Mansfield Park (1814)

Surprisingly, the only Jane Austen book I'm not crazy about. It seemed to drag on forever and still ended with cousins getting married. Yeck. ( )

I owe thanks to someone else that I approached this novel with the right perspective. Fanny Price is not a heroine. 'Mansfield Park' is concerned with her happiness and compares her, to her benefit, against the brighter lights of her family and their social circle, but she cannot be relied on until near the end of the novel to carry any real weight with the reader.

The broader scope of the novel is evident in small ways, only once did the narrator actually abandon Fanny, but because she views herself as so nonessential the circumstances of her cousins have center stage. The characters are masterfully drawn, of course, and just ridiculous enough to be drawn from life. I can put up with any amount of priggish moralizing from Fanny to read the narrator's opinion afterwards.

I had seen a film version of this before, but it had been so colorless I'd forgotten how everything panned out. Fanny Price is no 'Emma', there can be only one, but if anything, because of the very flawed nature of this family, the ending is all the sweeter. Happiness and prosperity all together. ( )

A master storyteller at the height of her powers with Mansfield Park the superior textual quality of Austen's writing and her skill at distilling what possesses the heart & mind of each of her characters whilst exploring societal issues of the era alongside gracefully set out background is apparent on every page.
My one reservation is this particular publication's really AWFUL Cover! ( )

Not my favorite Jane Austen book. The heroine is too perfect and the characters are not as interesting and multidimensional as in other Jane Austen books. ( )

A few days ago a friendly woman I know approached me at the library and asked some questions about a seminar she was doing. Her central dilemma was choosing a subject for work that was supposed to deal with both feminism and literature.
For almost an hour I offered her subjects until finally when I machined Austin, the girl stopped me and her eyes opened. After we parted, I pulled this book out of the bookshelf again and without realizing it, for almost two days I reread it.

I will be honest. I read Mansfield Park three years ago. Then in those days of reading, I was very bored from the beginning of the book until I almost didn't want to keep on reading it.

three years had passed since and...
Well, now you'll have to read my review until it ends:)

As for the plot itself, in the early 21st century, the book doesn't look particularly gloomy, nor can it be perceived as scandalous, even though it has a marriage that collapses when one of the characters escapes with her lover. This shocking news causes the heroine of the novel a panic attack, but nowadays it is doubtful whether it would raise eyebrows. It is true that from the beginning of the 19th century to the present, the Western world has changed quite a lot, and Austen nevertheless writes the old codes of modesty above all else. And yet it is lovely writing, especially the art of her superior dialogues. She manages to be simultaneously witty, natural and intelligent when she reveals with subtle delicacy what the characters themselves cannot admit.

The Book tells the story of Fanny Price, a poor girl sent to a wealthy family, among them she knows Edmond, the sensitive child who at the same time has become the object of her love. She also meets with the brothers Henry and Mary who in their devious ways mess everything. The book discusses criticism of the Anglican Church and is again designed to criticize the hypocritical society.

At the last chapter, the book suddenly gains artificial momentum and is painted with a somewhat legendary twist. Everything ends too the best, the romantic way. As I mentioned, the first time I read the book it bored me, however, it is also very different from the other books I used to reading and thanks to the sudden change and dialogue sages - it becomes something worth reading. ( )