Mansfield Park (Penguin Classics) Paperback – April 29, 2003

Edition Review: The Chiltern classics are classy, collectible, and most definitely giftable. Each copy is a work of art in the gorgeous raised cover art, gilt-edged pages, thick paper stock, ribbon bookmark, and well formatted pages and font. Just above the size of a paperback and comfort-cushioned hardbound feel in hand. Readers will love this edition.Book Thoughts:Most people would turn their heads and stare to know that I love this second when I rank the six Jane Austen novels. I felt an urge to pick up this well-narrated audio version and listen in once again. I will share a ramble of thoughts on what jumped out at me this go around rather than a well-constructed review.As a teen, I think I related to Fanny's shyness, awkwardness, and I knew an underdog when I saw one. None of those early reactions of changed. Oh, granted, I've noticed her youthful immaturity come into play with her jealous condemnation or quick repudiation of some of those around her without the softer way an adult can hold to conviction with compassion and understanding (note I say 'can' because even as adults, we are quick to pounce on other people's mistakes or missteps at times).It's easy to forget Fanny is but eighteen here and she is the youngest of all the principal characters. She possesses a poise and gravity that her fickle, vain female cousins and even her aunts do not. Mary Crawford is the only of the female characters who can come close to rivaling her in intellect when she makes an effort while at Mansfield, but once back in the bosom of her shallow London friends, she shelves her brains to conform (and no, I'm not grudging people some frivolity and entertainment now and then) that it's okay to detest one's spouse and the only serious consideration when choosing said spouse is advancement or money. One can gripe to their friends about their misery and have their fun afterward even if it means sporting with or shattering another marriage.And, that sporting with other people's affections and lives is what struck me so hard this time about Henry Crawford and Mrs. Norris. Gasp, I know. I put two such people in the same sentence. He's rakish and she's parsimonious so they don't appear to have a lot in common. But, in their own ways, they share a liking for twisting people to do their will and take pleasure in it.And, that segues me nicely into why I appreciate this one. Austen is both poking fun at the all too serious folks with conviction while also giving them the grave nod that one should have discernment. The movie adaptions make most of the characters shine so they appeal while the book paints them all with a darker shade so their unappealing sides are more visible. Mary Crawford's character is where I see that most and, I do not blame the filmmakers for this choice. Someone has to be likeable, right? We wink with her over her flaws, but the book presents her with more mercenary designs that Fanny sees because her partiality shields her from the dazzle and attraction of the Crawfords. And, to give due credit, Fanny's educated and thought-filled mind help her parse out what her Bertram cousins can't and won't see particularly in Henry Crawford.Wanda McCaddon did well with the range of voices from old to young, gender, class, and personality so that I had no trouble delving into the story each time I clicked it on.The fact is I enjoy this book because I see it as part cautionary tale, part entertainment as Austen rolls out so many disparaging characters and brings them together at MP, but also part subtle complexity in that things are not only one faceted from the characters to the plot. Timid Fanny doesn't sparkle or have great appeal, but she has an inner strength that stands pat when she hits a pivotal moment of decision with everything and everyone ranged against her.

This is a very moving story about a young girl's plight during the 18th century. Children were treated as non-entities, and very little care was given to their feelings. At that time in history, everything was about personal standing in society, and that was determined by a person's wealth. Fanny Price, at the age of 10, is taken from her immediate family because she has none of either, and is placed in a situation with wealthy relations where she is treated practically as a servant. According to these relatives, this is necessary to insure Fanny's standing in society for when she becomes of an age to be "brought out". Her wealthy relatives think it their duty to help her even though they have no real love for her. It's more of an obligation than anything more. She is treated well enough, but never really accepted into their lifestyle by her girl cousins. However, one of the boy cousin's, Edmund, having a kind heart, does everything he can to include her in activities that will make her lot in life happier. She forms an attachment to him, and finds her life tolerable even though she misses her family and one particular brother immensely. The story is very interesting, and well written. It kept me reading with anticipation to the end. Another great Austin book.

