Mansfield Park (Penguin Classics)

Book Description

New chronology and further reading; Tony Tanner's original introduction reinstated

Edited with an introduction by Kathryn Sutherland.

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating glimpse at English life in the early 1800s.......2006-09-28

Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (whose death at an early age was a tragedy for literature), was an intriguing window into the life of English families in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The arrogance and pomposity of the land holding families, the invisibility of servants, the status of women, class consciousness, and the self-centeredness of those who didn't have to work for a living all come out in this novel.

The story focuses on Fanny, the daughter of a sister who didn't marry as well as another sister. In a fit of compassion (loosely defined), the wealthier sister takes on Fanny as a companion to use and a project to make. Over the next decade, Fanny evolves from a homesick and chronically shy girl into a most balanced character. Surrounding this story are the highs and lows of the other characters, her aunts, uncle, and her cousins and their friends.

As a story, Mansfield Park is rather tedious and sleep-inducing. The detail is almost overwhelming. The insight into this period, however, is fascinating. Jane Austin clearly was a very astute observer of the life and times of people around her.

One of Austen's most overtly feminist works.......2006-09-24

Jane Austen once mused that her novels are like a miniature mural painted on a two-inch square of ivory. While that's a lovely image, and while Austen was a master of deep character and thoroughly explored emotion, her books have important political elements that should not be overlooked. I'm surprised that more people haven't picked up on this, but Mansfield Park is certainly a defense of feminism and a profound statement on the importance of women's education. It is also, perhaps, a response to people's reactions to the heroines in her earlier works Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

At the time, women of a certain class were expected to be "accomplished," but not necessarily educated. We see this also in "Pride and Prejudice," when Mr. Darcy chides Miss Bingley on being so very accomplished in such vital arts as table painting though not well-read. Here, the heroine of Mansfield Park, Fanny Price, reads a great deal, but her older cousins the Misses Maria and Julia Bertrams are more accomplished in needlework and playing the pianoforte, as befits the daughters of a baronet. The middle set-piece of the book, the theatricals (they put on a play!), we see how each of the girls reacts when presented with an opportunity to do something fun that is perhaps a tad disreputable and, more importantly, something they know will piss off their father. In the latter part of the book, the three girls are offered various marriages and situations in life. Maria makes disastrous choices that still draw gasps (or at least rolled eyes) today. Julia's choices are hasty and panic-driven, though not as deplorable as her elder sister's. Only Fanny Price is patient, makes the correct moral choices that are not mercenary, and marries for love and honor.

Sir Thomas Bertrams muses that, "...the most direful mistake in his plan of education [of Maria and Julia]. Something must have been wanting within, or time would have worn away much of its ill effect. He feared that principle, active principle, had been wanting; that they had never been properly taught to govern their inclinations and tempers by that sense of duty which alone can suffice. They had been instructed theoretically in their religion, but never required to bring it into daily practice. To be distinguished for elegance and accomplishments - the authorized subject of their youth - could have had no useful influence that way, no moral effect on the mind. He had meant them to be good, but his cares had been directed to the understanding and manners, not the disposition; and the necessity of self-denial and humility, he feared, they had never heard from any lips that could profit them. Bitterly did he deplore a deficiency which now he could scarcely comprehend to have been possible. Wretchedly did he feel, that with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive education, he had brought up his daughters without their understanding their first duties, or his being acquainted with their character and temper."

Sir Thomas's sentiments and even vocabulary are astonishingly similar to those of Mary Wollstonecraft in "A Vindication of the Rights of Women": that "The conduct and manners of women...prove that their minds are not in a healthy state ... one cause of this ... I attribute to a false system of education, ...more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers; and the understanding of the sex has been so [deluded] by this specious homage, that the civilized women of the present century ... are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect. ... It is acknowledged that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments; meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves, --the only way women can rise in the world, --by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as such children may be expected to act: they dress; they paint, and nickname God's creatures [TK: a reference to Hamlet.] Surely these weak beings are only fit for a seraglio! ... Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of a man; and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for at least, twenty years." Wollstonecraft's ultimate point is that if women have immortal souls, the only way that women can save them is to be educated, for without education, women are merely animals of habit and beasts of fashion.

