Mansfield Park (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

I think this is my favorite Jane Austen book so far, although I still have Persuasion and Northanger Abbey to read. Most Austen fans would not count Mansfield Park as a favorite, though, at least from what I've heard. It's not that it's a profoundly different book from the more popular Pride & Prejudice or Sense & Sensibility, but many people seem to dislike the main character, or at least are not as impressed by her, as by P&P's Elizabeth Bennet or Emma's Emma Woodhouse. It's true that Fanny Price is a very different heroine than Lizzy or Emma, but her circumstances are profoundly different, too. She doesn't have Lizzy's spunk or Emma's forthrightness, but Lizzy and Emma both have the advantage of being more secure in their surroundings, both financially and emotionally. Fanny has a lot working against her from the start.

A generation before Fanny's birth, three sisters chose their paths of marriage: one to a respectable parson, one to a wealthy landowner, and the other to a basically worthless sloth. Fanny had the misfortune to be one of the numerous products of the latter. Her aunt, Mrs. Norris (married to the parson), convinces their other sister, the wealthy Mrs. Bertram, to take Fanny in as a ward. While this sounds like a kindness, it's really only an ego booster for Mrs. Norris. She has no love for Fanny and from the day the poor girl comes to live with the Bertrams at Mansfield Park, she is never allowed to forget that she is the beneficiary of charity and should grovel, beg and prove her gratitude every waking second. Not only are there constant verbal reminders from her aunts, uncle and cousins, but Fanny's status as a poor relation is made clear by her clothing, her rooms, the social functions she's allowed to attend (or not), and even whether or not she has a horse to ride. It's not that anyone is outwardly unkind to Fanny (except Mrs. Norris, at times) per se; she's just a non-entity entirely dependent on the whims of her superior relations, and she's always painfully aware of it.

The main event is the arrival of Henry and Mary Crawford, a brother and sister who proceed to turn things topsy-turvy in the circle of families around Mansfield Park with their somewhat laissez-faire, urban view on the rituals of courtship. The bittersweet backdrop to all this entanglement and game-playing is Fanny's genuine, unrequited love for her cousin Edmund, one of the few people who treat her as an equal. Other reviewers have expressed disdain and frustration with Fanny, labeling her a boring, moralistic, judgmental prig, but I didn't feel that way about her at all. I felt she handled herself and her situation the best she could, and the fact that she's a plain, ordinary girl with none of Elizabeth Bennet's wit or Emma Woodhouse's beauty only makes her more human to me. I enjoyed it and will definitely read it again.

If you're looking to read an Austen novel for the first time, this one isn't it. Mansfield Park is neither typical for Austen, nor her best work. Unlike several of her more well-known books, Mansfield Park does not feature a strong and spunky heroine. Fanny Price is compassionate, smart, and morally spotless, but she isn't the most exciting character to read about. Though many of her emotions are relatable, I sometimes found myself becoming annoyed with her total inability to stand up for herself. Her happiness is entirely dependent on the whims of others from start to finish, and she was too submissive to stand out in comparison to Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth or Emma's Emma Woodhouse. In typical Austen style, the writing was beautiful and flawless. However the plot dragged. This is primarily because the protagonist did absolutely nothing to advance it herself, and so all of the development had to be carried by the other characters. Additionally, though the romantic opposite of Fanny is repeatedly praised as kind and level-headed, his actions show him to be easily blinded and to lack a deal of the taste that he is credited with. Austen had an excellent chance to depart from her usual plot formulation in the existence of the character Henry Crawford, but in failing to follow through made the ending entirely anti-climactic.

In my opinion, the one real strength in this piece was Austen's characterization. Unlike prior novels in which she was content to attribute the actions of certain characters to pure rottenness of character (Wickham comes to mind), in Mansfield Park we see Austen exploring the motivations and justifications of all her characters, good and bad. As a result they were all more real and relatable and the distinctions between bad and good were less clearly cut, leading to a more subtle and complex read. Overall, it is definitely worth a look, particularly for long-standing Austen fans, but it wouldn't be my first recommendation. Read Pride and Prejudice or Emma first.

