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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
i enjoyed this book as a source and liked the portrayal of expectations and reality of the late 18th century english society. there are tons of aspects i found interesting and would love to analyse further. HOWEVER the story bored me, dragged so much longer than it needed to and then the ending was so rushed. also i could NOT stand edmund. glad you got what you wanted fanny but why did you want him.
emotional
medium-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
In one of Mansfiled Park's chapters there's a following passage: 'We have all been more or less to blame, every one of us, excepting Fanny. Fanny is the only one who has judged rightly throughout; who has been consistent. Her feelings have been steadily against it from first to last. She never ceased to think of what was due to you. You will find Fanny everything you could wish.' There's nothing worse for a character-driven prose than a protagonist described in this fashion as there's nothing in it to actually drive the narrative forward. This quote is a perfect summary for the novel - everybody's in the wrong and only Fanny Price is blameless, perfect and utterly boring. It's mindboggling how Austen managed to create a heroine like that in between her two most prominent protagonists - Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse (Pride and Prejudice and Emma respectively) - who were flawed, who errored and made amends, who felt real; Fanny Price feels like a statue in a museum - lifeless, static and cold.
The central love affair falls flat as it's quite disingenious: Fanny's love interest is open about the fact that she's just a plan B, somebody to settle with in case his passion for another girl doesn't come to fruition, which makes it considerably hard to root for such a relationship. It's one-sided and incredibly lukeworm for a central couple - literally everybody else's personal life is more captivating even when Austen is determinately dissaproving of their conduct. Unlike the abovementioned Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Mansfield Park doesn't feel like a witty and observational commentary on society, but rather like tedious moralizing and incessant preaching about the vitue of passivity: follow Fanny's example, do nothing, wait, let things happen to you on their own accord and thus you shall prosper. No, thanks.
The central love affair falls flat as it's quite disingenious: Fanny's love interest is open about the fact that she's just a plan B, somebody to settle with in case his passion for another girl doesn't come to fruition, which makes it considerably hard to root for such a relationship. It's one-sided and incredibly lukeworm for a central couple - literally everybody else's personal life is more captivating even when Austen is determinately dissaproving of their conduct. Unlike the abovementioned Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Mansfield Park doesn't feel like a witty and observational commentary on society, but rather like tedious moralizing and incessant preaching about the vitue of passivity: follow Fanny's example, do nothing, wait, let things happen to you on their own accord and thus you shall prosper. No, thanks.
slow-paced
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-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
“I was quiet, but I was not blind.”
I'm not quite sure about this one.
Reading Mansfield Park for class, I can see its literary value: as a work of literature, it's fascinating and rife with endless potential for deep analysis. But that said, it lacks a lot of the qualities I've come to take for granted in Austen's novels. I think that's partly due to the main character, Fanny, who is so quiet and introverted that it's a little hard to root for her. And her romance
Spoiler
with Edmund was a little...eh. Lackluster. Especially since he spent most of the novel pining after someone else.I do appreciate the social commentary of this novel though. Fanny is demure, yes, but she does provide a lot of insightful observations, and she's strong in her own way. Out of all of Austen's heroines, Fanny might have been the one Austen herself related the most to, and if I was an 18th-century character, I probably would be more of a Fanny Price than an Elizabeth Bennet or Emma Woodhouse (and there's nothing wrong with that!). But I also just couldn't bring myself to be really invested in any of the characters in this novel. They were all just a little too flighty and immature for my liking.
Mansfield Park is definitely a crucial part of Austen's works for its subtleties. I just think I'd need a reread to really be able to think about this, independent of her other novels. I'll give it a (low) 3 star rating for now... mostly because it hurts the lover of Austen in me to give anything of hers less than 3 stars.
~~
reviews for other Jane Austen books:
❧ Pride and Prejudice (5 stars)
❧ Sense and Sensibility (3 stars)
❧ Emma (4 stars)
❧ Northanger Abbey (4 stars)
❧ Persuasion (4 stars)
❧ Teenage Writings (no rating)
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated