Reading 1001 discussion

Read in 2008, didn't have much to say, "Austen's most political and serious novel.". I remember that I liked it. 4 stars.

Classic literature for my 2021 Bingo card.
This book is quite polarizing amongst Austen fans, with many thinking that this is Austen at her best and others finding Fanny Price, the heroine and central figure, a bit of a wet rag compared to other of Austen's female leads.
Mansfield Park is a story about family relationships and the characteristics and virtues that women of this time had to uphold in upper class society.
Fanny Price's mother married for love or like rather than for money and security and then proceeded to have too many children with too little funds to support them. Fanny is removed to her Aunt Bertram's house, Mansfield Park, in an act of charity. Fanny is rather sickly, meek, and so timid as to rarely be able to speak in company. In contrast her female cousins are beautiful, healthy, vivacious and eager to experience the world. Fanny's whole world is to be by her Aunt's side and to fall in love with her cousin Edmund. However, although Fanny is not a delightful Austen creation, she does have two active characteristics to compliment all her passive characteristics. Fanny has strong judgements, which she mostly hides from the other characters but these judgements are not hidden from us the reader. Also, she is able to patiently persevere.
As usual, Austen is able to bring to life an amusing collection of people who have very little to do other than think about their social life and to point the finger at the disgraceful place that women held at the time, when their whole worth to the world was marrying for security and then to have heirs. Fanny Price triumphs by being steadfastly herself; quiet, timid, good Fanny able to say "no" to moral ambiguity.
It was a fun read but it was not my favorite Austen.

3.5 Stars

This is my first Austen novel, despite loving the tv and film adaptations I'd never actually read her original work. Saying that Mansfield Park is not one that I had watched so the story was new to me. Most of my rating is for Austen's writing, I love the style and her wit and humour do come across in this novel although there is much less of it than I was expecting. It seemed to be more of a social narrative than the romance story I was expecting. I liked it but felt it could have happily been shortened by a good 100 pages. The story takes a long time to get anywhere, the 'action' doesn't really kick in until about halfway through, then it all slows to a snail's pace again when Fanny visits her family in Portsmouth, then the ending is rushed. I didn't find myself engaged enough with any of the characters really to give it a higher rating. Her characters rather than being well-rounded and complex seemed to just flip-flop between the best and worst sides of themselves (Edmund, Miss Crawford & Mr Crawford) or they were just pretty one dimensional (Fanny and pretty much all her female relations).

It was an enjoyable enough read, but given that all her other works are on the list, I did find myself wondering why this one was also included.

If this had gone in the moody direction it started off, there would have been no romantic bows at the end. In all other Austen's, mistaken impression and prejudices which separate suited couples are more or less gradually over come by interactions between them, growing mutual admiration and understanding. Here there is only slavish devotion on one side, and capitulation to the steady when the romantic is undermined on the other. Austen is in a very black mood against society men and women, with morally corrupt cores no matter how charming; so no gentle mocking of little airs and self-important pomp. These people are snakes to be driven out of Eden. But it leaves us with a pretty insipid Eden if passion is to be passed over.