I have put off reading Jane Austen for years. At some point in my life, I developed a caricatured view of what her novels would be like - a light and airy mix of witty but practical heroines, with proper English manners, thrown into a blender of comic misunderstandings, ending in a very businesslike marriage arrangement, totally lacking in pathos - and was certain I would not find them of any interest. As if to confirm my prejudices I came across the following quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate…Never was life so pinched & narrow. The one problem in the mind of writer in both stories I have read, 'Persuasion', and 'Pride and Prejudice', is marriageableness; all that interests any character introduced is still this one, has he or she money to marry with, & conditions conforming?" and like the mean and stupid human that I am, I decided I agreed with Emerson's opinion, despite never having read a word of Austen first-hand.

Well, I have just finished reading Mansfield Park and I have decided that I am now in total disagreement with Emerson's assessment. Perhaps if Emerson had read Mansfield Park he would have changed his mind about Miss Austen. Or perhaps not. Either way, I found so much to enjoy in this novel, and I found the subject matter so much richer than the single-minded preoccupation with "marriageableness" that Emerson attributed to Miss Austen's mind, that I decided to write a review, and explain to Emerson's departed ghost, or anyone still living who shares his opinion as I once did, why "people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate." Of course, Mansfield Park is the only novel of Austen's I have read so far - though I certainly intend to devour the rest - so I will have to be satisfied for the moment with explaining why I hold Mansfield Park at so high a rate. Be warned in advance, there are SPOILERS in this review. Read with caution.

Where to begin? I suppose I will begin with the story. The novel centers around Fanny Price, who is the poor niece of Lady Bertram, and her sister Mrs. Norris. Within the first few pages of the book Mrs. Norris - a character who the reader comes to detest more and more throughout the book - decides that Sir Thomas Bertram, her brother in law, should adopt her niece and bring her to live at their rich estate in Mansfield Park. She expects nothing but gratitude from Fanny for her "favor" of ripping her from her family and forcing her to come and live with people she hardly knows but Fanny has a naturally shy and sensitive nature and is quickly overwhelmed. Sir Thomas Bertram and Lady Bertram have two daughters and two sons, and it is only the youngest son, Edmund, who shows Fanny any kindness, which leads her to develop an early attachment to Edmund, which eventually blossoms into love. The novel follows Fanny and the rest of the family over a period of about a year or so, as two other characters enter their lives, Henry and Mary Crawford, and create a rather chaotic mix of amorous attachments.

Such, in outline, is the basic story. The story is very reminiscent of Cinderella, with Fanny Price playing the part of the mistreated Cinderella. Fanny Price is both the moral and emotional center of the novel and Miss Austen is able to get a great deal of mileage out of having an "outsider" as the "center-of-consciousness" of the novel. Fanny is able to play the "straight-man" which allows the reader to see the often farcical and absurd behavior of the other characters. How each character treats Fanny also becomes an easy to recognize sign of their moral character. The novel is a novel about character but, it is also a novel about how difficult it can be to judge character from external signs, since people are often good at putting on disguises, and playing the part, when they have ulterior motives. Until late in the novel, no one has any ulterior motives with Fanny, so they wind up revealing who they really are in interacting with her. Also, since we get to see Fanny's feelings first-hand, we are often able to judge the relative blindness of the other characters based on how they interpret Fanny's behavior. Characters often judge Fanny to be self-willed, insolent, or ungrateful, but, because we know Fanny from the inside, so to speak, such judgments wind up highlighting how unperceptive some of the other characters are. Jane Austen handles all of this with great skill.

What really surprised me about the novel was the emotional power. Fanny is a very sensitive woman, she feels every slight and every kindness very deeply, and Austen is able to pour so much agony and emotion into the minutiae of everyday life that I was at times almost breathless while reading. This is one reason I disagree so strongly with Emerson's assessment. Emerson claimed that life was "never so pinched & narrow" as it appeared in Miss Austen's novels. There is a sense in which that is true: there are not that many characters in the novel and they lead a rather insulated life. Many commentators have pointed out that the novel takes place at the height of the Napoleonic wars but not a whiff of that appears in the book. The characters seem almost stranded on their own little solipsistic island. However, if the external circumstances of the novel make the character's lives "pinched and narrow" in one sense, Austen succeeds in making Fanny's experience extremely rich, despite her cramped external circumstances. One begins to realize that even a quiet life in the country is capable of containing all the tragedy and comedy that life has to offer.

