Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Mansfield Park
    Mansfield Park
    Mansfield Park
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    Mansfield Park

    Written by Jane Austen

    Narrated by Juliet Stevenson

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    At the tender age of ten, Fanny Price is ‘adopted’ by her rich relations and is removed from the poverty of her home in Portsmouth to the opulence of Mansfield Park. The transplantation is not a happy one. Dependent, neglected and forgotten, Fanny struggles to come to terms with her new life until, tested almost to the limits of endurance, she assumes her rightful role.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateNov 4, 1995
    ISBN9789629544508
    Author

    Jane Austen

    Born in 1775, Jane Austen published four of her six novels anonymously. Her work was not widely read until the late nineteenth century, and her fame grew from then on. Known for her wit and sharp insight into social conventions, her novels about love, relationships, and society are more popular year after year. She has earned a place in history as one of the most cherished writers of English literature.

    More audiobooks from Jane Austen

    Related to Mansfield Park

    Related audiobooks

    Royalty Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The best-ever ROMANCES

      Jan 7, 2021

      The best-ever ROMANCES
      2 min read

    • Article

      Plain But Sensual

      Feb 14, 2021

      Plain But Sensual
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Only Rule

      Jul 13, 2020

      There is only one rule in polite English society, but it is iron clad. Of course, polite English society is a fiction. For one thing, its members are rarely polite. Politeness is for the middle classes rather than those who live off ancestral acres o

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Bloody Grand Finale

      Apr 13, 2023

      A Bloody Grand Finale
      4 min read

    • Article

      Life Before Death

      Feb 1, 2018

      Life Before Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      True Love

      Dec 22, 2019

      True Love
      3 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 21, 2021

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Stackpole Legend

      Mar 1, 2024

      The Stackpole Legend
      13 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Feb 1, 2024

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two

      Oct 30, 2019

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two
      25 min read

    • Article

      Hot Right Now!

      Mar 21, 2024

      If you enjoyed Emily Henry’s Happy Place or Book Lovers, you’re in for a treat with this novel. Everyone has a funny story to tell, especially when it comes to how you might have met your partner. Daphne always loved the way that her fiancé Peter tol

      2 min read

    • Article

      An ocean OF LOVE

      Jun 27, 2023

      An ocean OF LOVE
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Wonderful Surprise

      Aug 7, 2020

      THANK you, thank you to YOU for the best magazine out there. I’ve followed YOU from the start. My grandchildren always ask for the magazine and then the mags get passed on to elderly friends. This year I wasn’t able to share my 80th birthday with all

      3 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 16, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Mansfield Park

