#tom bertram

[taciturn-nerd]

Tom "Half-Hearted If You Want to Dance" Bertram vs Henry "Find me a Dance Partner" Tilney

Tom Bertram (Mansfield Park by Jane Austen)

Sees Fanny Price not dancing at the ball that's for her CORRECTION: her first ball!

Drags a chair next to her and starts reading the newspaper

Says if you want to dance I'll dance with you

Fanny politely declines because she's been conditioned to be a people-pleaser and knows Tom doesn't really want to dance

Uses dancing with Fanny as an excuse to get out of playing cards with his Aunt Norris, Mrs. Rushworth and Dr. Grant

Complains about how annoying it is to be "volun-told" to play cards

Fanny was very willing to dance, but how grateful can you be when it's done reluctantly to get out of doing a favor for someone else?

Henry Tilney (Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen)

Goes to Bath to prepare housing on behalf of his father for their family trip

While he's in town, goes to the Lower Rooms (at the Assembly where dances are held) and asks the master of ceremonies to introduce him to any young lady that needs a dance partner

Is a very friendly and witty conversationalist with Catherine Morland

He had no obligation to do any of this! He just did it out of the goodness of his heart and because he loves dancing!

The drastic difference between a selfish and generous heart.

[besotted-with-austen]

Mrs Norris: I care for all of my nieces and my nephews equally-

Mrs Norris: Maria, Jules, Tim, Edward and Fanny

Sir Thomas Bertram: *surprised* you remember Fanny? I knew you cared deep down-

Mrs Norris: I hate Fanny, I have to remember her.

[bethanydelleman]

Mary Crawford considering if she ought to marry Tom Bertram. Blue for personal attributes, green for consideration of wealth:

She acknowledged, however, that the Mr. Bertrams were very fine young men, that two such young men were not often seen together even in London, and that their manners, particularly those of the eldest, were very good. He had been much in London, and had more liveliness and gallantry than Edmund, and must, therefore, be preferred; and, indeed, his being the eldest was another strong claim. She had felt an early presentiment that she should like the eldest best. She knew it was her way.

Tom Bertram must have been thought pleasant, indeed, at any rate; he was the sort of young man to be generally liked, his agreeableness was of the kind to be oftener found agreeable than some endowments of a higher stamp, for he had easy manners, excellent spirits, a large acquaintance, and a great deal to say; and the reversion of Mansfield Park, and a baronetcy, did no harm to all this. Miss Crawford soon felt that he and his situation might do. She looked about her with due consideration, and found almost everything in his favour: a park, a real park, five miles round, a spacious modern-built house, so well placed and well screened as to deserve to be in any collection of engravings of gentlemen’s seats in the kingdom, and wanting only to be completely new furnished—pleasant sisters, a quiet mother, and an agreeable man himself...

Mansfield Park, Ch 5

It is so blended for her! Tom's wealth, or future wealth, is so inseparable from the man himself. They might as well be the same thing.

[janeaustenpolls]

Ok it's been a hot minute and I haven't decided on the next big round of polls so let's do something Fun 💖 and by fun I mean Fight To The Death In The Notes 💖

Who should Fanny Price have ended up with?

Edmund Bertram

Henry Crawford

Tom Bertram

Mary Crawford in some kind of lavender marriage situation

Someone else who appears in Mansfield Park

Someone else but no one from MP

No one, she should stay on as Lady Bertram's companion forever

No one, but I have a different idea in mind of where/how she'd live

See results

Voting ended onAug 22, 2025

[lavandaverde]

This is probably just because Edmund is really unlikable as a male protagonist (in the sense of not being interesting or having a well-developed attraction to Fanny, not being a bad person), but Tom Bertram caught my attention. While he was a selfish brat, there's a semblance of redemption in the end, and he's actually kind of fun. There aren't many other men in the story to ship Fanny with (there's Crawford, and I liked some fanfics about that, but I'm actually glad she rejected him), so maybe in the right scenario they could be together. Sadly, there are so few fanfics about this, I've already read most of the ones on AO3 (and paused one because it was getting annoying). I like that some of them incorporated an artistic side to him that apparently came from some adaptation, which made him more appealing, in my opinion, lol.

Anyway, I'd welcome recommendations for Tom x Fanny stories that don't come from ao3

[mosylufanfic]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

An Overabundance of Tom Bertrams (30734 words) by LucyCrewe11 Chapters: 4/4 Fandom: Mansfield Park - Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (TV 1983), Mansfield Park (2007), Mansfield Park - All Media Types, AUSTEN Jane - Works, Mansfield Park (1999) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tom Bertram/Fanny Price, Edmund Bertram & Fanny Price Characters: Tom Bertram, Fanny Price, Edmund Bertram, Mrs. Norris (Mansfield Park) Additional Tags: Inspired by The Time Traveler's Wife, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Time Travel, Romance, Slow Romance, Eventual Romance, Tom Is Not Traumatised By Antigua He's Just A Goofball With A Gambling Problem, Falling In Love, Sharing a Bed, Mrs. Norris has issues, three-shot, Tom Bertram is a Time Traveller, Four-Shot, Time Travel Fix-It, Alternate Universe - The Time Traveler's Wife Fusion Summary:

Tom Bertram, thanks to a haywire medical condition he can't control, travels randomly through time and visits Fanny Price (unknowingly his future wife) in the East Room while he's supposed to be away in Antigua.

But she's not too keen on her selfish, older cousin.

Not just yet.

-

Is this your story? Let me know so I can tag you!

[nthattemptatit]

I read some fanfic out of curiosity and now I ship Tom Bertram x Fanny Price. It requires a lot of canon-divergence, starting at least before Edmund falls in love with Fanny, but somehow I find it easier to get behind than Fanny being with Edmund or Henry. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Edmund at all. But I’m a romantic at heart and the book gave me close to zero on that front. Henry Crawford, even without the Mrs. Rushworth incident was just plain icky! He had no understanding of Fanny as a person and did NOT respect her boundaries. Tom, on the other hand, is as close to being a blank slate as possible, especially considering his life-altering serious illness and changing his ways. If Edmund comes to appreciate Fanny’s talents after heartbreak, why can’t Tom after almost dying? And yeah, he’s still a cousin but at least it’s not someone who ignored her as a romantic partner despite being her closest confidant other than a physically absent brother. I guess I can excuse Tom more readily than I can Edmund.

[hotjaneaustenmenpoll]

Tom Bertram (1999) Vs William Price (2007)

Tom Bertram (1999)

William Price (2007)

Voting ended onFeb 25, 2024