Ultimately, Fanny Price is the central figure of this novel. Others vilify her as passive and puritanical. Indeed, when asked to join the theatrical production, Fanny insists several times, "I cannot act!" and this repeated statement has more meaning as a metaphor than as a statement of a lack of thespian abilities.

Fanny is, however, good and moral. She does the right thing. She does not marry for money, though everyone urges her to, and even though it means she may end up a spinster and a burden to her cousins and uncle. She finally does marry for love, and one is again reminded of Wollstonecraft's statement that, "the woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind will ... become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband." Fanny gets a happy marriage.

Fanny's erstwhile friend, Mary Crawford, (who some people like but who I think is horrible) is obviously an answer to those people who liked Elizabeth Bennet (of P&P) a little too much. While Elizabeth Bennet is smart and witty, Mary Crawford has a sparkling but superficial wit. Mary Crawford does not think deeply upon anything but pops off whatever witticism (even ribald ones) that rise to the top of her head. Mary urges Fanny to go to Everingham, the country house that Fanny would live in if she married the wrong man, in a reflection of Elizabeth Bennet's comment in P&P that she started to love Mr. Darcy when she saw the grounds of his house (Pemberly.) In the end, when confronted with a moral fiasco, Mary refuses to consider how the perpetrator has wounded those around her and offended God by breaking a sacrament, and only laments that so many people know about it.

TK Kenyon
Author of RABID, coming in Spring, 2007 from Kunati Books

A Less Romantic, More Realistic Austen.......2006-07-15

As a fairly big Jane Austen fan I came into this masterful novel (after the first fifty pages) expecting a great love story put off by the lowly financial means of the protagonist. However, the central figure, Fanny, has many qualities that make her an ulikely figure for the role of seductress. She is quiet, shy, and completely unsure of herself. She indeed has very few qualities that make the reader expectant that she will be able to marry above her means. Instead of an enthralling love story I found the novel full of subtle but interesting social commentary and excellent characterization of the protagonist. While not quite a Pride and Prejudice style page turner, Mansfield Park is worthwhile for its character development and carefully crafted, mature writing.

An Exceptional and A Sophisticated Novel.......2006-05-01

The present novel is about a young girl, Fanny Price, who comes from a poor family of ten children in Portsmouth. At the age of 10, she is adopted by a wealthy family, the Bertrams, who live at Mansfield Park. Mrs. Bertram is Fanny's aunt on her mother's side, and the aunt has had the good fortune of marrying into wealth. The novel follows Fanny's life from age 10 until she marries and the interaction between the Bertrams and another family in Mansfield Park. Beyond knowing those facts, you should not read any more about the plot until you read the novel, or you will risk spoiling the read. I will not give away the plot, but will only describe the writing style and structure.

I read the present book "Mansfield Park," then read some analysis by Nabokov from his Cornell "Lectures on Literature" and the comments of Jane Stabler from the introduction of the Oxford version.

After that I got a bit excited and read Austen's early writing "Sense and Sensibility," along with the analysis by Margaret Doody in the Oxford version. Yes, I guess I am now an Austen fan, and it is a pity that she did not live longer. "Emma" and "Pride and Prejudice" are on my "to read list."

Based on the two novels written over two different time periods, it is clear that she developed a certain fixed writing style and a common structure. She uses the early pages to introduce the families, and other characters, and give start the story. She moves characters around from place to place in part for time shifting. She does a wrap up in the last few chapters.

Those opening chapters are an obstacle for most readers. She uses her own vocabulary and has an unusual way of structuring her prose. That structure is a trademark of Austen's writing. Also, she manages to work in a lot of drama and social issues with some humour and irony.

Based on what Nabokov and others are saying, she got her inspiration from Sheridan, Richardson, Henry Fielding, Sir Walter Scott, and the poetry of Cowper. She modulates the complexity of the prose to reflect the characters - such as making the sentences of Sir Thomas Bertram in "Mansfield Park" somewhat elaborate instead of describing how the character is dressed or a similar description to convey qualities and traits, i.e.: she uses the complexity of speech to convey character. Also, she uses lateral shifts and epigrammatic notations and similar literary techniques. These techniques are interesting for some readers but just confusing for others. It is all part of the price of admission to entering the world of Jane Austen, and it is part of the fun in reading her novels.