    4/5

    189 ratings158 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Ms. Austen was a bit too moralistic in this tale for my tastes. I appreciated her sly wit, and the depths of her characterization, and her general humanity; but the 19th century moralizing was too annoying. And my 20th/21st century tastes led me to prefer Emma's overconfident, flawed, snobbish heroine, to the underconfident, meek-except-in-virtue Fanny. One point of comparison between Emma and Mansfield Park was favorable to neither: The emphasis on a young woman being shaped since childhood by a man making her his best fit as a spouse. Ick.
    • 4/5
      I LOVE LOVE LOVE this story. If I had more leisure time to read, it would have been more enjoyable. It, or the language I should say, is quite florid. It was pretty language but a bit much at times. I'm no writer but I believe I oculd have said in 2 or 3 pages what Jane Austen said in 6...though not as beautifully of course.I'm glad I read it though. Fanny Price and Edmond Bertram are great examples of what a human being should be. Everybody else just needs a good spanking!...okay except of course for William and Susan.
    • 5/5
      A not quite-so-famous Austen novel.Sir Thomas Bertram, a kindly man, if strict parent, is married to the middle of three sisters, and she is seen as lucky to have married above her station in life. Her youngest sister has married below her, and as well as struggling financially, already has nine children with another on the way. Their eldest sister, Mrs Norris, childless and rather shrewish, lives nearby. She proposes they adopt the eldest girl, Fanny Price, and bring her to Mansfield Park to grow up alongside her cousins - but she should always know that she would not be their equal. Under Mrs Norris's guidance (whose altruism doesn't extend to taking in the young girl herself), shy, timid Fanny, who has been taken away from everything and everyone she knows, is neglected (but not treated cruelly) by the household, except for her cousin Edmund. As they grow up, she secretly falls in love with him, but she is so shy and retiring that nobody notices. And then all the cousins do grow up, and as they reach marriageable age, new young people enter the neighbourhood ... Will Fanny win her Edmund, or will they each fall in love with someone else?As we read, we are also shown the acceptable standards of the morals and manners of Jane Austen's day, albeit in a country setting, rather than London - where the standards are a bit more relaxed.I must reluctantly confess that, much as I love Jane Austen, and enjoyed this book, I didn't find it as humourous as 'Pride and Prejudice' or 'Sense and Sensibility'. I read all the major Austens years ago, and I think I liked the ending then; this time, with a vague idea of how things would end, I would have preferred the alternative ending that Austen mentions in the book itself.
    • 4/5
      Another Jane Austen book for me this year, and it did not disappoint. I guess most people are known with Austen's works, so I wont linger on the plot. The heroine is called Fanny Price. Her mother was born rich, but married poor, and having too many children to feed, sends Fanny to live with her aunt and uncle. She soon becomes a part of the family, though maybe not completely. Her uncle early decides that Fanny is not good enough to marry any of his sons. Fanny has another aunt, Mrs. Norris, who loves to make life difficult for poor Fanny. Drama is soon to be set on Mansfield Park.So, where to start and where to stop? Maybe I can just make it simple. I really liked this book! I am clearly an Austen-fan, though this was not my favourite. I simply can not let Persuasion and P&P go. Definitely a must-read!
    • 4/5
      It was a little slow to get into.I found Edmund a bit of a prig.But I enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      After reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen earlier this year, which I really loved, I decided to pick up another Austen novel and chose Mansfield Park because I had read that it is different from her more popular books.n this novel, the ten year old Fanny Price is taken from her poor parents' home to live at Mansfield Park and be brought up with her rich cousins. Here the difference in class becomes very apparent, her cousins feel superior to her so they ignore her most of the time, however her cousin Edmund is different and he becomes Fanny's only friend. While her uncle is away in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighborhood and as they become closer to the family the story unravels into a moral and social dilemma.It started a little slow and halfway through the book I was still waiting for something to happen, it just seemed to dwell on the day-to-day lives of the Bertrams and the Crawfords, without giving much importance to Fanny. I found some of the characters in this book to be really hateful, I especially hated Mrs. Norris and how she treated Fanny, taking credit where it was not deserved and spoiling Fanny's cousins. At times I just wanted to talk some sense into their heads to stop being so selfish. The two characters that I liked from the very beginning were Fanny for how sensible she was and Edmund for how kind he was to his cousin when everyone else pretty much ignored her, and as the story developed I also started liking Sir Thomas Bertram more and more. The last two hundred pages is when the story started to get really interesting. I really wanted Henry Crawford to be successful in his quest, I believed that Fanny changed him. I certainly was not expecting the ending, it seemed that the character's lives were too dull for such things to happen to them so it came as a surprise to me, and although I was disappointed in some of them I was also very happy with how it ended. At the end of the the book I realized that the time spent getting to know the characters in the beginning was well worth it because it gives you a better understanding of their actions.I love the detail that Jane Austen puts into her characters, it makes you feel like you know these people and you're part of the story. Although Mansfield Park is not as edgy as Pride and Prejudice, it's still a great classic and I would recommend it to any classics or Jane Austen fan.
