jamyyc 's review for:

Mansfield Park by Jane Stabler, Jane Austen

3.0

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“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.

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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)