Jane Austen's version of the Cinderella story. A classic! ( )

After reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen earlier this year, which I really loved, I decided to pick up another Austen novel and chose Mansfield Park because I had read that it is different from her more popular books.

n this novel, the ten year old Fanny Price is taken from her poor parents' home to live at Mansfield Park and be brought up with her rich cousins. Here the difference in class becomes very apparent, her cousins feel superior to her so they ignore her most of the time, however her cousin Edmund is different and he becomes Fanny's only friend. While her uncle is away in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighborhood and as they become closer to the family the story unravels into a moral and social dilemma.

It started a little slow and halfway through the book I was still waiting for something to happen, it just seemed to dwell on the day-to-day lives of the Bertrams and the Crawfords, without giving much importance to Fanny. I found some of the characters in this book to be really hateful, I especially hated Mrs. Norris and how she treated Fanny, taking credit where it was not deserved and spoiling Fanny's cousins. At times I just wanted to talk some sense into their heads to stop being so selfish. The two characters that I liked from the very beginning were Fanny for how sensible she was and Edmund for how kind he was to his cousin when everyone else pretty much ignored her, and as the story developed I also started liking Sir Thomas Bertram more and more. The last two hundred pages is when the story started to get really interesting. I really wanted Henry Crawford to be successful in his quest, I believed that Fanny changed him. I certainly was not expecting the ending, it seemed that the character's lives were too dull for such things to happen to them so it came as a surprise to me, and although I was disappointed in some of them I was also very happy with how it ended. At the end of the the book I realized that the time spent getting to know the characters in the beginning was well worth it because it gives you a better understanding of their actions.

I love the detail that Jane Austen puts into her characters, it makes you feel like you know these people and you're part of the story. Although Mansfield Park is not as edgy as Pride and Prejudice, it's still a great classic and I would recommend it to any classics or Jane Austen fan. ( )

Mansfield Park is only bested by Pride and Prejudice. Truly one of Austen's better works. Even the fact that the male protagonist is at times unbearably weak does not detract from the greatness of this book. ( )

Perhaps the least popular of Jane Austen's six major works, this is still one of my favourite novels of all time. Fanny Price, isn't a Elizabeth Bennet or a Emma Woodhouse but the character has it's own endearing charm (who could not admire a character who stays true to her own character, whilst constantly meeting with opposition and ill treatment and yet in the end still triumphs?) Similarly, the relationship between Fanny and Edmund is not a high-blown romantic drama but nevertheless is still wonderfully written.
The tone is in some ways more serious than others but Austen's wit still sparkles through with characters such as Mrs Norris and her sister Lady Bertram. I have read this quite a few times now and each time I find more and more things to admire in it. ( )

The most unpopular of Jane Austen's novel but I loved it. I particularly liked its young heroine Fanny Price though she is in many ways the least Austen-like. I am biased perhaps because I like to think I am like Fanny in some ways. It was refreshing to see people realize a sense of propriety is more valuable than vanity and selfishness, however charming and attractive. Wonderful social and psychological commentary and brilliant writing as always. ( )

Jane Austen details the minute shades of personality in another great love story. She gets to the heart of things with her insightful and witty social commentary. In her book Mansfield Park she tells the story of a young woman who grows up with rich relations and has to deal with the knowledge of her inferiority compared to the other children of the family. It contrasts her refined sensibilities with that of her family of origin who has sunk deep into poverty and all its misfortunes. All is well in the end as true love prevails. ( )

Not about imperialism or slavery: Since Edward Said wrote his foolish piece on Mansfield Park it has become de rigeur to attach agendas that reflect the intramural (ie bogus) leftism of the academy to novels (sorry texts) Even so this effort to do so in Mansfield Park is particularly outlandish. In fact the question "What is Mansfield Park about" is less interesting than the question "what is it like to read Mansfield Park" To answer that question one has to explore the LANGUAGE of the novel and see where it leads. The plot of Mansfield Park is off-putting--the verbal architecture of the novel is unsurpassed. Trust me--delight in the language, the layers of irony in a sentence or scene. Ignore current opinion which is both intellectually lazy as well as dishonest. Jane Austen made her feelings clear about the slave trade in EMMA. That A "political" intereprative industry should have grown up about this book testifies to the reigning stupidities of English Studies-- well an English Professor has got to make a living.