    • 5/5
      Mansfield Park is Jane Austen’s third novel. Dr Ian Littlewood describes it in his introduction as her first “fully mature work”. The novel centres around Fanny Price, who, from the age of nine, is raised by her aunt and uncle, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, in the company of her cousins Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia, and her aunt Norris. Austen’s prose gives us a clear snapshot of what life was like for the well-to-do and also the less well-off in Regency England. In this novel, Austen deals, as usual, with morality and, in this case, also with adultry. Austen’s characters are well portrayed and it is easy to see why her novels are still popular today.
    • 4/5
      favorite austen novel
    • 4/5
      While Mansfield Park is certainly not on par with some of Jane Austen's other novels, it is is still a pleasant read and is not without the little gems of wit and skillfully constructed sentences that make Austen's writing so wonderful.
    • 4/5
      I should preface this review by saying I love Jane Austen - and perhaps I gave MP an extra star than it was really worth just on this basis. Although some would say that's a reason to dislike MP, it's Austen's linguistic style that I appreciate most in her works.Fanny Price is an interesting character in the context of Austen's other novels, particularly when considered with reference to Elizabeth Bennet, or the self assured Ms Dashwoods. Fragile, unsure and immature, I found Fanny in some respects the most three dimensional and 'real' of Austen's heroines. I also appreciate that, despite significant opposition from her aunt, she is loved in spite of her lowly birth, perhaps even more loved than her respectable cousins.The difficulty I have with the novel is that I saw the ending as a fait accompli right from the beginning of the novel - and while this is also true of Pride and Prejudice - the narrative appears to be missing something in the narrative structure to compensate.
    • 4/5
      Fanny is definitely my favourite Austen woman...we'll definitely top 3. This book meant more to me this time around than any previous time if read it. As always Austen seems to go on about parts that truly do not add to the story and sometimes a lackluster ending ensues. I adore this novel but I am not immune to the facts that it's not always the strongest. Also Ed took his sweet time and I'll admit it wasn't as glamorous a admittance of love as some of other Austen's leading men
    • 2/5
      Mansfield Park is one of Jane Austen's later novels. Its heroine is Fanny Price, a poor cousin who came to live with the Bertram family as a young girl. She grows up surrounded by cousins Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia, and is largely relegated to serving as companion to their mother. In its portrayal of class differences it bears resemblance to Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen displays her usual talent for satirizing English society. But this novel has a more somber undertone, a moral dimension exploring the choices made by each of the young people, and the consequences thereof.Unfortunately, I found this book hard work. I had neutral to negative feelings about all of the characters. Fanny Price came across as mousy and boring; the other women were insipid. Men were cast in typical roles: wealthy handsome cads, kind clergy, etc. And the plot moved at a snail's pace. Whether it was a visit to the country, the staging of a play, or a trip to town, Austen stretched the story on for pages and pages. Having enjoyed most of Austen's other work, I had high hopes for Mansfield Park but found myself skimming towards the end, just to be done with it.
    • 5/5
      Fanny Price, born of a family with little money and many children, is sent off to live with her richer relations at their sprawling manor, Mansfield Park. When a neighbor’s half-siblings, Henry and Mary Crawford, come into town, Fanny's cousins, the Bertrams, find their planned lives quite at an upheaval. Quiet, unassuming Fanny must watch as her beloved cousin Edmund is taken in by Mary Crawford's charms while almost obstinately blind to Fanny's better traits.It’s been several years since I’ve first read Mansfield Park and without very good movie adaptations of it, I must confess I had forgotten a great deal of the finer points of the book. Coming back to it with this re-read, I think it might be becoming a Jane Austen favorite, at the top of my list of the cream of the crop, vying with Emma and Sense and Sensibility, or just slightly behind them.Austen is at the top of her game with her use of free indirect discourse in this book, making it a marvel for literary style. It is certainly not without her usual wit and the humorous characters that Jane Austen creates so well (i.e., Lady Bertram who cares more about her pug than her children, Mrs. Norris who is generous with other people's money but frugal with her own, etc.). However, some of the