Overall, once you get past reading and digesting 50 pages or so and have absorbed the Jane Austen vocabulary (words such as felicity, remonstrance, countenance, etc.) and understand the structure of her prose, the book becomes a compelling read. The second Austen novel seems much easier than the first.

This was written by a mature Jane Austen and many think it is her best work, and likely one of the most sophisticated from a viewpoint of style and structure.

5 STARS IS NOT ENOUGH FOR THIS AUSTEN NOVEL!.......2006-03-21

After recently viewing a film based on a Jane Austen novel, I was left wanting the real thing, not a lightweight, fluffy adaptation that only slightly resembled the original. I wanted something beautifully written with some meat! I have read my beloved Jane Austen's other books many, many times; P & P doesn't even have a kiss yet to me, is the most romantic book I have ever read. But I had not, I'm ashamed to say ever read MANSFIELD PARK. I saw the wonderful movie when it came out several years ago and really enjoyed it. Of course, after having read the book, there are some major differences--see the movie first so you have nothing to compare it to!

The reviews that have been written preceding this one are all astounding-- written poignantly and exquisitely by my fellow Jane Austen aficionados. Some of you all could be authors yourselves. But I will try to write some of my own musings about this wonderful book.

MANSFIELD PARK is not a romance although it does have my 'happily ever after' ending. It is really a biography of Miss Fanny Price, a young girl who is fortuitously taken in by her wealthy Aunt and Uncle, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram to their large estate, Mansfield Park. The ten year-old child has left her poor, low class ineffectual parents and their large brood of children in a small, unorganized and filthy home. Fanny never felt love at home (with the exception of her beloved older brother William) and she has been transplanted to a place that is the polar opposite. Her new home is magnificent and everything is quiet and orderly. Fanny is miserable but is saved by the attentions of her adored moral, sanctimonious but very kind cousin, Edmund. Since Fanny is so painfully shy, she spends most of her day observing everyone else's behavior. And, with Edmund's influence, Fanny, although very sweet and innocent does have a tendency to be 'holier than thou!' Miss Price becomes the sole companion to her Aunt Bertram, a sweet, but shallow woman who has to ask her husband if she is hungry. Fanny's other Aunt Norris is cruel and really contributes to her low self-esteem (as we call it today).

Austen always paints pictures of the most quirky and delicious characters. There is the superficial developmentally delayed Mr. Rushworth who is engaged to Fanny's cousin, Maria. I laughed out loud reading about this man trying to learn even one line for the play. There are the Crawford siblings who are not only attractive but seem to always be the life of the party with their charming personalities. I could go on and on but just know that Jane Austen does a wonderful job with her character development. Each person has such distinctive qualities that we all know people like that in real life, today, two hundred years later!

I really think of Fanny as a duckling who turns into a beautiful swan. She starts her life as a shy, mousy, introverted little girl who never feels quite at home. Her face is rarely seen without a blush. She then grows into a lovely, confident young lady who develops quite a backbone. During her three months at Plymouth she realizes that her home and all the people she dearly loves are part of her beloved Mansfield Park

I agree with the other reviewers when they say that this book is a little more difficult to get into. For people just starting Austen, read her other novels first and then go to this one. Give it a few chapters and I promise that you won't be able to put it down.

Average customer rating:

Worth reading
Not about imperialism or slavery
Didacticism over Pleasure: A Rare Imbalance in Austen
not as crazy about it, but still good
An Under rated Jane Austen

Mansfield Park (Signet Classics)
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451526295

Amazon.com

Though Jane Austen was writing at a time when Gothic potboilers such as Ann Ward Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto were all the rage, she never got carried away by romance in her own novels. In Austen's ordered world, the passions that ruled Gothic fiction would be horridly out of place; marriage was, first and foremost, a contract, the bedrock of polite society. Certain rules applied to who was eligible and who was not, how one courted and married and what one expected afterwards. To flout these rules was to tear at the basic fabric of society, and the consequences could be terrible. Each of the six novels she completed in her lifetime are, in effect, comic cautionary tales that end happily for those characters who play by the rules and badly for those who don't. In Mansfield Park, for example, Austen gives us Fanny Price, a poor young woman who has grown up in her wealthy relatives' household without ever being accepted as an equal. The only one who has truly been kind to Fanny is Edmund Bertram, the younger of the family's two sons.

