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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
This book is so frustrating, but good at the same time. I loved Fanny, she was just so badly treated and half of the book was spent thinking: 'Poor Fanny, she doesn't deserve any of this!' The book can sometimes be a bit slow-paced, but the ending practically sprints along. It was a very good book.
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-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
Not my favourite Jane Austen but they're all top tier books. This edition is a little hard to read due to small print and not much space between words or lines, which made it's density a little more challenging than the last time I read it. But it does fit in a large blazer pocket so you win some, you lose some 🤷
This was my first Jane Austin novel. I love classic novels but this was very difficult for me due to subject matter and my complete lack of interest in any of the characters. I started this book in May and it is now the end of July. A divorce is definitely needed. Jane Austin is not for me.
2023 review: This turned into a bit of a book report, but it was a nice way for me to process all the plotting. Spoilers herein.
I always enjoy reading or listening to this, and even enjoy some of the films. But never know exactly how to rate it. Scholars agree it is one of Austen's best crafted novels, but it gets a lot of modern day hate.
I definitely don't hate it (though the first cousin marriage thing is difficult to swallow in 2023). Fanny isn't as spunky as we might wish (ahem, she is a downright doormat), but her characterization is true to her upbringing. Fanny is the daughter of an alcoholic sailor and a mother who married beneath her station. She is one of ten children and is brought to Mansfield Park at the age of ten by her mother's two sisters: wealthy Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris, the latter of whom lives in the Mansfield parsonage with her husband.
Mrs. Norris especially feels it her responsibility to teach Fanny her place. Emotionally cruel, she stuffs Fanny in the attic and won't let her have a fire in the grate. Without children of her own, she praises and elevates Lady Bertram's two rather spoiled daughters, Julia and Maria (pronounced Mariah in all audiobooks and movies), while constantly reminding Fanny of her failings and lower place in the family.
As rebellious willfulness probably would have cost Fanny her place at Mansfield Park, I don't know what other choice she had but to comply with her slightly-better-than-a-servant position with meekness. It can be taxing to read about how much love she has for the people who mistreat her, but again, I don't know that anyone else raised in these conditions in this time period would have been able to develop differently.
The only person really kind to her is Edward Bertram, brother to Maria and Julia. Their mother, Lady Bertram is mostly checked out, but warms to Fanny as a companion later on. Sir Bertram mostly ignores Fanny until she is grown enough that her manners and attractiveness catch his eye, especially when compared to his silly daughters and the disappointment of his older son, Tom.
Mansfield Park does what Austen does best, juggle a whole lot of complicated and fully fleshed out characters in some very entertaining ways.
Woven throughout the book is Fanny's secret and constant love and adoration for her cousin Edmund. Understandable given the norms of the time as well as, again, her isolated and oppressed upbringing and the lack of attention from anyone to introduce her into society or to find a suitable match for her. But it is undeniably weird and incesty today.
ANYWAY.
Sir Thomas and his oldest son Tom leave to manage their plantation interests in Antigua (there isn't much about the slave trade in the book, though Austen would have been aware that the abolition of the slave trade was being debated... these concepts are more fully developed in the 1999 movie, though probably taken much too far [it is a Weinstein production, barf] and turns Sir Thomas into a sexually deviant villain). While they are gone, the house becomes a bit more lively. With Mrs. Norris's help, Maria secures an engagement with the wealthy Mr. Rushworth (hilariously portrayed in the 1999 movie by Hugh Bonneville--he is perfect). Maria seems content with her match until Tom returns early from Antigua with his friend Mr. Yates and we are introduced to Mary Crawford and her brother, Henry Crawford.
The Crawford siblings’ background is more complicated than I care to summarize, but suffice it to say they were raised somewhat 'liberally' for the time period and have some shocking or 'immoral' ideas. They are attractive and vivacious and wreak a lot of havoc.
With Sir Thomas away, the group decide to put on a scandalous play (Edmund requires some coaxing). During the rehearsals, Edmund falls for Mary and Henry flirts with the engaged Maria for sport. The book's steady moral compass, Fanny, watches it all with a hefty dose of side eye.