characters are much more nuanced than in her other books – the Crawfords most notably but also Edmund and Fanny. I actually like that we get more of the childhood of our heroine, but it certainly does add to the length of this novel and the criticism some have that it takes so long to get to the main story. In that respect, it does feel more like David Copperfield than Pride and Prejudice (and Fanny’s wallflower personality is a bit reminiscent of how all the action seems to occur around David Copperfield rather than any being from him). However, even the introduction to Fanny’s childhood at Mansfield is not very long in the grand scheme of things. As I mentioned above, there is more nuance to the Crawfords who, while being the cads of this book, are also such delightful characters to read about. Mary, with her liveliness and sometimes crass manners, actually makes me wonder if Austen didn't base some of her mirth and wit upon herself. It is such a study of humanity to see the kind, sensible Edmund taken in - and in turn taking in - by the self-absorbed, speaking her mind Mary Crawford. Austen has truly hit upon the adage that "opposites attract" while realizing that while this may be so, opposites rarely make a good - or more importantly here - lasting pair. And while Fanny will never steal the scene like, say, Elizabeth Bennet, I found that she was not so quiet and meek as I recalled after the first time I read this book. Indeed, after Elinor Dashwood, Fanny Price might be my favorite Austen heroine, with her self-sacrificing, eager-to-please manners yet astute judgment of people – although, yes, she does spend a bit too much time crying and/or blushing at the slightest provocation. Edmund Bertram isn’t replacing Mr. Knightley as my preferred Jane Austen hero, but I like that the reader really gets to know him and his thoughts, motivations, and feelings unlike some of the other heroes (i.e., Edward Ferrars, who I feel like we barely see in Sense and Sensibility).For the audio reader, Johanna Ward is an excellent audio narrator. She does the best job of all by making you forget she is there and instead believe you are really listening in on the conversations of Fanny, the Bertrams, and the Crawfords. Her voice for Lady Bertram was so exactly what you would expect from the languid lady that it would almost make me giggle just to hear her begin to speak in this voice, before she even got out the lady's entire sentence and its humorous intent.
    • 5/5
      I adored Mansfield Park! Yes -- the story gets off to a slow start, but you will reap an abundance of rewards in return for your patience. The book is downright funny at times. Mrs. Norris amuses as a stuffy, obsequious, and presumptuous busy-body, and Austen does a great job painting lazy Lady Bertram. Whatever did Sir Thomas see in her? In her usual understated manner, the author allows us to witness how Edmond and Fanny grow and become more self-aware and complete people. Austen brings to life the day-to-day emotional hyper-emotional drama of a small, closed society of early 18C Britain. From a modern perspective, it's fascinating to bring the author's account of those times to the mind's eye and contemplate how people endured it without repeatedly slitting their throats.
    • 2/5
      Another Austen romance.Fanny Price, about age 9, is "invited" to live with her Bertram cousins--her parents have too many kids in too small a space in the city of Portsmouth. Her mother married down. Her oldest sister married up, to a Bertram, and lives at Mansfield Park. Her other sister, Mrs Norris, now widowed, married laterally to a minister, and now lives within walking distance of the Bertrams. It is Mrs Norris' idea that the Bertram's should offer to house one of the sister's daughters.Mrs Norris makes sure Fanny knows her place. She is expected to stay home and help Aunt Bertram, who is the most mild and boring woman ever. Mrs Norris is the cruel aunt, and constantly reminds Fanny of her position. She is more helper than cousin.And this goes on for years. As they age, their relationships shift, though Mrs Norris always blames Fanny and thinks she doesn't deserve anything. The Bertram family has a bit of an implosion, with illness, elopement, running off, and unrequited love. Because of course, this is a romance.And in the end, exactly what I expected to happen happened. Because it's a romance!
    • 4/5
      This book is a little darker and complex than Austin's usual. The story is very engaging.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely my favorite of all the Jane Austens. Her sense of characterization really has come a long way by this book!
    • 5/5
      This is the rags-to-riches story of Fanny Price, a poor relation sent to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle and cousins, where she is unappreciated and lonely. Eventually, her family (some of them, anyway!) learn to love her and rely on her good nature and sweet disposition.I was reading in someone else's thread about how so many people want all of Jane Austen's heroines to be Lizzie Bennett. Fanny couldn't be more different from Lizzie, but that doesn't mean she is less of a heroine, IMO. In fact, she reminded me a lot of my daughter, with her shyness and reluctance to be the center of attention, but her stubbornness about sticking to her principles. I still *love* Pride and Prejudice, but I loved this book too. The biggest contrast that I noticed, in fact, was that between Mr. Darcy and Edmund Bertram. And for annoying relations, I believe I would actually prefer to be related to Mrs. Bennett to Aunt Norris, although Mr. Collins is worse than either of them.If you are an Austen fan, I really would recommend this book. I loved it. 5 stars