Into this Cinderella existence comes Henry Crawford and his sister, Mary, who are visiting relatives in the neighborhood. Soon Mansfield Park is given over to all kinds of gaiety, including a daring interlude spent dabbling in theatricals. Young Edmund is smitten with Mary, and Henry Crawford woos Fanny. Yet these two charming, gifted, and attractive siblings gradually reveal themselves to be lacking in one essential Austenian quality: principle. Without good principles to temper passion, the results can be disastrous, and indeed, Mansfield Park is rife with adultery, betrayal, social ruin, and ruptured friendships. But this is a comedy, after all, so there is also a requisite happy ending and plenty of Austen's patented gentle satire along the way. Describing the switch in Edmund's affections from Mary to Fanny, she writes: "I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that everyone may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to time in different people." What does not vary is the pleasure with which new generations come to Jane Austen. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Jane Austen's masterpiece Mansfield Park -- her most controversial novel and the first of her mature works -- joins the Cover to Cover audio line of unabridged classic literature.

Download Description

Begun in 1811 at the height of Jane Austen's writing powers and published in 1814, Mansfield Park marks a conscious break from the tone of her first three novels, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice, the last of which Austen came to see as "rather too light." Fanny Price is unlike any of Austen's previous heroines, a girl from a poor family brought up in a splendid country house and possessed of a vast reserve of moral fortitude and imperturbability. She is very different from Elizabeth Bennet, but is the product of the same inspired imagination.

Customer Reviews:

Worth reading.......2007-09-16

I love Jane Austen and would actually give this book 4 1/2 stars. It's a little slow in parts but like all of her characters, I loved getting to know Fanny Price. Fannie is a quiet girl who is sent to live with her wealthy uncle. She has a very kind heart and is very patient with her Aunt Norris who loves to "put her in her place". She is often reminding her that she is in a different class than her cousins that she is so fortunate to live with. It is wonderful to watch as Fannie grows into a young woman, how she learns to speak her mind and not allow others to manipulate her as they once did. It is definitely one of my very favorite books.

Not about imperialism or slavery.......2007-02-06

Since Edward Said wrote his foolish piece on Mansfield Park it has become de rigeur to attach agendas that reflect the intramural (ie bogus) leftism of the academy to novels (sorry texts) Even so this effort to do so in Mansfield Park is particularly outlandish. In fact the question "What is Mansfield Park about" is less interesting than the question "what is it like to read Mansfield Park" To answer that question one has to explore the LANGUAGE of the novel and see where it leads. The plot of Mansfield Park is off-putting--the verbal architecture of the novel is unsurpassed. Trust me--delight in the language, the layers of irony in a sentence or scene. Ignore current opinion which is both intellectually lazy as well as dishonest. Jane Austen made her feelings clear about the slave trade in EMMA. That A "political" intereprative industry should have grown up about this book testifies to the reigning stupidities of English Studies-- well an English Professor has got to make a living.

Didacticism over Pleasure: A Rare Imbalance in Austen.......2006-08-21

In MANSFIELD PARK, Jane Austen expands her sphere of moral vision. In her earlier novels, she focused on the relationships between marriage partners that were framed in a comedic context of how the typical English society of the late 18th century might complicate the likelihood of a series of happy marriages. In this novel, however, she abandons the world of light and trifling romantic comedy for one in which she shows the unpleasant underside of the genteel society that was so noticeably lacking in say, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. This dark underside includes a number of troubling aspects, all of which are antithetical to the world of light comedy.

