You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nas12 's review for:
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
I surprise myself giving such a low rating to a Jane Austen novel but it couldn’t be helped. This is one of her more dense works, but if I found its reading tedious is for a very different reason.
One of the things I like about Jane Austen novels is how each has a very different and complex woman as its main character; this means that you will always find one that you can feel more represented by, but also it has the downside of some being less suited for one taste. This is what happened to me with Fanny Price. After reading about Elizabeth or Emma on previous novels, Fanny paled in comparison. I don’t dislike quiet, introspective and sensible characters; but Fanny sometimes annoyed me with her passivity and I couldn’t help internally screaming at her “get down of your high horse” at times. Edmund didn’t help improve my opinion of the novel, he was even plainer and more of a goody two-shoes than Fanny. In fact the characters that I found more interesting were the ones that I was supposed to dislike, the evils of the story. I also have to say that while other heroines and even their male counterparts experience some growth through their respective novels (overcoming their prejudices for example), I couldn’t barely see any arc with Fanny and Edmund since they started being nearly perfect and so above everyone else around them in terms of morality and judgement.
Regarding the plot, I think that Jane Austen novels tend to be romance stories that hide a wonderful study of characters. In Mansfield happens quite the opposite, it’s a long study of characters with a bit of romance in its last half. I didn’t mind this since it was refreshing, but in the end the main romance seemed rushed, in fact the whole ending seemed like a fix it all to make all ends meet; especially given how slow the plot had advanced till then.
With all it’s not a bad novel, just not up my taste and for sure one of my least favorites novels by Jane Austen. Its saving grace was the always marvelous way in which the author writes the witty dialogues, the smart descriptions and the sharp critic of the society of her time hidden behind apparent correctness.
One of the things I like about Jane Austen novels is how each has a very different and complex woman as its main character; this means that you will always find one that you can feel more represented by, but also it has the downside of some being less suited for one taste. This is what happened to me with Fanny Price. After reading about Elizabeth or Emma on previous novels, Fanny paled in comparison. I don’t dislike quiet, introspective and sensible characters; but Fanny sometimes annoyed me with her passivity and I couldn’t help internally screaming at her “get down of your high horse” at times. Edmund didn’t help improve my opinion of the novel, he was even plainer and more of a goody two-shoes than Fanny. In fact the characters that I found more interesting were the ones that I was supposed to dislike, the evils of the story. I also have to say that while other heroines and even their male counterparts experience some growth through their respective novels (overcoming their prejudices for example), I couldn’t barely see any arc with Fanny and Edmund since they started being nearly perfect and so above everyone else around them in terms of morality and judgement.
Regarding the plot, I think that Jane Austen novels tend to be romance stories that hide a wonderful study of characters. In Mansfield happens quite the opposite, it’s a long study of characters with a bit of romance in its last half. I didn’t mind this since it was refreshing, but in the end the main romance seemed rushed, in fact the whole ending seemed like a fix it all to make all ends meet; especially given how slow the plot had advanced till then.
With all it’s not a bad novel, just not up my taste and for sure one of my least favorites novels by Jane Austen. Its saving grace was the always marvelous way in which the author writes the witty dialogues, the smart descriptions and the sharp critic of the society of her time hidden behind apparent correctness.