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this Austen, although Fanny needs a shot of coffee sometimes.
    • 4/5
      This is the third time I've read this, and I like it more each time. The first time, I hated it. Since, I've been trying to understand why (since I've liked/loved every other Austen novel I've read) and it's amazing, how Austen manages social critique without looking like that's what she's doing. I hesitated to label her subversive before (for her time period), but now...anyway, highly recommend. 9/10
    • 4/5
      My favorite Austen book. I know I am in the minority for disliking Mr. Darcy and Lizzy and liking Fanny and Edmund, but having re-read both I still stand by my opinion.
    • 3/5
      "Here's harmony!" said she; "here's repose! Here's what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe! Here's what may tranquilize every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene."In “Mansfield Park” by Jane AustenMany eons ago I was reading Austen's "Mansfield Park" in high school when the leader of a group of teenagers commented on the "puff with the specs reading girlie books." I paid him no mind at that particular moment. I waited till I could catch him alone in the playground without his bunch of cronies around him. I asked him then if he'd care to repeat what he'd said before. He said he didn't. The old adage you can't judge a book by its cover surely applies to the title as well. What's next? Nick Hornby's "About a Boy" should only appeal to paedophiles? "Animal Farm" to sheep-shaggers (or more accurately pig-shaggers). Such immature, hating comments belong in the 1970s.My favourite books? "Jane Eyre", "Madame Bovary" and "Sister Wendy's Book of Saints" are in my top 100. And, yes, I am male. And yes, I would happily walk into a crowded bookshop and order the aforementioned books without feeling emasculated. Personally I am not sure the supposed "girly" title of a book has ever made me sneak up to the counter ashamedly to buy the book, nor has an overtly "mannish" title made be puff out my chest and slam in down on the counter. It seems a long time ago now since such base gender divisions have mattered. With the rise of the metro-sexual, moisturising cream and Russell Brand dictating what half of London wears, I just can't think that a lot of modern men would be concerned by a title such as "Persuasion", or "Emma". Not enough to not consider reading past the title and at least having a glance at the back cover anyhow. If I think back, I was never embarrassed to read a "girly" title on the tube and they were the formative years of my teens. However, at the time, I also had long hair, Doc Martens and listened to Queensrÿche. I am man. I eat meat, sleep and breed. I don't like pink and I don't like art galleries. I like football. - We don't all think like this, just a few men but don't worry these men don't read books, they read glossy magazines at the dentist. So next time someone grunts when you offer him two titles, don't entertain his masculinity - he'll only like that. Instead point him to the magazine rack. There'll he can read Zoo to his hearts content.To see Jane Austen's novel as romantic rubbish is pretty short-sighted. On the surface some readers may be right but what she really was writing about was the society she lived in and how it worked. It's a depiction of her reality and in many instances, and it's also critique of that world. Not in your face but most her novels have a strong ironic tone. She wrote novels of behaviour and about society in the early 1800s. People misunderstand her books because she paints on such a small canvas. It's like comparing a jewelled miniature by Nicholas Hilliard to a huge Titian canvas, full of life and swagger. The small scale makes it easy to overlook things or to misunderstand them, but in fact there's an awful lot more going on in an Austen book than meets the casual eye. I like Fanny Price, although she's not a character I'd like to have a cuppa with but a great one to read about. I always admired her for refusing Henry Crawford without spilling the beans. Fanny Price is not "prim". Repressed and dutiful certainly. There is a different word beginning with "p" that describes her to a tee: petrified. She knows she isn't a full member of the family, hence her repression and dutifulness, and at all times feels and is made to feel that she could be dismissed back to her parents' over full house at a moments notice. That is why I believe she opposes and is expected to oppose the staging of the play while her uncle is away. In a sense she has been trained to be the guardian, governess and companion but never the full complete member of the household. Emma, though is a prize cow, a big fish in a little pond and I always skip her in my annual Jane Austen re-read.NB: I like football. But I'm a rugger at heart.
    • 3/5
      The best Austen novel I have read (of 3), by quite some way. The characters have some humor and the descriptions of houses and gardens are very nicely created.
    • 4/5
