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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It took me just about half of this book to really become invested in the story and characters of this one.
More so than the other Austen novels I have read the social commentary of the time in this is the major theme I came away with.
This might be an Austen novel where I don’t have a favorite or really even a character I like. Fanny is fine. I mostly just felt bad for her. She is judgmental in her own mind and usually melts into the background, which I know is on purpose. Edmund is obsessed with someone who is so his opposite I was confused as to why he loved her the whole book. There were so many unlikable characters I don’t even want to list them all out.
I’m not sure this is one I will return to but I’m glad that I read it at least once.
More so than the other Austen novels I have read the social commentary of the time in this is the major theme I came away with.
This might be an Austen novel where I don’t have a favorite or really even a character I like. Fanny is fine. I mostly just felt bad for her. She is judgmental in her own mind and usually melts into the background, which I know is on purpose. Edmund is obsessed with someone who is so his opposite I was confused as to why he loved her the whole book. There were so many unlikable characters I don’t even want to list them all out.
I’m not sure this is one I will return to but I’m glad that I read it at least once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Abandonment, Classism
Moderate: Slavery
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This only took me 81619462017 years to read this time around, but oh, how I love this book!!
Reread because I had recently read, in the JASNA newsletter, of debates many JASNA regional groups have been having about whether Fanny PRice is an insipid milksop or a strong heroine. I was on the side of insipid milksop. However, to be fair, I think that she is simply Austen's least-well-realized heroine. Austen is dealing with a teen, but she treats her not as a teen but as a child and a middle-aged adult. She is, even with the forbearance offered because of radically different times and cultures, not a believable teen in love and feeling duty, etc.
Reread because I had recently read, in the JASNA newsletter, of debates many JASNA regional groups have been having about whether Fanny PRice is an insipid milksop or a strong heroine. I was on the side of insipid milksop. However, to be fair, I think that she is simply Austen's least-well-realized heroine. Austen is dealing with a teen, but she treats her not as a teen but as a child and a middle-aged adult. She is, even with the forbearance offered because of radically different times and cultures, not a believable teen in love and feeling duty, etc.
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Took me a long time to get into this book but by the end I really liked it, and the ending was very dramatic. Would have liked to see more discussion of the moral implications of the leading family's holding of enslaved people on Antigua (which I'd understood was a key reason why the book went down badly on first publication) but this theme was only briefly discussed.