Perhaps Austen's greatest gift is her gift for character. Not all the characters in this book shine equally brightly - the three brightest stars, in my opinion, are Fanny Price, Mrs. Norris, and Mary Crawford - but Austen manages to create fully rounded characters, as well as characters that almost border on caricature, without sacrificing realism. As extreme as Mrs. Norris can be it is not difficult to believe that such a person might actually exist and, indeed, has existed. People have complained about Fanny Price that she is too moral or too passive, but I think anyone who has been put in a position where they are out of place and outnumbered, anyone with a poet's soul who is surrounded by misunderstanding, or who has been the victim of ceaseless and subtle barbs, will feel a great deal of sympathy for Fanny Price. Her longing for a real "home" is portrayed very poignantly in the novel. As for her being "too moral", I think the real problem most readers have is that the morality in the novel feels so outdated. Staging a play is not going to awaken the kind of moral censure in a modern reader that it awakens in Fanny Price and so she is judged to be "too moral". I think if the references were updated people might find Fanny Price to be just moral enough.

In regard to Mary Crawford, I found her to be extremely interesting and enigmatic. Austen does a great job keeping the reader on the fence regarding both Mary and Henry Crawford. Fanny, as moral center of the novel, disapproves of both of them, and the reader, at times, is led to second Fanny's judgment. However, Fanny's love for Edmund could be blinding her. Edmund himself seems to be blinded by his love for Mary Crawford. And the Crawfords do have some good qualities: Mary is a good judge of character and both Mary and Henry are more perceptive, and more intelligent, than most of the Bertram family. The plot of the novel ultimately centers around the question: Are Mary and Henry Crawford redeemable or are they hopelessly corrupt? Austen manages to keep the reader in suspense over that question until the very end. Austen leaves the reader in little doubt as to how they are supposed to feel about Fanny or Mrs. Norris or Edmund but, in regard to the Crawfords, we remain undecided until the final denouement. Austen puts the reader in the same position of undecidability that Edmund and Fanny are in, and makes us see how easy it would have been to make the wrong choice, and plunge over the cliff into disaster.

Aside from the emotional power, brilliant characterization, and suspenseful plot - and the comedy which I have not yet mentioned - the novel also has some fairly substantive themes. I will highlight two. First, it becomes clear throughout the novel that suffering is actually a blessing. Fanny is the outsider and, as the outsider, and as a sensitive soul, she suffers terribly. However, her suffering brings her wisdom, it makes her sensitive to beauty and the simple, wholesome pleasures of home life, it orients her desires away from the superficial, and it makes her more perceptive and conscious. Fanny is the only character who perceives everything that is happening around her. All the other characters are blind in some way. Sir Bertram is blind when it comes to his daughters, Edmund is blind when it comes to Mary and Henry Crawford and their behavior, Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris are blind when it comes to pretty much everything, and nearly everyone is blind when it comes to Fanny. Suffering, while being difficult to bear, increases consciousness. This theme is another reason why I consider it a mistake to assume that Austen's novels are only concerned with the question of "marriageableness". They are about much more than that - though marriage in itself is not an unimportant question.

Another theme is the self-defeating and ultimately empty nature of hedonism. The novel might seem a bit too moralistic for some readers but I think there are a few things that rescue this novel from being the equivalent of a moral sermon. The more subtle morals of the novel are conveyed through characterization and so the sermon is hidden in what we take to be the realistic behavior of the characters. For example, in the first half of the novel it is clear that Maria and Julia Bertram are hedonists whose entire lives are consumed with a flight from boredom. They constantly want something to stimulate them but the more they seek the more bored they become. This is in contrast with Fanny who is perfectly happy and at peace when she can sit quietly, go for a walk in nature, or read. It also becomes clear as the novel progresses that Mary and Henry Crawford, who have been devoted to hedonism their entire lives, are feeling the effects of being in the presence of more substantive fair. The reader gets the sense that Mary and Henry have been living on candy their entire lives and their stay at Mansfield Park is the first time they have tasted real food. This does seem to have a genuine effect on their characters but their old habits ultimately prove too powerful and pull them back.

So, to put a period on this rather lengthy review, I will simply say, there are lots of reasons why people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate. I have listed a few. If you decide to read Austen I am sure you will discover some of your own.

Published first in 1814, this work is often compared unfavorably with Austen's brighter novels. The heroine, Frances (Fanny) Price, is humble, shy and retiring. The hero, Edmund Bertram, is for most of the novel unaware of the charms of the heroine, drawn instead to a very different creature, Mary Crawford. Bertram himself is upstaged for a very long time by dashing Henry Crawford, Mary's brother.