      A young woman of good morals but low social stature goes to live with her wealthy, improper relations.I'm still rather conflicted on this book. I initially found it to be rather slow and more than a little mean. While Austen's other books all have overriding concerns that drive the action, this one seems more cruel than anything else. Fanny, (undoubtedly Austen's least-loved heroine), is looked down upon, reviled and generally undervalued by her entire family. Austen presents Fanny's cousins and friends as cruelly shallow instead of humorously so, as is her usual wont. It grated on me. I didn't care about poor, timid, morally-upright Fanny and I actively disliked her relations.And yet, I found it absolutely fascinating, from a social standpoint. Critics describe this novel as Austen's reaction to the social changes England was undergoing at the time. The world was becoming a slightly less formal place, at least within upper class circles. Austen contrasts this changing environment with that in which Fanny's birth family resides, and the lower class, informal folks most definitely come off the worse in the exchange. The novel presents impropriety and informality - even in such a simple form as stage acting - as something that can lead people astray in the most horrific, (ie, sexual), fashions. Fanny, who regards even something as strong as her love for Edmund with a disinterested eye, embodies this fading society. She refuses to allow herself to be ruled by her passions, and she will not stray from the rigid moral code that forms the backbone of her world.The novel provided me with a great deal of food for thought. I had a great time mulling it over and thinking about how Austen's thesis applies to my own society. I can't say as I agree with her, in a broader sense, but she certainly did provide us all with a fascinating look at this changing world.And, deeper issues aside, Austen's trademark language makes the book a delight to read from a purely aesthetic standpoint. Every sentence is so wonderfully ornate. Her writing twists and turns and goes in and out in these beautiful, complex ways... but at the end of the sentence, she's said something wonderfully simple. I love it.This isn't the best of Austen's works, but it's certainly worth your time. Even if you dislike it, it has great rewards for anyone inclined to think about where Austen's going with these unlikeable characters and their world.
    • 5/5
      Finished 3/20/2008 - Was motivated to read this story after seeing the recent Masterpiece Theatre treatment on PBS. I liked it.
    • 4/5
      Mansfield Park opens with Austen reflecting on the virtues of marrying well, and the consequences of failing to do so. (I love a woman who knows how to get right to the point!) Fanny Price, a most unlikely heroine, is the product of one of these latter marriages; her mother, “Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a Lieutenant of Marines, without education, fortune, or connections, did it very thoroughly.” (5) Said to have been one of Austen’s favourite heroines, Fanny is the “poor cousin,” charitably taken in by wealthy relatives. But while she may be inferior to her peers by birth, fortune, and education; she is undisputedly their superior by far, save Edmund, in modesty, morals, and behaviour. Beside Fanny, the appropriately condescending Miss Bertrams appear twittering, fickle, and silly. Tom Bertram is, in equal measures, outrageously wealthy and irresponsible. The Crawfords, questionably well meaning, are idle and misguided, “thoughtless and selfish from prosperity and bad example.” (108) Only Edmund, younger brother to Tom, and a parson of modest means but superior morals, is able to stand as Fanny’s equal. And so the stage of principal characters is set. But Austen also has great fun with the minor characters of Mansfield Park: the indolent Lady Bertram, example extraordinaire in the art of marrying well; her domineering but rich husband, Sir Thomas; the insufferable Mrs. Norris; Dr. and Mrs. Grant, the former best known for his ample appetite; and the unfortunate looking, but very wealthy, Mr. Rushforth – cuckolded in the end.I enjoyed this re-read of Mansfield Park much more than my original read some years ago. Austen is delightful in her shrewd satire of the upper crust. A sample passage, one of many, illustrating her exceptional command of her writing (a single sentence!):“The ensuing spring deprived her of her valued friend he old grey poney, and for some time she was in danger of feeling the loss in her health as well as in her affections, for in spite of the acknowledged importance of her riding on horseback, no measures were taken for mounting her again, ‘because,’ as it was observed by her aunts, ‘she might ride one of her cousins’ horses at any time when they did not want them,” and as the Miss Bertrams regularly wanted their horses every fine day, and had no idea of carrying their obliging manners to the sacrifice of any real pleasure, that time of course never came.” (34)
    • 3/5
      As with the Northanger Abbey, Austen’s writing and humor are all that stands between this book and a two star review. Our heroine, Fanny, is the perfect shy, obedient young woman and for that reason alone, it seems we are supposed to prefer her to Miss Crawford, her competition for Edmund’s heart. Although Miss Crawford can be superficial and even cruel, it seems her main flaw is not behaving as women were expected to behave at the time. As a modern reader, I sometimes found her more sympathetic than Fanny. Likewise, Fanny’s alternate love interest seemed a better match for her than Edmund in manys, starting with the fact that Edmund is her cousin and is sometimes very thoughtless of her feelings. My lack of enthusiasm for Austen’s romantic pairings was offset by my dislike of one particularly nasty character and my enjoyment at seeing her thwarted. That was second only my to my enjoyment at seeing the nastier characters made fun of with Austen’s characteristic wit. Overall, this book was very slow and I felt little interest in the outcome. Again, enjoyable only if you love Austen’s writing.