I've been a Jane Austen fan for a while now. My favorite of her works was Persuasion until I read this book. I absolutely loved Mansfield Park! Like all her other works, there is romance throughout, but not the near erotica of today's romance. There's no sex, no innuendo, no open sexual flirtation, just a little hand-holding (rare) or a kiss (very rare), but primarily just the interesting conversation and lively interactions between ladies and gentlemen.Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price. Fanny was born to a rather poor family with a load of children. When her mother's older sister offers to raise Fanny, she is sent to live at Mansfield Park at the age of 10, far away from her family and closest sibling, her older brother William. However, she takes of residence with her aunt and uncle Mr. and Mrs. Bertram and their four children - Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia. While growing up, she becomes close friends with Edmund and a personal helper to Mrs. Bertram. She is quite content with her second-place role to the rest of the children in the family. Also, there was Mrs. Norris, Fanny's other aunt and Mrs. Bertram's sister who is a continual busy-body in their life and reminding Fanny of how grateful she should be for the wonderful life she had been given.The meat of the story falls just after Fanny turns 18. The elder sister of the Bertram family, Maria, lands a fiance and eventually a husband in the wealthy, but boring Mr. Rushworth. A new preacher moves into the area and his wife brings her younger sister and brother for an extended visit. The sister, Mary Crawford, begins to court Edmund and the brother, Henry, is a player who plays with the emotions between Maria and Julia. Eventually, there is a big kerfuffle at which point Maria's husband decides to remove himself and his wife to his estate to the north, away from Henry Crawford, Henry Crawford is essentially banned, and both Crawfords retire to town. Edmund is heart-broken, Fanny is heart-broken for Edmund, Julia is heart-broken, and Maria finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage. Later, Henry Crawford pops back up when Fanny is visiting family and begins to court her. Fanny attempts to shake off the courtship but cannot seem to manage it. Eventually, Henry returns to town to wait for her he says while Fanny tries to convince Edmund that Mary Crawford doesn't really love him.It is a highly emotionally charged book. I loved Fanny and felt a strong connection with her. You felt each one of her emotions as she dealt with her growing emotions and love for different people. Her emotions are so pure and real you cannot help but relate to her. I found myself often yelling at the other characters because you could see what should happen but everyone was messing around. It was a fabulous book that I will be reading again.

Poor Fanny who looks so frail but appears to be so strong in the end.The most romantic story by Jane Austen

Reviews call this the darkest of Austen's novels. It has a psychological dept that her other books, lighter and more satyrical, lack. A good insight on trauma, love and honor.

Mansfield Park is Jane Austen's third novel, regarded by most critics as her most mature and complex work. However, given the unpopularity surrounding the novel, it is easy to relegate this work to the margins in favour of her other, more celebrated works. The one puzzling aspect of this is what exactly contributes to the widespread apathy towards this work. Lionel Trilling, the celebrated Austen critic and scholar, once famously wrote of Mansfield: "For those who admire her it is likely to make an occasion of embarrassment. By the same token it is the novel which the depreciators of Jane Austen may cite most tellingly in justification of their antagonism."In popular discourse, Austen figures as the creator of fiery, intelligent women who deliver scathingly witty repartees and refuse to bow down to societal norms and pressures of what a 'good girl' is supposed to do. Austen is seen, and not incorrectly, as the subverter and critique of the stifling expectations laid down on Victorian women, as exemplified through women like Lizzie Bennet, Emma Woodhouse and Elinor Dashwood. When you keep that in mind while reading Mansfield Park, the character of Fanny Price feels almost like a betrayal: here is a girl who is poor, lacking in health, vitality and beauty, and apparently seems to have none of that feistiness or pizzazz that her literary predecessors had. Rightly so. Fanny Price comes across meek, timid, submissive, and seems to uphold rigid ideas of feminine virtues (recall especially the episode of the private theatricals, where she is shocked by the fact that her cousins are enacting women blatantly lacking in modesty).However, as a literature student, it falls to my happy lot to scratch below the surface. Fanny, by virtue of her modesty and meekness, becomes the moral compass of the novel, quietly but insistently guiding the characters at Mansfield. She is also the perfect embodiment of what Locke calls the 'modern self', able to choose wisely for herself and possessing the discerning ability to pick long-term happiness over short-term gratification, unlike her Bertram cousins.Mansfield Park is a complex, multilayered work which, initially can come across as boring and tedious. However, it is in this novel that Austen's true literary genius shines.The Penguin Edition, annotated with an introduction by Kathryn Sutherland, is as wonderful as one could expect Penguin to be. The book was delivered promptly in one day.

Anche se non è uno dei più famosi romanzi di Jane Austen, non può mancare nella libreria di chiunque ami il genere. Ha molto da dire ad un lettore attento, capace di andare oltre la patina rosa che viene attribuita alla sua autrice. Non poteva mancare l'edizione in lingua originale della Penguin.

Although an Austen fan, I always found Mansfield Park her dullest novel. Tempted by the talented cast, I decided to buy this BBC radio dramatisation. It was truly worth it, as it is brilliantly executed.