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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Sooooo this book was good up until the ending where she literally marries her cousin......
Edmund was always treating her poorly and was infantilized by him, once he got the hots for Mary he ignored his friendship with Fanny and I lost respect for him. Like how can I take Fanny seriously, after her denial of Henry, ONLY TO GO FOR HER COUSIN.
Also is Jane Austen okay, bc apparently even her sister tried to persuade her to change this ending. And I'm not letting anyone forget that ONCE AGAIN we have a make lead role with the name Henry (just like in Northanger Abbey...WHEN AUSTEN'S BROTHER IS NAMED HENRY
Edmund was always treating her poorly and was infantilized by him, once he got the hots for Mary he ignored his friendship with Fanny and I lost respect for him. Like how can I take Fanny seriously, after her denial of Henry, ONLY TO GO FOR HER COUSIN.
Also is Jane Austen okay, bc apparently even her sister tried to persuade her to change this ending. And I'm not letting anyone forget that ONCE AGAIN we have a make lead role with the name Henry (just like in Northanger Abbey...WHEN AUSTEN'S BROTHER IS NAMED HENRY
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm a big lover of Jane Austen, but I was a bit disappointed in Mansfield Park. The story seemed to drag at times and at other times to go really fast. It didn't keep my interest at all and I found myself having to force myself to finish. All in all, not my favorite Austen novel.
Alright.
Look, I love Jane. I love her so much she's the namesake of my daughter's middle name.
But this? This ain't it.
As an Austen fan, I've read and re-read Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion. And I hadn't read her final two novels, which seemed like a big oversight; so this year I finally made a step to correcting it and checked out "Mansfield Park".
Imagine my surprise when in the first chapter, as Fanny's two horrid aunts and clueless uncle debate taking her in, they talk about what happens if these cousins fall in love? Like, is it a real possibility?
This is no Mr.Collins situation.. these two are first cousins. Why would that even be something that's mentioned?
Because, like a gun in the first act, it's mentioned because it happens.Sorry to spoil it for you, but maybe you're welcome for spoiling it for you? Fanny Price falls in love with the cousin who listened to her, groomed her to like the same books and ideals and adhere to the same rigid code of conduct. The love story between them only takes place at the end of the book, though on her end she loves him since her teens. This is icky and there is no way around it, okay?
Almost every man described in this book is a huge dud or a cad, besides Edmund and Fanny's brother. So I get that she couldn't do better. I wasn't rooting for her with Henry, he seemed pushy and full of it. But I wish that she could do better.
I didn't have the problem that some other people had with Fanny, that she's too timid and pious. I get it. She's a hardcore introvert; she's never been encouraged to speak up or be active in society... if you compare her to the Bennet girls, she's basically been locked away in the attic. She has no friends and peers to learn from and to turn to, besides her two annoying cousins, which I admit I imagined as the two step-sisters from the Disney version of Cinderella. Is it a wonder she doesn't start to come out of her shell until they are both removed from the house?
Here are a few quotes that particularly made me scrunch up my nose in distaste:
"To her he could be nothing under any circumstances; nothing dearer than a friend. Why did such an idea occur to her even enough to be reprobated and forbidden? It ought not to have touched on the confines of her imagination" -pg451 (epub)
GIRL, yes, that's what I'm saying.
"I had thought you peculiarly free from wilfulness of temper, self-conceit, and every tendency to that independence of spirit which prevails so much in modern days, even in young women, and is offensive and disgusting beyond all common offence." (pg 540 epub)
A speech from Sir Thomas, her dad figure, which made me want to hit him over the head with a frying pan. Poor Fanny, trapped in an era which just f***** hated women.
"...an hopeful undertaking to persuade her that her warm and sisterly regard for him would be foundation enough for wedded love" (pg 801 epub)
Eww. He goes on to stress how much "her mind had been formed by his care, her comfort depending on his kindness" since she was ten. Dude, you sound creepy as s***.
That aside, the part I found most honest was when Sir Thomas decides to punish Fanny by sending her back to her birth parents home for several months, knowing she would wither there without any of the comforts to which she had become accustomed at Mansfield. It really drives the point home, how little women have to do or hope for, should they not "qualify" to be someone's wife, or, like Fanny, dare to refuse a proposal.
Look, I love Jane. I love her so much she's the namesake of my daughter's middle name.
But this? This ain't it.
As an Austen fan, I've read and re-read Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion. And I hadn't read her final two novels, which seemed like a big oversight; so this year I finally made a step to correcting it and checked out "Mansfield Park".
Imagine my surprise when in the first chapter, as Fanny's two horrid aunts and clueless uncle debate taking her in, they talk about what happens if these cousins fall in love? Like, is it a real possibility?
This is no Mr.Collins situation.. these two are first cousins. Why would that even be something that's mentioned?