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I just couldn't get very far into this book. 85 pages in and still confusing the four young female characters as they all seem the same! Oh dear... ( )

Easily my least favorite of Austen's. The heroine is pretty dull, no Elizabeth Bennett spirit here. My main gripe with this story is that it’s all buildup with a very unsatisfying ending. Skip this one. ( )

1031 Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (read 2 Nov 1969) In June 1954 I read Pride and Prejudice with greatest delight. In May 1965 I read Sense and Sensibility , Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion with similar appreciation. Quite by accident--I found a copy for 10 cents--I have now read this work. Fanny Price goes to live with her maternal aunt, Mrs. Thomas Bertram. who lives at Mansfield Park. Another maternal aunt, Mrs. Norris, is there--and she is a caricature of the evil aunt. Fanny is all goodness. She falls in love with her cousin Edmund, who is in love with Mary Crawford. Mary's brother, Henry Crawford, woos Fanny. But Fanny cannot stand him. Edmund's sisters, Maria and Julia, are worthless. Fanny of course triumphs. First, the story drug--much to-do over amateur acting, etc. But in time the craftsmanship caught me up--as Jane Austen has always done. So deft, so carefully done. One cannot but be impressed. Edmund is a prig, but since Fanny loves him one can forgive him much. One continues to be struck by the fact that the rich in Austen's time apparently did nothing. Even Fanny's poor parents have two servants besides all their children. One cannot be sorry for poor people so lazy as to need servants. The only major Austen novel I now have not read is Emma. I will read it sometime. [I did 20 Aug 1972.] ( )

I have recently rediscovered Austen, not having enjoyed her works at all in my youth, and this book is responsible for my different perspective and fresh enjoyment.

It is a darker book and more serious in tone than I had imagined. The protagonist Fanny is far less appealing superficially than many of Austen's other female leads: passive, sickly, dully dutiful and always right, but oddly I grew to like her very much. She is certainly not as attractive and likeable as Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, for example. She is a stoic and endures rather than actually *doing* anything; she is the moral centre while all the other characters are in flux, even her beloved Edmund, who supposedly instilled in her all that is of value. She is not immune to pressures or temptations, but she recognises them for what they are and does not succumb.

It's classic Austen territory with town and country values at odds, while taking a more complex and nuanced approach to her usual themes than other of her works led me to expect.

It was a surprise to me how much I enjoyed the novel, and it has meant that I have begun to revisit her other works. Pride and Prejudice was an awful lot funnier than I remembered it, so there's definitely something to be said for going back to those books that you couldn't get on with first time around. I wonder if it's that I'm older or that I'm reading for my own pleasure rather than for a school or college course?

Really enjoyed it and the ending is great. A nice read and my second favourite of Jane Austen's books. The main character is realli ordinary and suffers unknowingly through injustices. Good display of the social hierarchy in britain at that time, and another good insight into a different kind of love story. ( )

Fairly enjoyable, but my least favorite of Jane Austens books. ( )

Having grown up incredibly shy and socially anxious myself, I didn't find the main character Fanny Price as difficult to like as some people find. To be sure, she is no Lizzy Bennett: if you're looking for the sort of soaring wit and humor in the main heroine that most of us expect from Jane Austen, well, be prepared for disappointment. Wit and humor are left to the narrator and the other characters.

That said, the writing is beautiful. I felt it was more of a character study than any of Jane's earlier work, and it's a depiction of the genteel class that is worlds different from Pride and Prejudice! Was she souring on class difference and gender roles in her later years? This is a heavy book laden with subtle criticism, but it's probably my favorite Jane Austen book because of it. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. Some think that the main character Fanny is annoyingly passive, but I found her endearing. When you are raised to be a doormat it is hard to be a beacon. Edmund is a great hero.