Fanny Price is, at ten years old, brought from her necessitous family in Portsmouth to live at her uncle's country manor, Mansfield Park. Her childhood, while privileged, is also flawed. She is viewed as an inferior by her cousins Maria and Julia, teased by her oldest cousin Tom, and terrorized by her other aunt Mrs. Norris, who takes a sadistic delight in making Fanny miserable. She has one friend in the entire household: Edmund, second son of Sir Thomas Bertram, who by simply displaying some basic human feeling towards a frightened little girl, earns her wholehearted devotion. The infusion of the London-bred Crawfords, devilishly charming Henry and effervescent Mary, throw Fanny's world into confusion again.

For me, the charm of this novel lies in its complexity. On the surface it is a story about a little community in rural England. Scratch that surface and you find a layer about morality, in which Fanny reigns supreme. She is retiring, but she is observant, and her constant observations and deductions lead her right in every circumstance. Further beneath that is a study of the sexes. Henry Crawford plays a dangerous game that ends ultimately in the ruin of a woman, for which she is held wholly accountable. The helplessness of women during that era is pretty well portrayed.

Delving even deeper you discover that Mansfield Park takes on the appearance of paradise. Sir Thomas may be its proprietor, but its real guardian and caretaker is Fanny herself, who opposes any change that is not beneficial to the estate. Outsiders are not welcome until they have proven their worth, though they are often given more chances than they deserve. Worldly wisdom and town polish have no place at Mansfield, and eventually are eradicated.

I have read this novel five times, and each time I have discovered something new. If you like reading books with some depth and complexity, this one is for you.

As reviewers remark, Jane Austen likes to set up a tension between "opposing" forces, in the form of protagonists' ruling traits, and let this tension play out through the denouement of each novel. The best known example is the embodiment of "Pride" vs. "Prejudice", in the two main characters of that named book. Another is showcased via the two sisters Elinor and Marianne embodying [[ASIN:1440469563 Sense And Sensibility]]. In Mansfield Park, the two contrasting characteristics are to my reading, a steadfast "purity" vs. "corruptibility" of character as the latter is exposed to life experience.
Fanny Price, the heroine, is a paragon of unyielding virtue, embodying the ideal of early 19th century maidenly womanhood. She is kind, keenly sensitive to others' feelings, and quite intelligent, but modest, indeed self-effacing. She is happy and fulfilled by a life of domestic harmony and predictability, in the splendid but peaceful countryside of rural England. In contrast is Mary Crawford(who befriends a reluctant Fanny), a stylish wealthy import to the country from "town" (London), who is portrayed as having internalized the "flaws" of modern style and tastes, and who is the queen of ironic wit and self satisfaction.
On the male side of the aisle are country cousin Edmund, the second son of Lord Bertram (Fanny's benefactor) destined to be a country parson, vs. his father's annointed heir, his dissolute older brother Thomas, and Mary's brother, the enigmatic charming Henry. Edmund is the male parallel to Fanny, though unlike her, he's born among the rich and privileged.
One must of course now ask why Austen goes to the trouble of setting up a lovely choreography of these contrasting characters--their meeting, "playing" together, falling in love, competing, clashing, and ultimately settling into their adult fates. Well, there are many lessons to be conveyed, mostly moral.
That this moral edification of the reader is done in a way that is sufferable, is to my jaded mind a real feat. I attribute this to the genius of Jane Austen's beautiful prose, alternately satirical vs. romantic, (itself a feat of writing), and to the subtlety with which the morals are driven home. The "lessons" themselves, (e.g. that privilege confers a huge but by no means decisive advantage in the pursuit of happiness, and how character and fate combine to determine the result), are conveyed via the brilliant choreography of her plot, which marches with that rare blend of inexorability and suspense, that is in my view Austen's greatest claim to greatness.

Jane Austen's writing, in my opinion, allowed woman to speak their mind. Her writing of society and balls being drab and the heroine wanting to break away from what a woman should be is feminism. The heroine enjoyed taking longer walks than they "should." They didn't succumb to petty giggling and gossips.

Fanny Price is all this and more in "Mansfield Park." She isn't afraid to talk about politics and slavery. Something woman at this time didn't discuss with men. But Fanny does.