Because, like a gun in the first act, it's mentioned because it happens.Sorry to spoil it for you, but maybe you're welcome for spoiling it for you? Fanny Price falls in love with the cousin who listened to her, groomed her to like the same books and ideals and adhere to the same rigid code of conduct. The love story between them only takes place at the end of the book, though on her end she loves him since her teens. This is icky and there is no way around it, okay?
Almost every man described in this book is a huge dud or a cad, besides Edmund and Fanny's brother. So I get that she couldn't do better. I wasn't rooting for her with Henry, he seemed pushy and full of it. But I wish that she could do better.
I didn't have the problem that some other people had with Fanny, that she's too timid and pious. I get it. She's a hardcore introvert; she's never been encouraged to speak up or be active in society... if you compare her to the Bennet girls, she's basically been locked away in the attic. She has no friends and peers to learn from and to turn to, besides her two annoying cousins, which I admit I imagined as the two step-sisters from the Disney version of Cinderella. Is it a wonder she doesn't start to come out of her shell until they are both removed from the house?
Here are a few quotes that particularly made me scrunch up my nose in distaste:
"To her he could be nothing under any circumstances; nothing dearer than a friend. Why did such an idea occur to her even enough to be reprobated and forbidden? It ought not to have touched on the confines of her imagination" -pg451 (epub)
GIRL, yes, that's what I'm saying.
"I had thought you peculiarly free from wilfulness of temper, self-conceit, and every tendency to that independence of spirit which prevails so much in modern days, even in young women, and is offensive and disgusting beyond all common offence." (pg 540 epub)
A speech from Sir Thomas, her dad figure, which made me want to hit him over the head with a frying pan. Poor Fanny, trapped in an era which just f***** hated women.
"...an hopeful undertaking to persuade her that her warm and sisterly regard for him would be foundation enough for wedded love" (pg 801 epub)
Eww. He goes on to stress how much "her mind had been formed by his care, her comfort depending on his kindness" since she was ten. Dude, you sound creepy as s***.
That aside, the part I found most honest was when Sir Thomas decides to punish Fanny by sending her back to her birth parents home for several months, knowing she would wither there without any of the comforts to which she had become accustomed at Mansfield. It really drives the point home, how little women have to do or hope for, should they not "qualify" to be someone's wife, or, like Fanny, dare to refuse a proposal.
I don’t know if I’ll ever return to this book, I found it a bit of a slog.
Some excellent character studies though.
Some excellent character studies though.
I'm not sure why this tends to be the least-liked Austen novel...perhaps because her humor is in shorter supply here. This is a serious, complex book, and does have (like Emma) parts that drag. But I thought that Fanny was a very real character and I enjoyed reading about her. This one might take a bit more knowledge of the Regency Era to be able to appreciate as much as other Austen novels.
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was twirling my hair and giggling while reading this until the end … she ends up with Edmund ????????? I feel duped like fr.
How are you going to listen to a man say
“You are infinitely my superior in merit; all that I know - You have qualities which I had not supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you, beyond what - not merely beyond what one sees, because one never sees any thing like it - but beyond what one fancies might be. But still I am not frightened. It is not by equality of merit that you can be won. That is out of the question. It is he who sees and worships your merit the strongest, who loves you most devotedly, that has the best right to a return.”
AND THEN CHOOSE SOMEONE ELSE ???? I am in shock. I am fuming. I am not okay.
Do I pick the hot rich man who is utterly in love with me or my poor cousin who looks me in the eye and talks of how much he loves other people ? Hmm what a fucking choice.
It absolutely makes sense for her to refuse him at first … but to continue refusing him? Not to like blame the women but what did she expect??? For him to wait around forever??? No at some point he was going to take her “no I will never love you” seriously and go after the one woman CONTINUOUSLY throwing herself at him
It really feels like Austen’s publishers (did they have publishers in the same capacity back then?) realised where the story was going and demanded she show women being punished for promiscuity and encouraged them to go for the nice men usually overlooked.
Fanny and Henry supremacy
How are you going to listen to a man say
“You are infinitely my superior in merit; all that I know - You have qualities which I had not supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you, beyond what - not merely beyond what one sees, because one never sees any thing like it - but beyond what one fancies might be. But still I am not frightened. It is not by equality of merit that you can be won. That is out of the question. It is he who sees and worships your merit the strongest, who loves you most devotedly, that has the best right to a return.”
AND THEN CHOOSE SOMEONE ELSE ???? I am in shock. I am fuming. I am not okay.
Do I pick the hot rich man who is utterly in love with me or my poor cousin who looks me in the eye and talks of how much he loves other people ? Hmm what a fucking choice.
It absolutely makes sense for her to refuse him at first … but to continue refusing him? Not to like blame the women but what did she expect??? For him to wait around forever??? No at some point he was going to take her “no I will never love you” seriously and go after the one woman CONTINUOUSLY throwing herself at him
It really feels like Austen’s publishers (did they have publishers in the same capacity back then?) realised where the story was going and demanded she show women being punished for promiscuity and encouraged them to go for the nice men usually overlooked.
Fanny and Henry supremacy
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No