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bluegraybox 's review for:
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
Well, I liked this enough to re-read it within a year, so that says something. And it's not a short book.
I love books that throw you into the deep end and expect you to swim. Several of William Gibson's books, but especially The Peripheral; Susanna Clarke's Piranesi. They start telling the story from the characters' point of view and leave you to figure out what's going on in the world.
Mansfield Park is not an unfamiliar setting (for the intended audience at the time), but it is an intensely social milieu, and Austen doesn't pull any punches. Within the first two pages, we're introduced to: Miss Maria Ward, Sir Thomas Bertram, Miss Ward, Miss Frances, Rev. Mr. Norris, Mrs. Norris, an unnamed Lieutenant of Marines, Lady Bertram, Mrs. Price, and Fanny. You need to be paying enough attention to infer that Miss Maria Ward and Lady Bertram are the same person, as are Miss Ward and Mrs. Norris, as well as Miss Frances, Mrs. Price, and Fanny. You should also have caught that Miss Ward (Mrs. Norris) is designated by that name as the eldest of the three sisters, and that the unnamed Lieutenant must be Mr. Price. Buckle up, here comes page three.
For someone who grew up on what are in essence boys' adventure stories of various stripes and levels of maturity, this is a very different experience, and it's frankly quite challenging. This is not the complexity of murder mysteries or political intrigues or heist stories. It's the complexity of social relations between a dozen or so people varying in age, social status, fortune and prospects, beauty and talent, availability, desirability, maturity, and character flaws, who are bound together by family relationships or thrown together by circumstance. It's all about social skills and character and life choices.
Part of what is fascinating is that it is so ordinary. The climactic drama is a social scandal. There are no fight scenes or chases, no countdown on a ticking bomb. There are four young ladies and a similar number of young gentlemen, and it will be interesting to see who ends up with whom.
[Still working on this. There's a lot to think about...]
(This copy, the one I read first, is my mum's. It's part of a full set of Jane Austen's novels from Oxford University Press, printed in 1946. I re-read the Project Gutenberg version on my Kindle, which while convenient is an altogether less emotionally resonant experience.)
I love books that throw you into the deep end and expect you to swim. Several of William Gibson's books, but especially The Peripheral; Susanna Clarke's Piranesi. They start telling the story from the characters' point of view and leave you to figure out what's going on in the world.
Mansfield Park is not an unfamiliar setting (for the intended audience at the time), but it is an intensely social milieu, and Austen doesn't pull any punches. Within the first two pages, we're introduced to: Miss Maria Ward, Sir Thomas Bertram, Miss Ward, Miss Frances, Rev. Mr. Norris, Mrs. Norris, an unnamed Lieutenant of Marines, Lady Bertram, Mrs. Price, and Fanny. You need to be paying enough attention to infer that Miss Maria Ward and Lady Bertram are the same person, as are Miss Ward and Mrs. Norris, as well as Miss Frances, Mrs. Price, and Fanny. You should also have caught that Miss Ward (Mrs. Norris) is designated by that name as the eldest of the three sisters, and that the unnamed Lieutenant must be Mr. Price. Buckle up, here comes page three.
For someone who grew up on what are in essence boys' adventure stories of various stripes and levels of maturity, this is a very different experience, and it's frankly quite challenging. This is not the complexity of murder mysteries or political intrigues or heist stories. It's the complexity of social relations between a dozen or so people varying in age, social status, fortune and prospects, beauty and talent, availability, desirability, maturity, and character flaws, who are bound together by family relationships or thrown together by circumstance. It's all about social skills and character and life choices.
Part of what is fascinating is that it is so ordinary. The climactic drama is a social scandal. There are no fight scenes or chases, no countdown on a ticking bomb. There are four young ladies and a similar number of young gentlemen, and it will be interesting to see who ends up with whom.
[Still working on this. There's a lot to think about...]
(This copy, the one I read first, is my mum's. It's part of a full set of Jane Austen's novels from Oxford University Press, printed in 1946. I re-read the Project Gutenberg version on my Kindle, which while convenient is an altogether less emotionally resonant experience.)