the rest. Isn’t that the most Lady Bertram thing ever?

So How Did Speculation Actually Work?

The rules are really simple. In the version printed in the 1800 edition of Hoyle’s Games Improved, everyone puts a few counters into the pool, and the dealer puts in a little more. Each player gets three cards face down, and one card is turned up to set the trumps. Players then turn their cards over one at a time, and whoever shows the highest trump can keep it or sell it. Whoever holds the best trump at the end takes the pool.

Most of the fun is in the buying and selling. You stand a chance to buy a card that looks strong, pay far too much for it, and watch somebody flip over something better two turns later. Wikipedia calls it a “mild domestic gambling game”, which is a really nice way to put it.

Austen Really Did Love This Game

Here is the part I find totally charming. Austen loved Speculation in real life. Writing to her sister Cassandra from Castle Square in Southampton on 10 January 1809, she hears that Brag has won out over Speculation and admits she feels the same herself, but says it “mortifies me deeply, because Speculation was under my patronage”. Two lines later she talks herself right back round, grumbling that a good Brag hand “is but three nines or three knaves”.

A fortnight earlier, on 27 December 1808, she had sent her love to “Edward junior and his brothers” and hoped “Speculation is generally liked”. Mansfield Park came out in 1814, so the Parsonage scene is really her own pet game on the page. Doesn’t that make the chapter way more personal?

Mary Crawford, Fanny Price and Two Ways to Play

Austen uses the game to show who these people really are. Mary Crawford buys William Price’s knave at “an exorbitant rate” and announces, “There, I will stake my last like a woman of spirit. No cold prudence for me.” She wins the hand, but Austen adds that it “only did not pay her for what she had given to secure it”. So she won and still came out behind. That is the whole of Mary Crawford in one hand of cards!

Of course the knave stands in for something bigger. While Henry rattles on about doing up Thornton Lacey, Mary is quietly speculating on Edmund and the life she pictures there. When Sir Thomas makes it clear that Edmund really means to live there as the parish clergyman, Austen writes that “all the agreeable of her speculation was over for that hour”. Such a sharp pun, and so easy to miss.

Fanny, meanwhile, tries her best to let her brother William win. Henry has to “sharpen her avarice, and harden her heart”, and Edmund teases, “Poor Fanny! not allowed to cheat herself as she wishes!” Two women at one small table, and two totally different ways to play.

From the Card Table to Mobile Slots

These days that round table has mostly moved into our pockets, and the after-dinner flutter over a pile of counters looks a lot like a few spins on the phone once the dishes are done. For UK players, the mobile slots at Jackpot Mobile Casino are built for the phone, so you may possibly squeeze in a few rounds between one chapter and the next.

The lesson from chapter 25 still holds, though. Play it like Fanny. Decide what you are happy to spend before you start, think of it as your own pile of counters, and stop when it is gone. UK-licensed sites like Jackpot Mobile Casino let you set a deposit limit, and online slots in the UK now have a £5 stake cap per spin (£2 if you are 18 to 24), which is a really nice bit of cold prudence built right in. Mobile slots are an evening’s entertainment, never a way to make money. Spin for fun, close the app, and go back to your book!

One Last Thing Before You Reread It

Next time you pick up Mansfield Park, slow down at chapter 25 and watch the cards. Who is buying, who is selling, who is paying too much for a queen? When Henry tells Fanny, “You have bought her too dearly”, that one line holds the potential to sum up half the novel. Lost your copy? Well then, you are in luck! It is free to read on Project Gutenberg. So tell me, are you a Mary or a Fanny at the card table?

18+. Please gamble responsibly. BeGambleAware.org.