Mansfield Park

This Jane Austen novel tends to be talked of rather less than some of the others. I enjoyed it though it took me nine days to get through, as it's a slow burn novel, lacking a strong narrative drive. The heroine, Fanny Price, is the eldest daughter of one of three sisters (the poor one, who was deemed to have married beneath her, and who isn't given the dignity of having a first name here) At the age of ten Fanny is sent to live with her aunt, another sister Maria who married an MP, Sir Thomas Bertram, and who live on the eponymous estate in Northamptonshire. The Bertrams have two sons, Tom and Edmund, and two daughters, Maria and Julia; and the third sister, Frances Norris, is also around, especially after the death of her clergyman husband. The novel is essentially about the relationships between these people, and a brother and sister who arrive on the scene, Henry and Mary Crawford. There are the usual sharp Austen observations about social situations and class pretentiousness, and some passages of great humour, especially over their private theatricals, putting on a performance for their own amusement of a real life bawdy play, Lovers' Vows (which sounds great fun and which I've downloaded). Fanny rejects a marriage proposal from Henry Crawford, which seems to echo Austen's rejection of the only such proposal she received, when she initially accepted the offer and then changed her mind after sleeping on it. Fanny is unhappy at Mansfield Park, but then when she returns to the family home in Portsmouth, she rejects the chaos there and starts to long to return to the estate. The last part of the novel contains two elopements and a resetting of a number of the relationships between the characters, plus a happy ending for Fanny. Fanny is a less interesting character than other heroines of Austen's novels, and comes across sometimes as a bit annoyingly priggish, but the reader basically sympathises with her predicament living with the eclectic bunch of self-centred characters that largely comprise the Mansfield Park household.

Another Austen romance.Fanny Price, about age 9, is "invited" to live with her Bertram cousins--her parents have too many kids in too small a space in the city of Portsmouth. Her mother married down. Her oldest sister married up, to a Bertram, and lives at Mansfield Park. Her other sister, Mrs Norris, now widowed, married laterally to a minister, and now lives within walking distance of the Bertrams. It is Mrs Norris' idea that the Bertram's should offer to house one of the sister's daughters.Mrs Norris makes sure Fanny knows her place. She is expected to stay home and help Aunt Bertram, who is the most mild and boring woman ever. Mrs Norris is the cruel aunt, and constantly reminds Fanny of her position. She is more helper than cousin.And this goes on for years. As they age, their relationships shift, though Mrs Norris always blames Fanny and thinks she doesn't deserve anything. The Bertram family has a bit of an implosion, with illness, elopement, running off, and unrequited love. Because of course, this is a romance.And in the end, exactly what I expected to happen happened. Because it's a romance!

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!

I wasn't sure I was going to like Mansfield Park again at first. I read it some years ago and I remember liking it, but that was about all I remembered besides the name Fanny Price. Now that I've completed it I have to say I did enjoy it in the overall. I think it has most to do with Jane Austen's writing than anything, but after the first section, the story was quite absorbing.

Lots of reviews already here, so I won't go into details.I liked it, quite a bit. I kept wondering how things would turn out, as there were many twists and turns in the plot.Mansfield Park was, imo, a bit 'deeper' than Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. It was more 'work' to read it, but well worth the effort!It is now my second favorite Jane Austen book, behind P&P.

THIS IS SUCH AN AMAZING BOOK! As a fan of Austen's works, I love all of them, but this one is simply incredible. I love the development of the story and particularly love the relationship that Austen developed between Fanny and her brother, William. It's just what a sibling's relationship should be. If you love Jane Austen's books, then you must read this one because it truly is a masterpiece! I will warn you that the story is one of Austen's longer ones, but trust me when I say that it's all worth it!