Fanny's family is of middle class with a large family. Too large a family (9 children - Fanny is 2nd eldest) that the parents had to send Fanny away at age 10 to relatives for her reception into a society lifestyle. The 8 years that Fanny lives with the Bertrams, she shows to be more responsible and intelligent.

The Bertrams are very wealthy because of a slavery business they own. Tom and Edward Bertram are complete opposites. Tom is a free spirit with some drinking and gambling problems. Edward wants to become a clergyman. Their sister, Maria, is a romantic. She marries Mr. Rushworth for his money but is still hopelessly involved with the rake Henry Crawford. No surprise that the youngest sister, Julia, is jealous of Maria. But she learns from Maria and uses the sister's mistakes to her own advantages (marries a man her father doesn't approve of).

The Bertram children (except for Edward) are all spoiled and selfish. The father, Sir Thomas, is rightfully ashamed of their actions. The eldest son, Tom, however is the only one who changes his life for the better. The two daughters still remain selfish and spoiled (Mrs. Norris, the aunt, encourages this behavior).

This is a well written Austen book. I would very much recommend.

Mansfield is a leisurely tale following the Bertram family and its Price transplant through marital negotiations and trips to the country and financial threats no one seems to grasp the true dangers of. If the Antigua estates really had failed or been lost, it seems there would have been drastic repercussions; also, an ocean voyage in the 1800's was never anything to take lightly, much less travel in the third world. There was a strong underlying tone of menace to the Messrs. Bertram while they were away, but the at-home family seemed to continue perfectly sanguine. Except for Fanny, who is as gifted at Worrying as my mother, and that's pretty extraordinarily gifted.

Fanny. Oh, Fanny. She's just so ... nice. She's so nice I want to throw an expletival qualifier in there, and I can't; this is Jane Austen I'm talking about. She's timid and fragile and sweet, and obliging and not as delicate as she seems, and sweet. And meek, and ... when I right-click on "meek", Word gives me synonyms: humble, submissive, gentle, docile, modest, compliant, and mild. And sweet. Far from a backbone, there isn't a vertebra in the girl's entire body. Her entire skeletal system seems to be made of cartilage. Jane Bennet is sweet and modest and docile too, but by golly she can stand up for herself or someone she loves if need be. I think in a confrontation Fanny might simply cry, and then faint. Not a character much admired in this day and age.

But she's so sweet.

I saw someone's Goodreads status update for P&P commenting on how much he appreciated the writing and the characters, but he was on such and such page and ... nothing ... was ... happening. I have never found that with P&P. Mansfield Park, however ... oh my. Fanny comes to Mansfield ... nothing ... Mr. Bertram and Tom go away ... nothing ... the Crawfords move in ... nothing ... Tom comes back ... protracted space of nothing ... Lovers' Vows and things happen for a few chapters and then Mr. Bertram comes home and everything comes to a screeching halt and ... nothing ... That, combined with the extreme meekness of Fanny, makes for a surprisingly leisurely and ... well, dull story. For the most part we share no one's thoughts but Fanny's, and hers are so very athletically self-effacing and charitable - even to Mrs. Norris, one of the people least deserving of charity in this novel, if not ever - that events are not exactly moved along. It's a jolt when, briefly and rarely, we are made privy to conversations between Mary and Henry Crawford, laced with languorous malice.

Perhaps the purpose of this day-to-day gentle unfolding of story is to focus the reader on the small things that do happen. In a modern setting, the concerns which beset Fanny would be almost nothing. Certainly the drama surrounding the play would be non-existent; it would trouble no one that a group of upper class young folk would do an amateur play, even if it was a bit racy. But given the placid pond that rock dropped into, there is a very real tension and concern about the morality of it all.

And perhaps the intent in making Fanny so stunningly selfless was to make it so very ironic when Mr. Bertram berates her for selfishness. Her reasons for doing what she does are partly selfish, but only a very small part; she can't explain without telling him things he doesn't want to know, which she would consider a betrayal of others. From that moment on Fanny's life becomes a nightmare. The wrong interpretation is put on her actions, and every word she says to Edmund or her uncle is contradicted or ignored. Every. Single. Word.

"I don't believe I can love him." "Certainly you can."
"We are so very different." "No you're not."
"I don't want to talk to you." "You say that, but what exactly do you mean? Tell me!"
"I don't want to talk about it." "Well, we must, and I must tell your aunts. Oh, and your cousin. His sister and their entire staff already knows. We won't talk to you about it if you wish, not above two or three times. A day."
"I will never marry him!" "I wonder what we should give you as a wedding present ..."
"No!" "You mean maybe!"