Sir Thomas comes back from Antigua and the play is halted, though he is impressed with Fanny and begins to take more notice of her. He insists she (finally) have a fire in her room and puts on a ball so that she may officially be introduced into society. Sir Thomas also meets Mr. Rushworth for the first time and unimpressed, gives his daughter the option to get out of the engagement. However, Maria appears to put off her Henry Crawford crush and marries Mr. Rushworth fairly quickly. She takes her sister Julia with her on her honeymoon.
Without the girls to dote on, Mrs. Norris becomes more toxic toward Fanny while Lady Bertram appears to rely on her companionship more and more. Henry Crawford decides to make Fanny fall in love with him, and ends up falling for her in earnest. Sir Thomas is delighted with the match and encourages Fanny to accept the dashing young man.
Fanny's side eye for Henry is probably the most entertaining aspect of her character. She is often criticized for being too stodgy (and she is), but I think at her age, I would have easily had my head turned by someone turning up the charm like Henry does. Especially with both his sister, her beloved Edmund, and Sir Thomas championing Henry and pressuring Fanny to accept. Henry's attention to Fanny also pisses off Mrs. Norris which would have been very difficult for me to ignore. I would have been tempted to accept just to thumb my nose at that woman from the 'reward' of my higher station and more comfortable situation. But Fanny's heart already belongs to Edmund and she does not forget how Henry flirted shamelessly with her engaged cousin.
But Henry really is putting on a good show. He secures a position for Fanny's brother, isn't put off by a visit to her poor relations in Portsmouth, won't take no for an answer, and just keeps showing up. He seems to really fall in love with her (likely because she's the first woman to ever refuse him and he finds it fascinating).
Toward the end, a bunch of stuff happens almost all at once. The oldest brother Tom, has a drunken fall from his horse and is ill, Fanny is fetched home from Portsmouth, Mary finally offends Edmund enough to open his eyes, and Julia Bertram elopes with Mr. Yates. The elopement would have been a terrible scandal, except it is eclipsed by another.
Just when Fanny is softening towards Henry and wondering if he has really changed, he abandons all of his bright and hopeful promises to Fanny and ends up in a scandalous affair with the married Maria Rushworth. Though they run away together, Henry refuses to marry her, proving is cad-status once and for all.
Many wonder if Fanny would have accepted Henry if Edmund and Mary had married. Would Fanny have been able to reform Henry? Would Henry have stayed constant to Fanny once he had her? Or would his playboy tendencies have won out? I've dated enough Henrys in my lifetime to believe the latter.
Sir Thomas is, at last, forced to admit Fanny was right in refusing Henry's advances and begins to view her has the best of his daughters (intensifying the incesty feel, but whatever), and so is delighted to endorse an attachment between her and Edmund.
In all, it's a very ambitious tale with a lot of characters to keep track of (I'm always in awe of Austen for pulling off such complicated individuals and tangled storylines) and I think it decent fun. It's a shame Fanny couldn't have been even a slightly a more distant relation to soothe modern day 'icks,' but it is what it is.
As is my usual after a re-read, I watched some of the movies & listened to some dramatized versions. The Jane Austen Collection has been a delight. Reordered and abridged so some purists hate it, but still super fun. In it, Mansfield Park is narrated by Billie Piper (star of the 2007 Mansfield Park TV movie) and has a full cast. The 1999 movie with Frances O'Connor is great and provides Fanny some much needed spunk. Lindsay Duncan is fantastic as Lady Bertram and Frances Price. I have a hard time with the 2007 TV movie version... Billie Piper's acting is great, but her hairstyle and overall appearance is so modern it takes me out of the story. A lot is cut out or rushed to make it fit into the TV requirements, but her personality and relationship with Edmund is closer to the book version than the 1999 movie.
I didn't listen to them this go, but the BBC audiobook production with Benedict Cumberbatch & David Tennant is excellent, as is the audiobook performed by Frances Barber.
I always enjoy reading or listening to this, and even enjoy some of the films. But never know exactly how to rate it. Scholars agree it is one of Austen's best crafted novels, but it gets a lot of modern day hate.
I definitely don't hate it (though the first cousin marriage thing is difficult to swallow in 2023). Fanny isn't as spunky as we might wish (ahem, she is a downright doormat), but her characterization is true to her upbringing. Fanny is the daughter of an alcoholic sailor and a mother who married beneath her station. She is one of ten children and is brought to Mansfield Park at the age of ten by her mother's two sisters: wealthy Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris, the latter of whom lives in the Mansfield parsonage with her husband.
