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Mansfield Park
Mansfield Park
Fanny Price, young and from a poor family, is raised by her rich uncle and aunt at Mansfield Park. She grows up with her four cousins but is always treated as an inferior; only her cousin Edmund shows any real kindness. Over time, Fanny's gratitude towards Edmund grows into a secret, romantic love.
Book Excerpt
y dear Sir Thomas, I perfectly comprehend you, and do justice to the generosity and delicacy of your notions, which indeed are quite of a piece with your general conduct; and I entirely agree with you in the main as to the propriety of doing everything one could by way of providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one's own hands; and I am sure I should be the last person in the world to withhold my mite upon such an occasion. Having no children of my own, who should I look to in any little matter I may ever have to bestow, but the children of my sisters?-- and I am sure Mr. Norris is too just--but you know I am a woman of few words and professions. Do not let us be frightened from a good deed by a trifle. Give a girl an education, and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without farther expense to anybody. A niece of ours, Sir Thomas, I may say, or at least of yours, would not grow up in this neighbourhood without many advantages. I
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Of Jane Austen's novels, "Mansfield Park" has less humor, and that darker, than her earlier works, which may be why it's less beloved. The story of the Bertram family and their timid poor relations ation, Fanny Price, as combined with and contrasted to the lively, London-bred siblings, the Crawfords, has more depth, but the waspish, penny pinching Aunt Norris is really the only caricature, and her cruelty and ability to wound Fanny often makes her unfunny. However, Austen's insights into human nature and her characterizations are acute.
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Perhaps the weakest of all Austen's works, including the fragments. The main problem, of course, is the heroine.
09/07/2014
Perhaps the weakest of all Austen's works, including the fragments.
09/07/2014
Loved it. This is the first Jane Austen book I've read since high school, when I didn't really care for them. I'll admit the main character, Fanny, is a little vapid for my taste, but the supporting characters are so well written and real that it didn't really matter.
10/03/2010
Kind of a strange one, compared to Austen's other stuff -- not as clear-cut as Pride and Prejudice or Sense & Sensibility, but it is a social comedy in a way. The main character is sort of wimpier than I expected.
Still, it's a good story, and the dialogue is consistently entertaining.
Still, it's a good story, and the dialogue is consistently entertaining.
04/29/2006