Review by attoliairene - Mansfield Park

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attoliairene 's review for:

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

2.75

emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I always feel strongly conflicted while reading Jane Austen and this book was no exception 😩 Reading it was an experience but should I be happy with how things turned out? Maybe it's because I went into this expecting a romance - it's not 😑 I'm getting a headache just thinking about it 😵‍💫

Here are some thoughts I had on certain topics while reading 🤔

Consent

Firstly, no means no 😭 I felt so uncomfortable every time Crawford spoke of his feelings, especially with Fanny earnestly begging him not to do so!

Plot structure

Secondly, just when I was starting to be convinced of Crawford’s character development, a plot twist dropped in chapter 46 (out of 48) 🤯 I’ve never seen any author dare to put a plot twist so late in a standalone novel - it left me acutely worried about the dwindling number of pages 😓

Romance

Thirdly, we were ROBBED of a love confession 😱😱 okay why am I even thinking about that, it’s literally incest 😭 Why was I, living in the 21st century, even contemplating marriage between direct cousins? (yes, their mothers were sisters) Turns out good writing actually has the potential to change the way people see things 😨 Also it kind of seemed like Edmund turned to Fanny as a second resort - he literally only realises their romantic potential in the last few pages 😭 I actually thought Mr Rushworth and Fanny might’ve been a good match 😅

Ending thoughts

Finally, even though we didn’t get a confession 🤧 I thought the story wrapped up really nicely; especially Sir Thomas realising the errors in his parenting.
Also good riddance to Mrs Norris (officially the most annoying character, even the characters were glad to be rid of her 😂)

If you’re thinking of reading some of Jane Austen’s works, I strongly do not recommend starting with this one 😮‍💨 but don’t end with it either!!! It makes for some heavy reading and isn’t quite as romantic or lighthearted as say, Pride and Prejudice (now that’s a good one to start with…🤭)

Content Warnings