Mrs. Norris especially feels it her responsibility to teach Fanny her place. Emotionally cruel, she stuffs Fanny in the attic and won't let her have a fire in the grate. Without children of her own, she praises and elevates Lady Bertram's two rather spoiled daughters, Julia and Maria (pronounced Mariah in all audiobooks and movies), while constantly reminding Fanny of her failings and lower place in the family.
As rebellious willfulness probably would have cost Fanny her place at Mansfield Park, I don't know what other choice she had but to comply with her slightly-better-than-a-servant position with meekness. It can be taxing to read about how much love she has for the people who mistreat her, but again, I don't know that anyone else raised in these conditions in this time period would have been able to develop differently.
The only person really kind to her is Edward Bertram, brother to Maria and Julia. Their mother, Lady Bertram is mostly checked out, but warms to Fanny as a companion later on. Sir Bertram mostly ignores Fanny until she is grown enough that her manners and attractiveness catch his eye, especially when compared to his silly daughters and the disappointment of his older son, Tom.
Mansfield Park does what Austen does best, juggle a whole lot of complicated and fully fleshed out characters in some very entertaining ways.
Woven throughout the book is Fanny's secret and constant love and adoration for her cousin Edmund. Understandable given the norms of the time as well as, again, her isolated and oppressed upbringing and the lack of attention from anyone to introduce her into society or to find a suitable match for her. But it is undeniably weird and incesty today.
ANYWAY.
Sir Thomas and his oldest son Tom leave to manage their plantation interests in Antigua (there isn't much about the slave trade in the book, though Austen would have been aware that the abolition of the slave trade was being debated... these concepts are more fully developed in the 1999 movie, though probably taken much too far [it is a Weinstein production, barf] and turns Sir Thomas into a sexually deviant villain). While they are gone, the house becomes a bit more lively. With Mrs. Norris's help, Maria secures an engagement with the wealthy Mr. Rushworth (hilariously portrayed in the 1999 movie by Hugh Bonneville--he is perfect). Maria seems content with her match until Tom returns early from Antigua with his friend Mr. Yates and we are introduced to Mary Crawford and her brother, Henry Crawford.
The Crawford siblings’ background is more complicated than I care to summarize, but suffice it to say they were raised somewhat 'liberally' for the time period and have some shocking or 'immoral' ideas. They are attractive and vivacious and wreak a lot of havoc.
With Sir Thomas away, the group decide to put on a scandalous play (Edmund requires some coaxing). During the rehearsals, Edmund falls for Mary and Henry flirts with the engaged Maria for sport. The book's steady moral compass, Fanny, watches it all with a hefty dose of side eye.
Sir Thomas comes back from Antigua and the play is halted, though he is impressed with Fanny and begins to take more notice of her. He insists she (finally) have a fire in her room and puts on a ball so that she may officially be introduced into society. Sir Thomas also meets Mr. Rushworth for the first time and unimpressed, gives his daughter the option to get out of the engagement. However, Maria appears to put off her Henry Crawford crush and marries Mr. Rushworth fairly quickly. She takes her sister Julia with her on her honeymoon.
Without the girls to dote on, Mrs. Norris becomes more toxic toward Fanny while Lady Bertram appears to rely on her companionship more and more. Henry Crawford decides to make Fanny fall in love with him, and ends up falling for her in earnest. Sir Thomas is delighted with the match and encourages Fanny to accept the dashing young man.
Fanny's side eye for Henry is probably the most entertaining aspect of her character. She is often criticized for being too stodgy (and she is), but I think at her age, I would have easily had my head turned by someone turning up the charm like Henry does. Especially with both his sister, her beloved Edmund, and Sir Thomas championing Henry and pressuring Fanny to accept. Henry's attention to Fanny also pisses off Mrs. Norris which would have been very difficult for me to ignore. I would have been tempted to accept just to thumb my nose at that woman from the 'reward' of my higher station and more comfortable situation. But Fanny's heart already belongs to Edmund and she does not forget how Henry flirted shamelessly with her engaged cousin.