I knew Elizabeth Bennet. I love Elizabeth Bennet. Fanny Price, you are no Elizabeth Bennet. In fact, what type of heroine are you? Similar to many classics of this time, the story is based around a young girl, who is so poor that she lives with wealthier relatives, but not as a peer, but as a lower class companion. The young girl has such great moral integrity that she grows up with impeccable values and does not fall victim to temptation as her wealthier, spoiled relatives. In Mansfield Park, the heroine is Fanny Price who lives with her wealthy cousins, the Bertrams on the family estate of Mansfield Park. When the Crawfords move close by, Fanny is the only one who is not blinded by their charm and glamour and unlike one of her cousins, does not ruin her life by following their poor example.

Yes, Fanny is morally perfect - but she is also a wimp. She tires from long walks in the sun and is so meek and mild mannered. The story was enjoyable with great scenes, but I was so hoping for a heroine with spark and maybe even some backbone.

The twists in this tale were quite hilarious.

Mansfield Park is Austen's third,least popular,and my second favorite of her novels.It is the least popular because like most of her relatives,most readers do not understand the heroine Fanny Price.Fanny's high sense of morals,duty,honor and gentleness are uncommon in our society today.Today society doesn't have a moral code.I am very fond of Fanny and she is one of my favorite heroines.I dislike Henry and Mary Crawford,who most other readers seem to like.Henry Crawford is the kind of man who leads you on,gets sick of you,or gets what he wants or both then skips out on you.Leaving you with a broken heart.Henry Crawford is the best actor of all the young people(in play they almost put on in the book).It's because his whole life is that an act.He cannot be himself because he doesn't know himself.His sister Mary is not much better.She values money over character.Henry charms Fanny's female cousins Maria and Julia.While Mary bewitches Fanny's best friend,cousin,and true love Edmund.Fanny is the only one who doesn't fall under the Crawfords charms.She sees them for who they are all charm,no substance.Fanny Price may not be as lively or witty as some of Austen's other heroines like Elizabeth and Emma but everyone is different.I hope when you read Mansfield Park you love Fanny Price for who she is and not who she isn't.

I've read this many times, but I'm still struck every time by the ambivalence of its message. We know we're supposed to latch on to the evangelical, proto-Victorian, path of Fanny and Edmund, but the case for the Crawfords' pragmatic, enlightenment morality is made surprisingly attractive. The real puzzle - for the author as much as for us, I suspect - is why a clever man like Henry Crawford should ever waste time on someone as patently vain and silly as Maria.Another thing that struck me this time is the cunning way Austen sets up the very un-Victorian idea that people live in mutual incomprehension in separate moral worlds: Mary Crawford's complete failure to understand that the duties of a clergyman might be expected to go beyond preaching in fashionable churches and attending smart tea-parties; Mr Yates's similar failure to understand why his amateur theatricals have to be scrapped on two occasions. These scenes always remind me of going to stay with my rather puritanical grandparents as a small child and discovering that all sorts of things that were perfectly legitimate at home (buying ice cream or listening to the radio on a Sunday, for instance) were regarded as shockingly depraved behaviour here.

Not one of Jane Austen's finer works. Saw the movie. Book was too boring to finish. It kept dragging on and on and on...

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.

I have to say, I always hesitate a bit before reading Jane Austen. She’s going to describe the flaws and motivations of the characters in that world in very clever ways, and I will be successfully transported to the English countryside in the early 19th century, but I know I’ll be entering a somewhat secluded, prim and proper world for several hundred pages.In Mansfield Park, young Fanny Price is shipped off to her aunt and uncle Bertram at the age of nine because her own parents are poor and have too many kids. Wow. She grows up provided for, but always as a bit of a Cinderella; the Lady Bertram is indolent and inattentive, and her other aunt in the area, Mrs. Norris, is a busybody who cruelly exerts her will on the household, denying, for example, a fire to ever be lit in Fanny’s fireplace. There are two older girls in the household, Maria and Julia, and two older boys, Tom and Edmund. It is with Edmund that she forms a bond as he has the humanity to care for her, and the two grow up into virtuous young adults.Trouble comes when Henry and Mary Crawford move into the area. Henry begins flirting with both Maria and Julia, setting them against one another, and suggesting that they all put on a play in their house while their father is away in the West Indies. It was considered scandalous for daughters to act in plays, particularly those with content relating to love scenes, as it might taint their reputations. That’s hard for modern readers to swallow, but that’s the reality these characters were living in. Meanwhile, Edmund falls for Mary’s starry dark eyes and can’t see her true character, all of which is alarming to Fanny.Chapter 19, which has the father returning from the West Indies, is brilliant. The buffoonery of Mr. Rushmore, a rich suitor for Maria, and the self-importance of Mrs. Norris, are quite funny. As the play is broken up, Crawford turns his attention to Fanny, and we’re set even more against him when he tells his sister that he “cannot be satisfied without Fanny Price, without making a small hole in Fanny Price’s heart”. I find that much is made by readers of Fanny’s being a prig, and a boring, unlikeable character, and it’s surprising to me. She’s a bit like a young protagonist out of Dickens, and someone that I cared about. Consider this - can she go into the Navy like her brother William, the clergy like her beloved Edmund, or travel about, gambling and hunting like her profligate cousin Tom? No, she cannot. It’s important for a woman of her age to be pretty, and her choice is in making a good marriage. She has seen the effect of a bad one; her own mother's circumstances are appalling in comparison to those of her aunt at Mansfield. The dilemma she faces is Crawford’s inconstant character; he's a collector of hearts and doesn't have the sensitivity she sees in Edmund. It's a shock to everyone when she turns him down, and everyone around her expresses their displeasure and begins working on her to come around and accept him. They question whether she knows her own feelings, whether she is just in shock at the suddenness of the proposal, and if she knows how ungrateful and selfish she’s being. They lay it on thick, and in the meantime Crawford’s behavior improves. Poor Fanny! (And grrr.)Austen was painfully aware of the choice facing Fanny, for at age 26 she received an offer of marriage which would have been of great benefit to her and her parents economically, but after an initial acceptance, realized the man behind the money was not someone she could love or even admire, and subsequently turned him down. There was great pressure in these situations; as she says in Mansfield Park, “being now in her twenty-first year, Maria Bertram was beginning to think matrimony a duty”. You could be damned if you marry for money and position (as Maria does), and you can be damned if you marry based on attraction (as her own mother had). Ultimately Austen is a romantic, believing love is of utmost importance, but that it must be ‘true love’, not passing infatuation.In considering Austen, I’m guided by Virginia Woolf, who so correctly pointed out in A Room of One's Own, that Austen had few opportunities to travel or experience greater breadth in life, so in the narration of the novel, the scene does not shift to the frigate, the parsonage, London, or general roaming about. While in this novel it does have the effect of capturing Fanny's reality, hearing of many things only through letters or as related to her by another, we realize this was not a conscious choice of Austen's, it was a constraint. Austen was well read, but, for example, had never been to London. It’s absurd to me that there are contemporary critics, mostly male, who decry her lack of commentary on everything from the Napoleonic Wars to the steam engine to whaling. Austen was a bit of a caged bird, or a hothouse flower, beautiful but not wild and free, because of the age she lived in, and specifically because of men.How can a woman remain true to herself in such a society, if she has no means of being independent? Be virtuous, she says, and marry out of love, and to a good man. To her credit, she does point out that the disgrace a man faces after an inappropriate dalliance was “less equal than could be wished”, and indeed, less than a woman’s. The last scene of Crawford’s sister giving Edmund a “saucy playful smile, seeming to invite” reflects that she’s well aware of improper behavior, she just doesn’t ‘go there’ to describe it. She’s a good author, and an important link in the chain for women. Last point: I liked how this edition includes copies of the illustrations Hugh Thomson did for an 1897 publication.Just this quote, on nature:“Fanny agreed to it, and had the pleasure of seeing him continue at the window with her, in spite of the expected glee; and of having his eyes soon turned like hers towards the scene without, where all that was solemn and soothing, and lovely, appeared in the brilliancy of an unclouded night, and the contrast of the deep shade of the woods. Fanny spoke her feelings. ‘Here’s harmony!’ said she, ‘Here’s repose! Here’s what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe. Here’s what may tranquillise every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.”