First, Austen relentlessly considers the impact of the lack of moral values as a result of inadequate education of children. The patriarch of the Bertram family, Sir Thomas, dearly loves his four children but he has given them a profligate style of life without teaching them how to live that life without being corrupted by its debilitating disadvantage of conspicuous consumption. Second, for the first time in her writing career, Austen boldly places the theme of good versus evil squarely on the interaction of several of her characters. The virtuous Edmund, who is as priestly as the collar that he wears on his neck, is tempted by the lascivious charms of the amoral Mary, who sees in Edmund only a fleeting diversion. Further, Austen places London itself as a den of urban iniquity, the source of the theatrical evil that threatens the pastoral innocence of Mansfield Park. Third, she calls into question some basic paradoxes about the nature of character itself. Are peoples' characters fixed at birth or are they molded by environment? And when character is fixed, is it capable of change, and if so, by what, by whom, and to what extant? These latter questions come into play mostly in the person of Fanny, the outcast relative of the Bertram family who loves Edmund. She is presented as impossibly virtuous, but in the face of her open defiance to marry the rich Henry Crawford, she is labeled as an ingrate and worse. No one in that group perceives her virtue, but the readers certainly do. From where does this virtue spring? It cannot be genetic since several others of her family are woefully deficient in virtue. It cannot be solely the result of environment since, except for the equally virtuous Edmund, the others treat her as uniformly unwanted and unloved.

The answers to the above questions are raised, but only partially answered. Part of the problem in seeking answers to such eternal questions as love versus honor, duty versus obedience, and heredity versus environment in a novel is that this is a novel, and for Austen, a didactic one at that. Since she chooses to use a number of flat characters to represent allegorical archetypes of good and evil, their responses to their encounters cannot convey the full spectrum of thought that a more fully fleshed person might. Further the many plots--the love affair between Fanny and Edmund, the plots of the Bertram sisters, and the interweaving of the many strands of plot between the Bertram children--combine to cause the reader to zero in on these many threads rather than ponder their potentially more universal significances. What is lacking in MANSFIELD PARK is a pleasing balance and harmony among the many snipped strands of plot and theme which cry out for a splicing that does not occur even at the happy marriage of Edmund and Fanny. This imbalance, combined with Austen's atypical use of realism and pressing social concerns, and her lack of a truly engaging heroine along the lines of Elizabeth Bennett, make MANSFIELD PARK a dutiful slog rather than a joyous read.

not as crazy about it, but still good.......2006-07-31

i'm not as in love with this story as i was about Pride and Prejudice, but it's still austen and it's still an excellent read.

An Under rated Jane Austen.......2005-10-08

This is Jane Austen forey into more serious literature, and many of her faithful fans dislike it because of Fanny's, the main character, lack of romance. I beleive it may be one of Jane Austen's best novels. It is a more clear and accurate portrayal of the sensibilities of the time. It goes more into human nature especially about the heart and why people fall in love.
It is a simple story about a girl ,Fanny, who is taken in by her rich Aunt and Uncle. Fanny is an incredibly nervous person. Only her cousin Edmund can make her feel at home. She is raised very properly, although stiltedly because her uncle wants to be sure she realizes she is below their family. The entire family grows dependent on her. Fanny falls in love with Edmund who falls in love with another. I won't ruin anymore of the story. Read it!

Sense & Sensibility/Pride & Prejudice/Mansfield Park/Emma/Northanger Abbey/Persuasion/Lady Susan/Love & Friendship

Average customer rating:

8 Books in 1: Jane Austen's Complete Novels
not great
Pride and Prejudice
Good value
Wonderful

Sense & Sensibility/Pride & Prejudice/Mansfield Park/Emma/Northanger Abbey/Persuasion/Lady Susan/Love & Friendship
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0954840194

Book Description

Jane Austen's complete novels, collected together in one uniquely comprehensive volume, now published with the complete set of Hugh Thomson's famous illustrations. Comprises the complete text of: "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice", "Mansfield Park", "Emma", "Northanger Abbey", "Persuasion", "Lady Susan", and "Love and Friendship". This is the only single-volume edition of Jane Austen's novels to contain not only the wickedly humorous "Lady Susan", but also the irrepressibly exuberant early work "Love and Friendship". This collection allows readers to explore the development of one of the English language's greatest writers, following her development from the farcical comedy of "Love and Friendship" and "Northanger Abbey", via her most popular work, "Pride and Prejudice", to the masterpiece "Emma", and the considered romance of "Persuasion". A unique collection of the finest and most perceptive love stories ever written. Hugh Thomson first illustrated Jane Austen's works in the 1890's; his illustrations are prized for their wit and liveliness. The illustrations in this edition have been photographed directly from the original books, and digitally retouched for enhanced clarity. Copies of the original Hugh Thomson illustrated edition of Pride and Prejudice, from which these illustrations are taken, are highly prized by collectors, and valued at up to $10,000.

