Mansfield Park

Jane Austen

Mansfield Park would have gotten 4 stars if I hadn't become so irritated with the main character by...more

Mansfield Park would have gotten 4 stars if I hadn't become so irritated with the main character by the time I was finished with it. Fanny Price is a morally upright, humble young woman set against a tapestry of bumbling and comically foolish characters. However, she grated on my nerves at the end by her passivity, meekness, and tendency to think badly of all the people around her except her cousin Edmund. Although in the end her impressions of everyone were actually pretty dead-on, I was so annoyed by that point by how easily "distressed" Fanny was that her shrewdness didn't really matter. The story itself was enjoyable, a showcase of Austen's incredible perception of human nature; nothing less than what we've naturally come to expect from her, but the conclusion was a little disappointing. I would have been happier if Edmund had actually fallen madly in love with Fanny. Instead it felt like they were both settling for sibling affection to base a marriage on. Actually, I would have been happier if the Crawfords had turned out to be the perfect matches for Fanny and Edmund, like I thought they would, instead of having the cousins marry each other. Overall Mansfield Park is a good read, and my only real complaint is the absence of the passion that Jane Austen weaves so masterfully into her other works.   hide

Certainly her most profound work in my eyes. Reading Mansfield Park was like reliving my childhood...more

Certainly her most profound work in my eyes. Reading Mansfield Park was like reliving my childhood - it was like returning home. Jane Austen's miraculous ability to develop characters is again wonderfully portrayed in this novel and a seemingly simple story becomes so intricate, a lifetime is not enough to fully comprehend. Again a beautiful study of life and people in a world so different from ours today, but in some ways one can relate so well with these characters and notions that it is almost modern. Jane Austen displays her great versatility that while one is reminded of other characters in her book, she never makes copies. Each person is truly unique as in real life. She shows a remarkable ability to 'get into a person's head' as shown by the remarkable difference in character and personalities: for instance comparing Lizzy with Fanny.   hide

I can sum up what I thought of it in two words: HATED IT. The book has a very complicated plot,...more

I can sum up what I thought of it in two words: HATED IT. The book has a very complicated plot, reflecting just how overcomplicated its main characters are (the girls are complicated...big surprise there.) There are basically a bunch of emotionally-charged girls running around in their high society, (the kind of girls afraid of working because they'll break their nails or something) all in love with somebody except there aren't enough guys to go around for them all so they have to share which doesn't work out very well. There are too many emotions involved. Everybody is so emotionally invested in what everybody else is doing and no one knows how to just live without sticking their nose in everyone else's business. The moral of the story: nothing you didn't already know.    hide

A very underated book. Fanny is one of my favorite Jane Austen heriones. Compared to Emma, Fanny...more

A very underated book. Fanny is one of my favorite Jane Austen heriones. Compared to Emma, Fanny has very few faults indeed. She strives to do good, and one can only praise her for that. I've read reviews, and it seems true, that this is Austen's most Christian novel. If you think of the book as Edmund, who is seeking to become a clergyman, struggling between temptations of worldliness (Miss Crawford) and Christian meekness (meek not meaning weakness, but strength and reliance in God) it is a very compelling story. We are all Edmund. What will we choose? But not all hope is lost. We can be like Fanny afterall. She's not so different from ourselves.   hide

what can I say...ok. the last chapter in this book is what made the whole book totally worth it! I...more

what can I say...ok. the last chapter in this book is what made the whole book totally worth it! I was despairing whether it would be a happy ending or not up until that last chapter. Normally I hate books that just sort of trudge along and then hit you with a zinger in the last couple of chapters, but I still managed to be interested in what was going on in Fanny's life even though not much ground was covered time-wise. and that last chapter...*grin* love, love, love it! Jane is a genius with manipulating her readers into feeling exactly how she wants them to feel about her characters and she loves to blindfold us with these preconceptions and then spin us around really really fast and whip off the blindfold and we are left staggering at what is really the truth! Brilliant!    hide