Die Übersetzung von Angelika Beck ist nicht die beste, noch dazu wurde schlampig lektoriert.Ansonsten nette Geschichte mit vorhersehbarem Ende.

It's easy to see why this was Jane Austen's favorite. With a wit matching the whole of Pride and Prejudice, the character of Fanny Price is one of my favorite heroines. Between the hilariously entertaining play that the characters try to perform and the unforgettable friendship of Edmund Bertram, this book is truly full of humor and drama.
I also read a follow-up discussion on Mansfield Park. It was in chapter one of "Imagining Characters" and it was great for any Austen fan.

I get the book was the most controversial Jane Austen. How interesting that the book had more social commentary than the rest of her books did. It have the undertone of romance but Fanny Price's keen observation made the book more digestible than Persuasion. As the caricature of Pride and Prejudice, I think this is probably interesting read if your head was in clouds. A lot of the dialogues in the book was overwrought and dredging, filled with unending passage and soliloquy. A classic tale but nevertheless unnecessary beyond reading.

favorite austen novel

Though arguably not one of Austen's most memorable novels, it does have its charm. The sticking point seems to be the novel's heroine Fanny Price - the reader either adores her or is annoyed by her. She has the goodness of other Austen characters like "Persuasion"'s Anne or "Sense and Sensibility"'s Elinore, but without their wit or likeability. She is, however, a sympathetic character: Born in a large, poor family, she is sent to be raised by her rich relations and is eternally an outsider. Her treatment there ranges from verbal abuse from her Aunt Norris, to a strong bond with her cousin Edmund. This bond develops into romantic love, initially just on Fanny's side, but the two are kept apart by interfering guests, the Crawfords. The beautiful Mary Crawford enchants Edmund despite her selfishness, and her playboy brother Henry has his eyes set on Fanny. Caught up in their foolishness is Edmund's sisters Julia and Maria, who disgrace themselves flirting with Henry. Though Fanny is correct in distrusting the Crawfords, she comes off (and is treated as) a Debbie Downer throughout the novel. She pines, she frowns, she warns of bad morals, there is little sunshine in her -- no wonder Edmund was so taken by Mary! In fact, when he finally turns his eye to Fanny after being disillusioned by his first love, the reader cannot wonder "Why?" Fanny is good and deserving, but the reader cannot but anticipate the dullest marriage in the world.Remarkably for a novel bent on rewarding the good and moral, it is the immoral characters who bring humor to the novel, and save it from being overbearing. Mrs. Norris is delightful in her hypocrisy, with a delicious comeuppance. The Crawfords bring life and excitement to Mansfield Park, enough to overcome Fanny's "bah, humbug"ness. Though these characters are one dimentional, they bring fresh air after Fanny's stuffiness. Austen shines when skewering the rich and foolish, and this novel is no exception. Though I may be wrong, I believe this may be the only Austen novel to bring up the subject of divorce and infidelity, or at least use it as a major plot point. I'm sure it must have been very daring of Austen to include it.

Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park has been on my bookshelves for years and I took it away on holiday thinking I might get round to reading it at last. A couple of novels later and I started in on Austen’s longest book and found that I could hardly put it down. A beach read, it is not as it presents problems for the modern reader that must be overcome, before enjoyment completely takes hold, but when it does it provides an immensely satisfying read. Banyuls-sur-Mere is a pretty little town on the French Mediterranean coast and one that I love to visit, but this trip will be remembered for the time I spent on the balcony of my holiday apartment clutching my copy of Mansfield Park. I had no internet connection and so there were no distractions, but this meant also that I could not google for background information and so this first reading was very much a first impression. I have read other novels by Jane Austen and so it was not a complete leap in the dark, but it did lead me to think of issues that modern readers might face, when approaching this book for the first time. Austen’s sentence structure and syntax can be a little confusing, especially when she is reporting conversation. It is not always easy to understand who is saying what to whom: she also writes the occasional word in a paragraph in italics which I presume is for emphasis, but this style is not much used today. An omniscient author writes the first three chapters and by this time Fanny Price (the heroine) is approaching seventeen; most of the subsequent events are seen through her eyes, however Austen does add her own commentary from time to time and the reader has to be aware whether the views expressed are authorial or those which Fanny might be saying or thinking.The novel was published in 1814 at a time when Europe was still engaged in the Napoleonic wars, the French revolution was still very much in the minds of many educated people and Austen’s novel reads for the most part like a celebration of English traditions and manners. It is almost as though the industrial revolution had not yet taken place as the novel is firmly situated amongst the genteel rich patrons of the English countryside. The class system is firmly in place and in Austen’s characters views, everybody should know their place and more importantly for the most part keep to it; rights according to birth are sacrosanct. It is a novel that looks backwards to a golden age rather than forward to a changing society, respect for ones betters according to birthright is the accepted norm.In Austen’s world family and property defines who you are and people are judged by their manners, politeness and how well they do by their family. The family grows rich together and marriages are seen as a means of enhancing a family’s connections: arrangements are made and while suitability is a consideration; love is something that may develop in time, but is mostly accepted as not being prerequisite for an ideal marriage. Feminism has no place in this society and although readers might be encouraged to admire the resolve of female characters, they will find them castigated if they stray too far from accepted family values.The profession of clergymen was still at this time the most likely avenue for the second son of a well to do family. In Mansfield Park the first son (Tom) will inherit everything and so it is Edmund who will follow the traditional career path as the second son. For Edmund being a clergyman is a vocation. He sees it as a unifying force within his community and he will do his best to succeed in guiding his flock for the betterment of mankind, prayers, sermons and preaching are essential requisites for the community. Edmund is the steady hand of tradition in his family and the son most admired. Throughout the novel there is resistance to change. The fashion for landscape gardens advocated by Henry Crawford is a step to far for Edmund. Sir Thomas Bertram head of the family is an authoritarian figure who immediately puts a stop to a theatrical event at his house. Fanny Price the adopted daughter of the Bertram household is perhaps the most resistant of all to change and it is she as the central character that seems to pose the most problems for readers. She is non-assertive, meek, mild and an upholder of family values. She seems always to put other people first and suffers in silence as a result. But this novel is essentially a bildungsroman and Fanny Price’s development as a person becomes a shinning example to some of those around her; Edmund, Tom, her brother William, Sir Thomas himself are all affected by her good heart, her respectability and finally an inner strength. She is the embodiment of all that a woman should be to fit into this patriarchal society and this in depth study demonstrates the qualities and strengths needed to uphold the values in which she instinctively believes.The raison d’être for the novel is of course a romance. The Bertram family have two sons and two daughters of marriageable age. Maria Bertram the beauty of the family marries for money and position, with the wholehearted support of the family, her sister Julia tries to make her own opportunities. Edmund falls in love with Miss Mary Crawford a society woman of independent means, but she does not wish to marry a clergyman. The central love story is Mary’s brother the forward looking wealthy Henry Crawford who falls in love with Fanny after a dalliance with the two Bertram sisters. A match that would seem to be a superb opportunity for an adopted daughter with few prospects. Fanny against all advice rejects Henry, she finds him fascinating, with some good qualities, but she does not love him and most seriously of all she cannot trust him. The third part of the novel is Henry’s continued pursuit of Fanny; a suit that causes her grief and pain. Austen takes her readers into the world of Regency splendour. The culture and manners of that society are brilliantly evoked. There are some amazing set pieces; the amateur production of the play Lovers Vows, Fanny’s first trip out with her new family to Sotherton, her coming out ball and her banishment back to her working class family in Portsmouth. At the centre of everything is Fanny Price’s world and inner world views. It is steady, respectable, dutiful and gracious, which makes her at times seem almost an anti-heroine, she is physically weak and lacks assertiveness, but her strength is her firm belief in tradition and family values.To appreciate this novel fully one must not judge Mansfield Park by modern standards or by equality of opportunity. It is a different world brought richly to life and full of characters whose human frailties can be ameliorated by a central character; a virtuous woman working away quietly amongst them. The story is a good one, once the reader gets used to the writing style and has got further into the novel than the story setting it becomes a page turner. So much to enjoy, a fabulous reading experience and five stars.