Customer Reviews:

8 Books in 1: Jane Austen's Complete Novels.......2007-09-05

The type is very small. It is more comfortable to read a book printed as an individual book. I should have thought this through before ordering a book with all 8 books in one. On the other hand, if you just want to take one book with you, you have 8 to read and only have to carry one. So, for that reason, it's quite a bargain.

not great.......2007-03-09

I ordered this book online thinking it would be cool to have all books in one book so to speak. I was disappointed, each page is split into 2 in the middle, it was not fun reading, and i actually returned it.

Pride and Prejudice.......2007-03-09

I have the video of one of the older versions of the movie and I also have the cd of the most recent movie. I love both of them so much that I had to get the book since it gives you more of an indebt of the thoughts etc. of the characters.
I love the book

Good value.......2007-01-30

For the money, this was great. A few typos, but nothing too bad. If you just want all of Jane Austen's works in one volume I would recommend it.

Wonderful.......2007-01-28

I found this book absolutely wonderful. The illustrations are very good and the Pride and Prejudice illustrations are quite funny. The price is great and I thought it was qutie a steal. Getting a good copy of each of Jane Austen's novels can be pricey, but in this book you get all six plus two fractions of a novel! This is a very good deal.

Mansfield Park (Oxford World's Classics)

Average customer rating:

One of my favorite books
Savor This Jane Austin Masterpiece
A Great Read!
"A watch is always too fast or too slow..."
Not Austen's best, but still wonderful

Mansfield Park (Oxford World's Classics)
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 019280264X

Book Description

'"Me!" cried Fanny..."Indeed you must excuse me. I could not act any thing if you were to give me the world. No, indeed, I cannot act."' At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her wealthy uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, in the chilly grandeur of Mansfield Park. There she accepts her lowly status, and gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund. When the dazzling and sophisticated Henry and Mary Crawford arrive, Fanny watches as her cousins become embroiled in rivalry and sexual jealousy. As the company starts to rehearse a play by way of entertainment, Fanny struggles to retain her independence in the face of the Crawfords' dangerous attractions; and when Henry turns his attentions to her, the drama really begins... This new edition does full justice to Austen's complex and subtle story, placing it in its Regency context and elucidating the theatrical background that pervades the novel.

Customer Reviews:

One of my favorite books.......2007-06-24

Among Austen devotees, Pride and Prejudice is usually regarded as being her best work, but I admit that I think a little differently. While of course P&P is one of the great works of literature and certainly deserves its place in the Western canon, I am inclined to think that Mansfield Park, which in my mind is rivalled only by Persuasion, is just as deserving of that title.

There are quite a few people that seem to think that Fanny and Edmund are much too dull to make a good hero and heroine, but I would beg to differ. Fanny is to me a very real character and not as woodenly perfect as she is sometimes made out to be- she can become angry, jealous and even occasionally depressed and the fact that she does not have the freedom to vent these negative emotions doesn't mean that she doesn't have the capacity or wish to. I have also heard it said that she doesn't have the courage to stand up for herself, but I would point out that she did so at the time that it was really important, even though it would have been much easier to go along with what her relations felt was best instead.

Edmund also should be given the credit that he deserves- it is true that he spends much of the novel under the delusion of his love interest being what she really never was, but when he finally understands it, his anger at himself for not recognising it sooner and his strong desire to make amends for it was enough to make me immediately forgive him for his past mistakes.

Many of the other characters also deserve some notice as well- Fanny's brother William is one of my very favorites in any Austen novel, and her horrible aunt Mrs. Norris is arguably one of her cruelest villains. Really, I can't think of any weak links- every character is deliniated in a strinking and lifelike way, and none seem to be one-dimensional, even when they are minor and not integral to the main story.