It's horrifying. And, again, I've been there. You can say anything, and you might as well be speaking Aramaic from the response. Poor Fanny.

My GR status update from Chapter 35: I'm 73% done with Mansfield Park: In the midst of Ch. 35; I don't know how this story ends. I've seen spoilers both ways: that she marries Edmund, and that she doesn't. And right now I can honestly say that if she marries him I ... shall be most provoked. I want to shoot him in this chapter. (Which makes a change from wanting to shake Fanny.)

Oh well.

Even the best authors in the world sometimes put out something that... well, isn't up to their usual standards. For Jane Austen, that book was "Mansfield Park" -- her prose is typically excellent, and she weaves a memorable story about a poor young lady in the middle of a wealthy, dysfunctional family. But put bluntly, Fanny Price lacks the depth and complexity of Austen's other heroines.

As a young girl, Fanny Price was sent from her poor family to live with her wealth relatives, the Bertrams, and was raised along with her four cousins Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia.

Despite being regarded only little better than a servant (especially by the fawning, cheap Mrs. Norris), Fanny is pretty happy -- especially since Edmund is kind and supportive of her at all times. But then the charming, fashionable Crawford sibilings arrive in the neighborhood, sparking off some love triangles (particularly between Maria and Henry Crawford, even though she's already engaged.

And the whole thing becomes even more confused when Henry becomes intrigued by Fanny's refusal to be charmed by him as the others are. But when she rejects his proposal, she ends up banished from her beloved Mansfield Park... right before a devastating scandal and a perilous illness strikes the Bertram family. Does Fanny still have a chance at love and the family she's always been with?

The biggest problem with "Mansfield Park" is Fanny Price -- even Austen's own mother didn't like her. She's a very flat, virtuously dull heroine for this story; unlike Austen's other heroines she doesn't have much personality growth or a personal flaw to overcome. And despite being the protagonist, Fanny seems more like a spectator on the outskirts of the plot until the second half (when she has a small but pivotal part to play in the story).

Fortunately she's the only real flaw in this book. Austen's stately, vivid prose is full of deliciously witty moments (Aunt Norris "consoled herself for the loss of her husband by considering that she could do very well without him"), some tastefully-handled scandal, and a delicate house-of-romantic-cards that comes crashing down to ruin people's lives (and improve others). And she inserts some pointed commentary on people who care more about society's opinions than on morality.

And the other characters in the book are pretty fascinating as well -- especially since Edmund, despite being a virtuous clergyman-in-training, is an intelligent and strong-willed man. The Bertrams are a rather dysfunctional family with a stern patriarch, a fluttery ethereal mother, a playboy heir and a couple of spoiled girls -- Maria in particular develops a crush on Henry, but doesn't bother to break off her engagement until it's too late. And the Crawfords are all flash and sparkle: a pair of charming, shallow people who are essentially hollow.

"Mansfield Park" suffers from a rather insipid heroine, but the rest of the book is vintage Austen -- lies, romance, scandal and a dance of manners and society.

Austen's Mansfield Park is perhaps one of the most derided of Austen's books, while Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma are considered her best. To modern readers, the heroine Fanny Price is too perfect and too inaccessible to be really sympathetic. Earlier readers once thought Mansfield Park vied with Pride and Prejudice as her best work. So do I.

Austen was at the peak of her work, and while Fanny Price is not Elizabeth Bennett, she is a well written character in her own right. While admittedly she has no 'flaw,' she does have moments of weakness, such as during the play and in Portsmouth. But her main attribute is her resolve and accurate judgment of character. Also intriguing is Edmund Bertram, the hero, who is the greatest clergyman in all Austen, far superior to Elton or Collins.

Further, with Mansfield Park Austen creates some truly interesting characters. Tom Bertram, Maria and Julia Bertram, Henry and Mary Crawford, Aunt Norris, Mr. Rushworth, the Price family and Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram. In my opinion, Sir Thomas is the best father-figure in all Austen. After he sees his flaw in raising his children, he at least repents and sees his error better than any other.

The plot is magnetic and draws us into the events of these characters with an exciting payoff at the end which leaves the reader hungry for more. Austen was adept at drawing normal characters in normal settings. In Mansfield Park, the normal is what is really important.

Loved reading the story taking one back to a very different time.