For the length of this book, not much actually happened in the story. I liked some of the characters, though none was really very engaging and overall enjoyed the story but there seemed to be no spark in it. It lacked that special something that ramps a book from the ordinary to the pile of books to be read and re-read through the years. Not one of my favorite Austen novels.

I hear that this is the least favorite among Austen fanatics, but I have to disagree. I enjoy this story quite a bit. I like to think of Fanny Price as the most conservative side of Jane Austen. Fanny is definitely one of Austen's most prudish characters. I like Fanny as a female lead because she doesn't give in to pressures from others, she grows into a more confident person, and she is very content with independent pursuits.I did find the last 30 pages or so dragged a bit, but I usually have the feeling with Austen's works.

Poor Fanny Price is sent off to live with rich relatives. Although she is never treated quite so badly as Cinderella, she is never entirely accepted as an equal except by one of the son's of the family, Edmund Bertram. Into the family mix are thrown the siblings Henry and Mary Crawford, who are both drawn into romances with Edmund and Fanny. Sadly, their principles prove to be lacking and Edmund and Fanny find their way to each other. As always, Ms. Austen throws in plenty of comedy and satire but in this book, she also brings up the issue of slavery. It is rare for Ms. Austen to deal with so heavy a subject; she makes her feelings regarding slavery quite clear.

You may be surprised to learn that my favorite Jane Austen novel is actually...Mansfield Park. I'm aware that this isn't the popular opinion. However, I don't give a hoot because I LOVE IT. Considering that I'm not a huge fan of drama or romance in general, this book is CHOCK FULL of drama and romance (and scandal oh my!). For those who haven't delved into this book, the story revolves around a young woman named Fanny Price who is sent to live with her aunt and her family when she is a young girl. From the very beginning, she is treated as an outsider and a lower class citizen among the members of her family except by her cousin Edmund. (Here is where I caution you all to remember the time period in which this book is written because otherwise you're gonna be all like SAY WHAT?!) The dynamics of the household are an odd mix of ambivalence, haughtiness, vanity, and neuroses. Then there's Fanny who is the embodiment of all that is lovely and pure but who is entirely overlooked and abused by her family...except by Edmund who she has come to admire greatly. (Do you see where this is headed?) Things start to get juicy when a brother/sister duo enter the neighborhood and rouse up trouble among the youths (picture the equivalent of ditching class to smoke cigarettes behind the gym but in Regency period England). Through it all, Fanny stays true to what she thinks is right despite the injustice of her situation. A lot of people find her character annoying and too morally rigid. However, I think they're missing out on the best parts of her character. Fanny stays firm to what she believes in and despite the temptation to give in and follow what everyone else is doing she rejects the easy path. The reader can clearly see her self-confidence and self-esteem bloom as the novel progresses. If you haven't read this fantastic classic by the inestimable Jane Austen then you are truly missing out.

Mansfield Park is easily Austen's most controversial novel. It is a book that many people (Janeites included) actively dislike. The plot deals with morality and the main characters are polarizing. Personally, I find it fascinating. I don't think it's just about morality -- I am fascinated by the choice we are offered between substance and appearance and also fascinated by which choice readers make. Some choose Mary and Henry Crawford, the characters who, in my opinion, are all about "appearance," and others choose Fanny and Edmund, whom I believe to be about substance. Fanny and Edmund are, admittedly, rather dull, but they are good and decent people who try to live good and decent lives. They don't lead other people on. They don't try to "make a hole" in an innocent's heart. They don't think it's OK to commit adultery. Edmund wants to be a priest, and I think he'd be a good one. And Fanny would be a much better priest's wife than Mary, who openly disdains religion and its practitioners. Mary and Henry may be fun to hang out with, but they are not marriage material for a person who cares about character. Mansfield Park is not my favorite Austen novel, but it rises in my estimation every time I read it.