      This review first published on Doing Dewey.
    • 4/5
      I must give much respect to this book, as it is rather a courageous effort by Ms Austen. However, there is one problem - depending on your perspective of course. The most interesting characters are the ones who Ms Austen suggests are behaving reprehensibly, and the heroes of the title are exceedingly dull for the most part. That said, they all show far more real character development than one might ordinarily see in an Austen title.
    • 4/5
      “She was not often invited to join in the conversation of the others, nor did she desire it. Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.” Fanny Price is in a tight spot. Send to her aunt's family by the age of nine she is expected to show gratitude for the Bertrams kindness. Yet, she is only tolerated, but not much more. Always slighted, ignored, like she's invisible. Surrounded by family members who makes her life intolerable. The nasty and intrigate Mrs. Norris, always meddling and putting Fanny in her place - the lowest place - the two silly vain nieces, the ever demanding Mrs. Bertram. The only person who understands her, defends her, have empathy for her is her dear cousin Edmund - But she can't always expect his help. Specially not when he's attracted to the beautiful and charming newcomer neighbour Miss Crawford.Things get more complicated when Miss Crawfords brother, Henry, arrives and after a flirtation with the Bertram nieces, begin to show interest in Fanny and actually proposes. She's expected by everyone to say yes, but she doubts his character. Is he to be trusted? Here lies the moral dilemma and drama of the novel. The case of a character.Fanny Price is always alone with her thoughts, almost never sharing them. We are invited into a heart that is very guarded, always prone to self-scrutiny, soul-searching and trying to evaluate or access others behavior. She know her faults and are willing to admit them to herself, she is too quickly put into distress, too timid, too guarded, too vulnerable. Too emotional. Yet ultimately her character is strong, she embodies, I think, many of the virtues that Jane Austen herself would appraise.
    • 4/5
      Nine-year-old Fanny Price is sent to live with more well off relatives. The book follows Fanny and her family over the next ten or so years. The plot is limited but the characters are rich - Fanny, her aunts and uncle, four cousins and a couple of neighbors are described and developed in full detail. Compared to some of Austen's other characters, Fanny is quite timid and frail. She has a champion in her cousin Edward, who looks out for her in many situations. Some have said this book is too subtle. I found it to be more direct than Pride and Prejudice. In spots it takes on an almost preachy tone, and all the preaching is done by speech of the various characters. Mansfield Park is a slow read, and wasn't a page turner for me. That said, Austen's reflections on human nature and the human experience are just as valid today as they were 200 years ago. Austen is quite the idealist, but not in a bad way. People do influence each other, for good or ill, and character counts, then and now.