In closing, I would point out that while a reader in the mood for something "light, bright and sparkling" might not really appreciate Mansfield Park as much, anyone in need of a good, solid and fascinating novel should not pass it up.

Savor This Jane Austin Masterpiece.......2005-09-07

Mansfield Park has it all. Of course it has Austin's dexterous English, but it also has the social commentary of class and gender which we also expect from her. It has all the feel of a retrospective, and it is remarkable in the extreme that Austin saw her own world with eyes so very like our own. If the quintessence of the creative writer's craft is the development and maintenance of tension, then this is the quintessential Austin novel, and possibly her best. We ache for Fanny when she is transported from her home as a young girl and fails to find either comfort or happiness in the manor house of her aunt and uncle. We are as edgy as the characters themselves as they mount a home theatrical production which places in relief each of their deficiencies, and foretells the guileless decency of our young protagonist. Our nerves are as knotted as hers when the scheming and fabulously wealthy Crawford stalks her, brandishing matrimony as a weapon. And even as we are turning the final dozen pages, the faulty judgment of Fanny's love interest, her cousin Edmond, instills lingering doubts as to whether a satisfying outcome is achievable. Let me provide a preview of Austin's delicious language and the underlying tension it conveys: "The evening passed with external smoothness, though almost every mind was ruffled, and the music which Sir Thomas called for from his daughters helped to conceal the want of real harmony." And here Austin portrays the controlling male mindset in dealing with their female marionettes: "In thus sending her away, Sir Thomas perhaps might not be thinking merely of her health...he might mean to recommend her as a wife by showing her persuadableness." And just how depraved is Mr. Crawford? "Curiosity and vanity were both engaged, and the temptation of immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to make any sacrifice to right...he could not bear to be thrown off by the woman whose smiles had been so wholly at his command; he must exert himself to subdue so proud a display of resentment; it was anger on Fanny's account [for rebuffing him]; he must get the better of it, and make Mrs. Rushworth Maria Bertram [her maiden name] again in her treatment of himself." In Mansfield Park, we have pure evil in a position of commanding power, pitted against a powerless angel. And one by one, the angel's natural allies line up against her. There are a hundred paths to disaster, and only one to the sweetest victory.

A Great Read!.......2005-08-29

The protagonist of Mansfield Park, Fanny Price, was one very near and dear Jane Austen's heart, but did not win a great deal of favor with the reading public. Fanny seemingly emulates the standards of moral feminine behavior for the time period, and unlike other Austen heroines, is not obviously spunky. However, her spunk is evident in her intelligence and unwillingness to sacrifice her principles in any circumstance, even circumstances that would elevate her into high society. I can see why Mansfield Park was Austen's favorite novel. There is an illusion of decorum on the surface, like all her work, but the undercurrent in this particular work is much darker than her other novels. The West Indian slave trade, sexual jealousy, infidelity, and the question of human worth all pervade the novel and instill the reader with the sense of discomfort that Fanny feels throughout. My only critique is the ending, a rather cursory tying up of the intricate story that does not match the complexity of the novel's body. A first rate novel, though, for those who want to take the time to unravel Austen's meaning and give Fanny Price a deeper look.

"A watch is always too fast or too slow...".......2005-08-11

Jane Austen describes Mansfield park to have happened in the first two decades of 1800's. The uniqueness in the novel is the fact that Jane remains consistently and continuously truthful to the story. The story is about Fanny Price, the heroine, who happens to be Lord & Lady Bertram's niece. Fanny's parents are on the lower end of the economy, and therefore Fanny gets taken in by her uncle and aunt at the age of 10. Over the years of Fanny's stay at Mansfield Estate, she becomes more open, intellectual, virtuous and graceful. She grows into a beautiful woman who is genuinely liked by everybody. Like any great story, Mansfield Park has a good guy (Edmund & Sir Thomas Bertram), a bad guy (Mrs. Norris), the temptress (Mary Crawford) and the trickster (Henry Crawford).