This isn't my favorite Jane Austen book, but I thought it was a really good read.

Mansfield Park is usually tied with Emma for least-loved of Austen's books, and though the heroines of each are very, very different, the two books' lower favor with Austenites is usually due to Fanny and Emma, respectively. While Emma is an interfering, independent young woman, Fanny is her exact opposite, and loves nothing better than to hide while others receive all the attention. Many modern readers find Fanny too passive, and call her "weak." But this misses the essential point of the story — strength is not in being feisty and independent, but holding firm to your convictions under pressure. This review will contain spoilers, so proceed with caution.

Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price, the dependent niece of Sir Thomas Bertram who is taken into the Bertram family at a young age as a favor to her parents, who are not well-to-do. From the first, Fanny is taught her inferior place in the family by her officious Aunt Norris, who dotes on Fanny's cousins, Maria and Julia. At Mansfield Park, her cousin Edmund is the only one who sees Fanny's distress and tries to make things easier for her. He quickly becomes her only confidante and comfort in the Bertram home, and this continues into Fanny's adulthood. When the charming brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford come into the neighborhood, things begin to change — and not, in Fanny's opinion, for the better.

Austen's characterizations are excellent, as always. I think she achieved something special in Lady Bertram, even though my lady is quite a background sort of person. Indeed, it may be because of her minor-character status that the execution of the character is so striking to me. The word for Lady Bertram is "indolent," and rarely has anyone exemplified it better. She is not ill-meaning, and has a good heart, but she cannot be bothered to do anything for anyone. She is comfortable, pleasant, and in many ways only half-alive. And yet I like her very well, for some unaccountable reason.

Austen achieves similar things with the character of Henry Crawford. Usually I'm able to disdain the bad guys in Austen's world as cads and weaklings, but Crawford is written so well that I think I feel some of his charm even through the pages of a book. The way Austen probes his motivations and feelings is really fascinating. His main vice is not deliberate deception or evil, but rather overweening vanity and selfishness. And he is capable of good things.

The other characters are also well-drawn. Sir Thomas in all his dignity and yet truly good beliefs underneath the formality. Tom, with his thoughtless profligacy and unfixed principles. Maria with her haughty pride of beauty and money, and helpless love for someone who slights her. Edmund, with his kindness and, sometimes, blindness. Julia, with her jealousy of Maria and her selfishness. Aunt Norris, with her selfish officiousness and ruthless economy. Mr. Rushworth, with his money and his ridiculous two and forty speeches. Mary Crawford, with her unsound principles and disdain for anything unfashionable. We get a clear picture even of Dr. and Mrs. Grant, who have almost no dialogue whatsoever in the story.

Many readers disparage Fanny, the principal character of the story, as weak and passive. Certainly she does not have the spunk and polite sauciness of an Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse. Constantly belittled during her formative years and made to feel her inferiority by Aunt Norris, Fanny is terrified of being singled out for any kind of special notice. She was passive and retiring by nature, and her upbringing had the effect of exaggerating these qualities. Many modern readers can't stand this in a female character; modern conventions have taught us that heroines must be sassy and spunky. But I tend to fall into the small but determined camp that appreciates Fanny for who she is.

Fanny is always ready to give way for the convenience of others — but this does not stop her from observing their behavior, and venturing private judgments on it. And she is not often wrong in her assessments of the people around her. Despite her pliable nature, Fanny stops short when asked to do something against her principles. She refuses to take part in the not-quite-respectable play that her cousins put on, even though her Aunt Norris makes her feel very guilty over refusing. This foreshadows a later refusal, when Fanny dares to defy the expectations of the Bertrams on the much more serious matter of a marriage proposal. These refusals cause Fanny a great deal of wretchedness, but she stands her ground.

