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amleparker 's review for:
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
Contrary to many a popular opinion – I love Fanny Price.
There were three sisters. One of them married extremely well, one married a respectable clergy man, and the last married someone not approved by the others. Because of this she was shut out from the family for a few years. After some time however the two “proper” sisters decide to forgive their errant sister, in word at least, and as to show their kindness ask her to send one of her daughters to Mansfield Park, to be brought up there by her uncle and aunt. Mrs. Price, the one who didn’t marry an appropriate man, sends away her oldest daughter, a shy and small little creature named Fanny.
Fanny is only ten years old and a very small and extremely timid girl. The sharp contrast between herself and her outgoing cousins make for misunderstandings. Fanny grieves being away from all and everyone she knows and her lack of smiles and cheerfulness is mistaken as ingratitude towards her uncle and aunt. Poor Fanny, too shy and too sensitive to be understood, while not ill treated, is very soon treated with less care and much less affection.
Fanny grows up to be a very quiet but intelligent, sensitive, self-sacrificing, forgiving and generous girl. She is constantly and often cruelly reminded by one of her aunts about her inferiority to her cousins and the gratitude she must always feel and show.
The only one to show some understanding and compassion is Edmund, the younger son. He stumbles upon Fanny one day as she has hidden to cry and he starts to understand her quiet nature for what it is and not as a sign of bad feeling and ill breeding. From that moment on he is somewhat her protector and defender, without displaying his preference for her ways and her mind in comparison to his sisters.
This book is probably the odd one out of Jane Austen’s.
Fanny, the main character of our story, is a highly introverted character. She observes and listens incredibly well but she has no one to confide in.
Fanny’s lack of support is something previously unseen in any other of Austen’s novels. In the other books, there’s always a family behind our heroines, someone to boost morale and give a sense of security. Not here. We have cousin Edmund, showing up to be indignant over the way she is used as a servant and how she is excluded from the finer society and nicer activities from time to time, but he is no knight in shining armour and as soon as he is infatuated by the charming newcomer, Mary Crawford, he more than often forgets about his frail little cousin.
The love triangle (quandrangle?) between the sisters, the fiancé, and Henry Crawford was amusing and it had me in suspense until the very end. Henry’s vanity, coxcomb manners, and his total disregard to the word “no” carried the story and made the plot bearable.
Mansfield Park is not my favourite Austen, but it is a good one. The social commentary, as always, highly amusing and Fanny is definitely one of my favourite Austen heroines. But the plot is lacking and the pacing is slow, and even though I want to like Edmund as much as Fanny does, he is distant and selfish in his relationship with her.
I could go on but I won’t.
If you like Austen, read this - but be prepared for a more gentle, insecure, and quiet type of heroine.
There were three sisters. One of them married extremely well, one married a respectable clergy man, and the last married someone not approved by the others. Because of this she was shut out from the family for a few years. After some time however the two “proper” sisters decide to forgive their errant sister, in word at least, and as to show their kindness ask her to send one of her daughters to Mansfield Park, to be brought up there by her uncle and aunt. Mrs. Price, the one who didn’t marry an appropriate man, sends away her oldest daughter, a shy and small little creature named Fanny.
Fanny is only ten years old and a very small and extremely timid girl. The sharp contrast between herself and her outgoing cousins make for misunderstandings. Fanny grieves being away from all and everyone she knows and her lack of smiles and cheerfulness is mistaken as ingratitude towards her uncle and aunt. Poor Fanny, too shy and too sensitive to be understood, while not ill treated, is very soon treated with less care and much less affection.
Fanny grows up to be a very quiet but intelligent, sensitive, self-sacrificing, forgiving and generous girl. She is constantly and often cruelly reminded by one of her aunts about her inferiority to her cousins and the gratitude she must always feel and show.
The only one to show some understanding and compassion is Edmund, the younger son. He stumbles upon Fanny one day as she has hidden to cry and he starts to understand her quiet nature for what it is and not as a sign of bad feeling and ill breeding. From that moment on he is somewhat her protector and defender, without displaying his preference for her ways and her mind in comparison to his sisters.
This book is probably the odd one out of Jane Austen’s.
Fanny, the main character of our story, is a highly introverted character. She observes and listens incredibly well but she has no one to confide in.
Fanny’s lack of support is something previously unseen in any other of Austen’s novels. In the other books, there’s always a family behind our heroines, someone to boost morale and give a sense of security. Not here. We have cousin Edmund, showing up to be indignant over the way she is used as a servant and how she is excluded from the finer society and nicer activities from time to time, but he is no knight in shining armour and as soon as he is infatuated by the charming newcomer, Mary Crawford, he more than often forgets about his frail little cousin.
The love triangle (quandrangle?) between the sisters, the fiancé, and Henry Crawford was amusing and it had me in suspense until the very end. Henry’s vanity, coxcomb manners, and his total disregard to the word “no” carried the story and made the plot bearable.
Mansfield Park is not my favourite Austen, but it is a good one. The social commentary, as always, highly amusing and Fanny is definitely one of my favourite Austen heroines. But the plot is lacking and the pacing is slow, and even though I want to like Edmund as much as Fanny does, he is distant and selfish in his relationship with her.
I could go on but I won’t.
If you like Austen, read this - but be prepared for a more gentle, insecure, and quiet type of heroine.