Over the years, Fanny falls in love with Edmund (her first cousin) who reminds her of the comfort she received by her biological brother - William. Whether or not Fanny and Edmund will end up together is the constant question that keeps the novel engaging. In terms of the love complex of the novel, it is more like an open-ended square than a triangle. Henry loves Fanny, who loves Edmund, who loves Mary Crawford. Other than the obvious incestuous implication in Fanny affection towards Edmund and Edmund's obsession w/ Fanny's disposition - the novel is socially very truthful to the materialism of then England. Jane throws in a harsh comparison between Fanny's mother and aunt's households towards the last part of the novel when Fanny returns to her family for a few months. Jane also draws contrasts between Mansfield and London cultures by showing changes in personalities of Mary & Henry Crawford.

Fanny practices about Edmund, what Jane says in Emma - "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

Not Austen's best, but still wonderful.......2005-02-24

After having read (and loved) Jane Austen's more famous novels EMMA and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, I found MANSFIELD PARK a true delight. Fanny Price is taken in by her wealthy aunt and uncle as charity to her more lowly-married mother, and is raised with her cousins with the idea she needs refinement and education to become as good a woman as her lesser social standing will allow. Fanny is nervous and self-effacing, struggling with her new situation until her cousin Edmund makes her feel more at home. Gradually, she feels like a part of the family, although the nagging sense of unworthiness always asserts itself. As cousins marry and suitors appear, as scandals arise and emotions become known, Fanny finds herself in the equivalent of a Victorian soap opera.

Fanny is undoubtedly one of Austen's less assertive characters, although she does mature into a woman who knows what she wants and will accept no less. I loved Fanny and her honesty, the little girl who fears the stars in her eyes and still manages to grow up into a respectable - and respected - woman. Her complexities are subtle and understated, making the reader work at times to understand her motivation, although anyone who has felt like an outcast even once, or anyone who respects honesty, will identify with her. In true Austen fashion, the observations are witty, with pointed social analysis and cynicism dressed up in sly humor. Fanny's aunts in particular are skewered, but no one, not even Fanny, is spared.

Readers picking up this novel for the sheer delight of it will find it difficult to put down, as its language is accessible and free-flowing. Students and book club members who must pay closer attention to themes and other literary issues may want to consider the role social standing and money play; the evolution of Fanny's character (and whether she is sympathetic); the techniques Austen uses to evoke humor; and the courtship protocol for Victorian England and how the characters both work within, and violate, the social rules.

I highly recommend this book for teenagers and adults alike, especially those whose literary tastes run toward the classics.

Mansfield Park (Broadview Literary Texts)

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Mansfield Park (Broadview Literary Texts)
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: Broadview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1551110989

Book Description

Mansfield Park is Austen's darkest, most complex and perhaps most fascinating novel. In contrast to the confident and vivacious heroines of Emma and Pride and Prejudice, its central character, Fanny Price, is a shy and vulnerable poor relation who finds the courage to stand up for her principles and desires. The novel touches on slavery, the oppressive nature of an idealized femininity, and women's education. This new edition sheds light on these and other issues through its introduction and appendices of contemporary documents.

Book Description

This Guide traces the response to Mansfield Park from the opinions of Jane Austen's contemporaries, through nineteenth-century reviews and twentieth-century critical analyses, to the diverse readings of the novel available to the twenty-first century reader. The Guide selects the most useful and insightful of these and puts them in context, making available the range of critical debate on this important novel.

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Mansfield Park
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: Headline Book Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Persuasion

ASIN: 0755331478

Book Description

When the gorgeous Henry Crawford and his pretty sister, Mary, come to Mansfield, they have no idea of the commotion they will cause. There they find the Bertram family, with their beautiful daughters and handsome sons—and our heroine, shy and sweet Fanny Price. As the inhabitants of Mansfield Park become ever more involved with the Crawfords, a scandal of devastating proportions begins to unfold.

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Mansfield Park (Large Print Edition)
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: BiblioBazaar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1426455348
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Book Description

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

Mansfield Park (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)

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Mansfield Park (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1593081545

Book Description

From its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park dealas with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate "poor relation." Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park.

Written several years after the early manuscripts that eventually became Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park retains Austen’s familiar compassion and humor but offers a far more complex exploration of moral choices and their emotional consequences.

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