And this is why I love her. Not because she has a witty tongue or a keen eye for the foibles of others in the mode of the usual feisty heroine, but because she holds true to her beliefs even when under pressure from every quarter to compromise them. To me, this makes her much worthier of the adjective "strong" than many another heroine who talks back to the men and dares great things. Fanny is a strong woman because she, being weak, still stands firm on her convictions.

Mansfield Park is the longest and probably most complex of Austen's novels, and though there is a fair bit of pointed humor in the observations about Lady Bertram and Aunt Norris, it has a bitter edge to it. I also think the great tragedy/transgression of this story is the darkest of all Austen's stories, even worse than Lizzy's actions in Pride & Prejudice. Because of the definite lack of lighthearted wit and the seriousness of the evils committed, this is not a bubbling romance of misunderstandings and genteel follies. The denouément gives quite a lot to think about, especially regarding Fanny's probable actions had things happened differently than they did.

I do NOT recommend the 1999 movie starring Frances O'Connor. It changed Fanny's personality to something more acceptable to modern tastes, involved Sir Thomas in graphic, horrific barbarism in the slave plantations of Antigua, showed the illicit affair between Crawford and Maria, had Fanny actually accept Crawford at one point (!), and generally missed the whole point of the original story. Nor can I give the recent Masterpiece Theatre version starring Billie Piper much praise; Piper, though a good actress, is completely wrong for Fanny, and the whole production lacked panache. I'm not familiar with other film adaptations of the story, but in general I've heard they are all rather lacking. Pity.

In some ways this is an "ugly duckling" story, before such things became popular in the realm of chick-lit. But Fanny does not transform herself in the course of the story; she remains in many ways what she always has been. Perhaps it's more that the people around her transform slowly until they are finally able to see the beauty of her character. With fantastic characters, deft writing, probing insight, and occasional wryness, Austen's Mansfield Park is a thought-provoking story with an unusual heroine who compels respect instead of mere amusement. Highly recommended. ( )

The best Austen novel I have read (of 3), by quite some way. The characters have some humor and the descriptions of houses and gardens are very nicely created. ( )

liked it ( )

This is my favorite Jane Austen book! ( )

Mansfield Park is one of Jane Austen's later novels. Its heroine is Fanny Price, a poor cousin who came to live with the Bertram family as a young girl. She grows up surrounded by cousins Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia, and is largely relegated to serving as companion to their mother. In its portrayal of class differences it bears resemblance to Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen displays her usual talent for satirizing English society. But this novel has a more somber undertone, a moral dimension exploring the choices made by each of the young people, and the consequences thereof.

Unfortunately, I found this book hard work. I had neutral to negative feelings about all of the characters. Fanny Price came across as mousy and boring; the other women were insipid. Men were cast in typical roles: wealthy handsome cads, kind clergy, etc. And the plot moved at a snail's pace. Whether it was a visit to the country, the staging of a play, or a trip to town, Austen stretched the story on for pages and pages. Having enjoyed most of Austen's other work, I had high hopes for Mansfield Park but found myself skimming towards the end, just to be done with it. ( )

Well, this is a difficult one. As far as the writing goes, this is probably one of the best of Austen’s efforts. As far as the story goes, it is hard to like a novel when you cannot stand the protagonist, especially when you are not MEANT to dislike her.

Fanny Price is starchy and self-deprecating. There were moments when her self-loathing was entirely too much. Her failure to accept even a portion of a compliment was no virtue. Her quietness became a tactless undertone of disapproval and I began to find her manners lacking.

I am also weary of the tidily resolved ending and on this score, Austen goes even further by writing the final chapter as postscript. While criticism of Austen’s contrived endings are nothing new, it must also be considered that she was a woman writing in an era of suppression and that the era itself was pedantic. However, I’m big on endings, to the point of dismissing an entire and well-enjoyed novel if the ending lacks, so perhaps I am not the best judge here.

I adore Pride and Prejudice as well as Sense and Sensibility, find Northanger Abbey a fun read and love that witty bantering style so attributed to Miss. Austen, but Mansfield Park falls low on my Austen ladder.

Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume
© Tasses 2007-2009 ( )

Delightful ( )

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