Mansfield Park tells the story of Fanny Price, a poor relation of the Bertram family, who was brought to live with them when she was ten as an act of charity. Fanny is an odd heroine for a novel by Jane Austen. She lacks spark. Which is no wonder given that she was removed from her home while young, dumped into a strange environment and largely ignored. Her Aunt Norris is one of the worst characters ever put down on paper; all of the evil stepmothers of fairy tale fame would do well to take lessons from her. She makes certain that shy, insecure Fanny will only become more withdrawn and hesitant as she grows up and that the Bertram family will not forget to treat her as an unwelcome charity case. And that is the strength of this novel. Along with the amazing aunt Norris, Austen has created a whole host of wonderful characters and breathed life into them. From the dull idiot Mr. Rushworth, who is so taken by being given a role in the play the young people decide to put on that involves him learning forty-two speeches (which he is then unable to learn), to Lady Bertram, who approaches a sedentary lifestyle with the dedication of an Olympic hopeful; each character is so interesting in their own right that I wanted several times in this book for Austen to have written other novels following each of them. Fanny is such an interesting character. She's been systematically berated and ignored until by the age of eighteen she is anxious in any situation where attention might be paid to her, but also resentful when it isn't. She's been ordered to be grateful for substandard treatment so often that she rarely speaks and when she does it's often in an Eeyore-ish passive aggressive way, not that it does her any good. Unless her cousin Edmund happens to be listening, her wishes are entirely disregarded. And so she sits, largely silent, with years of pent-up judgements and opinions inside of her. She's not an easy character to like, although Austen makes clear that while she is silently thinking the worst of the people around her, the face she shows is so quiet and unassuming, that people attribute great kindness to her. It helps that being so shy makes her a very good listener to all the narcissists that surround her, and that she is very pretty. Her improved looks are noticed first by her uncle who, after having spent some months away in Antigua, at the sugar plantation that provides the Bertram family their wealth, begins to talk about her and to her quite a bit, she now being worthy of his notice. It's all a little skeevy, and Fanny, quite rightly, remains terrified of him.This being Austen, there is a question of the central characters, here Fanny Price and her cousin Edmund, finding spouses. Edmund, a solemn man, plans to enter the clergy and live a rural life, is simultaneously entranced and repulsed by Mary Crawford, who is light, quick-witted and bubbly. She tends to say any witty thing that pops into her head and she often shocks and insults Edmund inadvertently. Of course they can't leave each other alone, and they are each constantly reassessing whether they could be happy together. Then there's her brother Henry, who begins the novel as a flirt who is always looking for new ways to entertain himself and others. He determines to pay court to Fanny as a way of passing the time after all the other eligible young ladies have left the neighborhood, making a contest to himself of winning her affection. Instead, he falls in love while Fanny remains hostile to his advances. His admiration for her causes him to renounce his rakehell ways. Unfortunately, Fanny bore witness to his worst behavior and is disinclined to give his reformation any credit. She attempts to get rid of him several times, but between her inability to speak clearly enough for him to understand and his own determination to win her no matter how long it takes, they are often in each other's company. We all know how things should turn out -- with a double wedding at the local chapel in the best Austen style, but she throws a curve ball in Mansfield Park, refusing, in the end, to satisfy the reader. And this is where I ran into a problem with this book; I wanted a different ending. I knew what would happen. I'd read the book before. But until the final chapters, I was hoping for it.

My least favorite Austen, and the only one I can't bring myself to read again. (I didn't even like the movie). Fanny Price is, to use C.S. Lewis's word, insipid. She's also inactive, utterly boring, and often exasperating. I have sympathy for Mrs. Norris for abusing her -- I want to slap her myself, just to make her stop with the big pathetic eyes and vapid stare. She irritates me mightily. She is supremely uninteresting. She does not change in the slightest from the beginning of the book to the end, and those around her (who do manage some growth of a sort) follow the most obvious script. It doesn't even manage to be romantic. The only interesting characters are the Crawfords, and even they are nearly unacceptable.

