Mansfield Park - Wyrms.de

eBook

English language

Published by Standard Ebooks.

(1 review)

At the age of 10, Fanny Price, the daughter of a poor Portsmouth family, is sent to live with her wealthy uncle’s family, the Bertrams, at the country estate of Mansfield Park. The Bertrams treat her cruelly at first, and Fanny has trouble fitting in. Her female cousins, Maria and Julia, are fashionable and vapid, and her elder male cousin, Tom, is a drunk. The only family member she feels a connection to is the younger Edmund, who is preparing for life in the clergy.

When her uncle leaves to manage business in Antigua, Henry and Mary Crawford, siblings from the region, come to live at Mansfield Park as well. Their arrival begins a series of romantic engagements that strains the entire family’s relationships.

Mansfield Park is unusual in that despite it being a great public success, with the first edition selling out in six months and a second edition …

At the age of 10, Fanny Price, the daughter of a poor Portsmouth family, is sent to live with her wealthy uncle’s family, the Bertrams, at the country estate of Mansfield Park. The Bertrams treat her cruelly at first, and Fanny has trouble fitting in. Her female cousins, Maria and Julia, are fashionable and vapid, and her elder male cousin, Tom, is a drunk. The only family member she feels a connection to is the younger Edmund, who is preparing for life in the clergy.

When her uncle leaves to manage business in Antigua, Henry and Mary Crawford, siblings from the region, come to live at Mansfield Park as well. Their arrival begins a series of romantic engagements that strains the entire family’s relationships.

Mansfield Park is unusual in that despite it being a great public success, with the first edition selling out in six months and a second edition selling out two years later, it wasn’t publicly reviewed until 1821, seven years after it was first published. Contemporary reviews were generally good, praising the novel’s morality. Modern reviews are more mixed, making it one of Austen’s more controversial works. Modern critics have called it everything from eccentric and difficult to thoughtful and profound, with any number of interpretations possible depending on the lens one views the work through.

104 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed MANSFIELD PARK; ED. BY JAMES KINSLEY. by Jane Austen (OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS)

Has pacing issues

3 stars

I will be honest and say that, had I chosen Mansfield Park as the first of my Jane Austen novels, I almost certainly would not then have challenged myself to also read the other five. It is a much, much slower paced story than Persuasion and did often feel a bit of a slog! Once I had adapted to this, I did enjoy the book, but spending several pages fairly early on in the company of characters bemoaning the lack of a gate key as though it were actually a disaster nearly had me starting to jump pages. I wondered if Austen was paid by word count?

Austen's talents for observation and the recounting of minutiae do make for fantastic character portrayals. From the indolent Lady Bertram to her waspish sister Mrs Norris, the snobby Misses Bertram and flirtatious Henry Crawford, everyone came gliding off the page as completely real …

I will be honest and say that, had I chosen Mansfield Park as the first of my Jane Austen novels, I almost certainly would not then have challenged myself to also read the other five. It is a much, much slower paced story than Persuasion and did often feel a bit of a slog! Once I had adapted to this, I did enjoy the book, but spending several pages fairly early on in the company of characters bemoaning the lack of a gate key as though it were actually a disaster nearly had me starting to jump pages. I wondered if Austen was paid by word count?

Austen's talents for observation and the recounting of minutiae do make for fantastic character portrayals. From the indolent Lady Bertram to her waspish sister Mrs Norris, the snobby Misses Bertram and flirtatious Henry Crawford, everyone came gliding off the page as completely real people that I was fascinated to watch, even though I don't think I could have stood to be around any of them in life. In fact the only character I found totally infuriating was Fanny herself. Her shyness and reclusive personality I can easily understand and empathise with as I am quite similar myself, however I didn't like her as the central pin of the story. Envisaging Mansfield and the other locations was easy due to Austen's detailed descriptions. I am lucky in that my vintage copy of the book also includes the play script for Lovers Vows so I gained a greater subtext understanding of this episode.

All in all, I didn't appreciate Mansfield Park as much as I had hoped too. The long build up made the last few chapters where finally everything happens seem very rushed and unfinished. This novel has real pacing issues, but I am glad to have read it purely for the superb characterisations.

Subjects

Classics
Fiction
Romance
Literature
Historical