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A review by jaymoran
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
5.0
'If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient - at others, so bewildered and so weak - and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! - We are to be sure a miracle every way - but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting, do seem peculiarly past finding out.'
Mansfield Park was my last remaining Jane Austen to read out of her six completed works, and I went into this book with fairly low expectations. The general consensus regarding this book tends to be that it's Austen's weakest, that Fanny Price is the dullest of her heroines, and most reader's reception tend toward the lukewarm.
I had fallen in love with Jane Austen as a teenager when I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time - we'd had a whirlwind romance. I fell in love with the subsequent books of hers I read but then, for one reason or another, the spark dimmed. After reading Persuasion this year, I grew concerned that I had outgrown her. I appreciated the book, I loved aspects of it, but that first excitement, that first pang of love that I had felt at the start, had faded. I went into Mansfield Park expecting this to be the end, that it would act as the closing door on my experience with Jane Austen, and that I would perhaps reread my favourites sometime again in the distant future.
Mansfield Park reignited my love for Jane Austen. Is it a perfect book? No. Is it her best work? No. Then why did it make me fall for her again? To be quite honest, I don't really know. There are aspects of this book that I dislike. I felt little to nothing for Edmund, our novel's hero, and there were moments that lagged for me, and yet, in spite of that, I loved every moment of it.
Fanny Price is an underrated Austen heroine. Her strength isn't as immediately perceptible like some of Austen's other protagonists...in fact, I would argue that it is fairly easy to miss sometimes. She's quiet, seemingly submissive, hovering at the periphery of everything that goes on - in the first part of the book, Fanny isn't really active in the plot. She barely speaks, we scarcely hear her thoughts and we spend a good part of the story with her cousins and the Crawfords. Fanny really blooms in the second part of the novel, where we see how steadfast she is in her beliefs, how committed she is to those around her, and how she doesn't crumble even when she's afraid or belittled. Don't get me wrong, there were times when I just wanted to shake her, tell her to stand up for herself, but Fanny never stoops to the levels of say her Aunt Norris, who delights in firmly reminding her niece of her place in Mansfield. Fanny has been treated as an outsider for the whole life so it's only natural that that is how she first enters this story - observing quietly, not knowing where she stands - and one of the most compelling aspects of Mansfield Park is watching her become for certain of herself and finding her own place in this world outside of what everyone else has told her.
Edmund isn't the best Austen hero. In fact, I really dislike him...but, for me, the heroes weren't the draw of these books. The heroines were what mattered to me. I love Mr Darcy and Mr Knightly just like everyone else does but it's Lizzie, Emma, Anne, Catherine, Elinor, Marianne, and, of course, Fanny who are important to me. I would love for there to be a better love interest in Mansfield Park but it doesn't detract from how I feel about the novel as a whole.
If, like you, you only have Mansfield Park left on your Jane Austen TBR, please don't overlook it or go in expecting to either hate it or feel indifferent. Jane Austen is brilliant and I think Mansfield Park is massively underrated. I now look forward to rereading her other books soon and falling in love all over again.
My Ranking of Jane Austen's Novels
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Mansfield Park
4. Emma
5. Persuasion
6. Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park was my last remaining Jane Austen to read out of her six completed works, and I went into this book with fairly low expectations. The general consensus regarding this book tends to be that it's Austen's weakest, that Fanny Price is the dullest of her heroines, and most reader's reception tend toward the lukewarm.
I had fallen in love with Jane Austen as a teenager when I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time - we'd had a whirlwind romance. I fell in love with the subsequent books of hers I read but then, for one reason or another, the spark dimmed. After reading Persuasion this year, I grew concerned that I had outgrown her. I appreciated the book, I loved aspects of it, but that first excitement, that first pang of love that I had felt at the start, had faded. I went into Mansfield Park expecting this to be the end, that it would act as the closing door on my experience with Jane Austen, and that I would perhaps reread my favourites sometime again in the distant future.
Mansfield Park reignited my love for Jane Austen. Is it a perfect book? No. Is it her best work? No. Then why did it make me fall for her again? To be quite honest, I don't really know. There are aspects of this book that I dislike. I felt little to nothing for Edmund, our novel's hero, and there were moments that lagged for me, and yet, in spite of that, I loved every moment of it.
Fanny Price is an underrated Austen heroine. Her strength isn't as immediately perceptible like some of Austen's other protagonists...in fact, I would argue that it is fairly easy to miss sometimes. She's quiet, seemingly submissive, hovering at the periphery of everything that goes on - in the first part of the book, Fanny isn't really active in the plot. She barely speaks, we scarcely hear her thoughts and we spend a good part of the story with her cousins and the Crawfords. Fanny really blooms in the second part of the novel, where we see how steadfast she is in her beliefs, how committed she is to those around her, and how she doesn't crumble even when she's afraid or belittled. Don't get me wrong, there were times when I just wanted to shake her, tell her to stand up for herself, but Fanny never stoops to the levels of say her Aunt Norris, who delights in firmly reminding her niece of her place in Mansfield. Fanny has been treated as an outsider for the whole life so it's only natural that that is how she first enters this story - observing quietly, not knowing where she stands - and one of the most compelling aspects of Mansfield Park is watching her become for certain of herself and finding her own place in this world outside of what everyone else has told her.
Edmund isn't the best Austen hero. In fact, I really dislike him...but, for me, the heroes weren't the draw of these books. The heroines were what mattered to me. I love Mr Darcy and Mr Knightly just like everyone else does but it's Lizzie, Emma, Anne, Catherine, Elinor, Marianne, and, of course, Fanny who are important to me. I would love for there to be a better love interest in Mansfield Park but it doesn't detract from how I feel about the novel as a whole.
If, like you, you only have Mansfield Park left on your Jane Austen TBR, please don't overlook it or go in expecting to either hate it or feel indifferent. Jane Austen is brilliant and I think Mansfield Park is massively underrated. I now look forward to rereading her other books soon and falling in love all over again.
My Ranking of Jane Austen's Novels
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Mansfield Park
4. Emma
5. Persuasion
6. Northanger Abbey