But Henry really is putting on a good show. He secures a position for Fanny's brother, isn't put off by a visit to her poor relations in Portsmouth, won't take no for an answer, and just keeps showing up. He seems to really fall in love with her (likely because she's the first woman to ever refuse him and he finds it fascinating).
Toward the end, a bunch of stuff happens almost all at once. The oldest brother Tom, has a drunken fall from his horse and is ill, Fanny is fetched home from Portsmouth, Mary finally offends Edmund enough to open his eyes, and Julia Bertram elopes with Mr. Yates. The elopement would have been a terrible scandal, except it is eclipsed by another.
Just when Fanny is softening towards Henry and wondering if he has really changed, he abandons all of his bright and hopeful promises to Fanny and ends up in a scandalous affair with the married Maria Rushworth. Though they run away together, Henry refuses to marry her, proving is cad-status once and for all.
Many wonder if Fanny would have accepted Henry if Edmund and Mary had married. Would Fanny have been able to reform Henry? Would Henry have stayed constant to Fanny once he had her? Or would his playboy tendencies have won out? I've dated enough Henrys in my lifetime to believe the latter.
Sir Thomas is, at last, forced to admit Fanny was right in refusing Henry's advances and begins to view her has the best of his daughters (intensifying the incesty feel, but whatever), and so is delighted to endorse an attachment between her and Edmund.
In all, it's a very ambitious tale with a lot of characters to keep track of (I'm always in awe of Austen for pulling off such complicated individuals and tangled storylines) and I think it decent fun. It's a shame Fanny couldn't have been even a slightly a more distant relation to soothe modern day 'icks,' but it is what it is.
As is my usual after a re-read, I watched some of the movies & listened to some dramatized versions. The Jane Austen Collection has been a delight. Reordered and abridged so some purists hate it, but still super fun. In it, Mansfield Park is narrated by Billie Piper (star of the 2007 Mansfield Park TV movie) and has a full cast. The 1999 movie with Frances O'Connor is great and provides Fanny some much needed spunk. Lindsay Duncan is fantastic as Lady Bertram and Frances Price. I have a hard time with the 2007 TV movie version... Billie Piper's acting is great, but her hairstyle and overall appearance is so modern it takes me out of the story. A lot is cut out or rushed to make it fit into the TV requirements, but her personality and relationship with Edmund is closer to the book version than the 1999 movie.
I didn't listen to them this go, but the BBC audiobook production with Benedict Cumberbatch & David Tennant is excellent, as is the audiobook performed by Frances Barber.
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When your main exposure to Austen is through PRIDE & PREJUDICE and EMMA (okay, I haven’t read but I have watched Clueless many times), you may come in to MANSFIELD PARK (MP) with certain preconceived notions of what to expect: romance! Character development! Strong, likable characters! Excessive yapping by people constantly visiting each other’s houses that is a light cover for insightful social commentary!
Well, throw those assumptions out the door (except the yapping), for the romance, character growth, and number of likable characters are low, but the rich-people-making-a-mess-for-no-reason-other-than-they-are-bored is HIGH!
This book follows Fanny Price, a niece who is plucked from her happy but poor home to live with her rich aunt and uncle and nieces. From the get go, you have a sense of the strong moral tone that will permeate the rest of the book. Fanny, despite being family, is constantly othered by her relatives because she is not rich and *they* are doing her a favor by giving her exposure to education and better society. Fanny constantly gets a little less than, is honestly treated like a servant, and is frequently reminded of her place (i.e. not in the same social stratosphere as her cousins).
In true Austen fashion, there are a lot of layers and themes in this book. This book shines in its social commentary. There is so much we can glean just from reading the interactions between the characters. Fanny is constantly set apart as a foil: a foil to her cousins, whom she grew up with; a foil to her family when she visits them as an adult; a foil to all those who are smitted by Henry Crawford. It was so interesting to see the very stark differences in their character, teasing out which one is nature vs. nurture. It was also hysterical to see the hypocrisy in how one is expected to behave in polite society vs. what behaviors are actually encouraged.
But unlike other Austen books I read, the morality thread is very strong to the point it felt like a bit of a turn off. Also, while I love a mess (and the rich people in this book are MESSY), this book was honestly too long.
Is this my favorite Austen? No. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Just don't expect a romantic read!
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!!