I might one day soften toward this moralistic tale in which Austen, to please her contemporary audience which was, apparently, at that time crying out for such, abandons much of her humor and ironic powers to preach. I doubt it, though.

I really enjoyed this novel, but aren't readers supposed to like the heriones and main characters of a novel? I found Fanny Price prudish and her cousin Edmund prudish and stupid. I liked Fanny better towards the last half of the novel though. I enjoyed the Crawfords and Tom more. *SPOILER ALERT*In the end only Fanny gets what she wants. Even though Edmund marries her it is obvious he is just settling because he thinks he won't find anyone he likes better than Mary Crawford. Fanny should have married Henry.But the novel is wonderfully written.

You can see why Jane Austen is a star - she has such wonderfully developed characters that are so shrewdly observed and described to be compelling and believable across the centuries. While the plot events relate to a particular time, place and social setting; the busybody, the careful thinker, the gruff but caring father, and all the rest of the cast can be readily seen among the people we live with today. Mansfield Park has a more interesting plot line than Pride and Prejudice & Sense and Sensibility, dealing with the results of the poor cousin brought up with rich relatives. Lovely. (Read January 2011.)

(Contain spoilers.) I firmly believe no librarian ever read Mansfield Park, otherwise Lord Bertram’s burning all the copies of Lover’s Vows he found would have banished it from libraries! (Chuckle) This book has all Miss Austin’s talented penmanship, but very little—or nothing, rather—of the comic situations I found in Pride and Prejudice and most especially in Emma. This is a deeper, more serious novel, highly moralizing, with lots of inner thoughts and questionings, which sometimes might get a bit long to the modern reader unused to this kind of literature. Through this book—as in all her others—she makes very clear what she expected (not only society), that “girls should be quiet and modest” and “perfectly feminine.” She condemned, on people in general, the “want of that higher species of self-command, that just consideration of others.” In the story 10 year-old Fanny Price, goes to live with her wealthy uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Bertram, in their beautiful and tranquil estate of Mansfield Park. There she meets four cousins, two girls and two boys, of which, second son, the mature and highly honorable Edmund, becomes her ideal since the beginning. (Edmund was not a priest, but was ordained a couple of chapters before the end of the book.) The story evolves through ups and downs, lots of misunderstandings, to culminate in a happy ending. Unlike what is portrayed in movies inspired by Mansfield Park, Fanny is not treated unkindly, nor relegated to a dungeon-like room. Her sleeping quarters were a “little white attic” with connection to the old “school-room” which contained her plants, her books—of which she had been a collector from the first hour of her commanding a shilling—her writing desk, and her works of charity.” The lack of fire in that room was due to her Aunt Norris constant meddling and a shocked Lord Bertrand belatedly corrects this injurious situation. British society was then divided into classes and Fanny, while enjoying much of the benefits of living with the family, belonged to a very poor branch—hence the differed treatment she received. “If tenderness could be ever supposed wanting, good sense and good breeding supplied its place,” Jane Austen writes about the Bertrand family in relation to Fanny. Miss Austen’s high moral standards permeate the entire book, it is full of Fanny’s eagerness to do what is right and proper, to think good thoughts and do good deeds. Good and evil were clearly discerned and exposed in the situations Austen weaves; the elopement of a married woman with a bachelor is to her a “sin of the first magnitude.” I feel sure Jane Austen, whose heroines were invariably highly principled, moral young women, would have been devastated had she a chance to see the state of today’s youth, particularly of girls. I only wish young women would read more of this kind of literature instead of the filth available now in all American libraries.

More of Austen's twists and turns of love gone awry. She can certainly find many ways to tell the same type of story. I wouldn't want to read her books too close together; however, I must say I am enjoying each one of them in a different way.Fanny Price seems to be an unpopular character with some readers. She is a bit lackluster until you consider how she definitely knew her mind when it came to her choice of a husband, and she wouldn't settle for less. She held out for her first choice despite the pressure from her uncle and lack of encouragement from Edmund. I admire her gentle strength, although I deplore her taste in men.