![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Jun. 4th, 2007 21:25Title: Mansfield Park
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: Classics
Rating: 8/10
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: June, 2007
Summary: Fanny Price, the main character, is the daughter of a genteel woman who married for love but soon found herself in poverty. When Fanny's aunt and uncle, the wealthy owners of Mansfield Park, invite Fanny alone, of all the children, to live with them, Fanny enters a new world, where she is educated, clothed, and housed, but always regarded as an "outsider."
Through Fanny's two cousins, Maria and Julia, Austen shows the complex interactions of the upper class as they negotiate marriages, try to maintain the family's reputation and wealth, and react to those "beneath" them socially. Fanny, having experienced both poverty and plenty, comments on what she sees, and though she lacks the witty charm of some of Austen's other characters (such as Elizabeth Bennett), she shows an intelligence and conscience lacking among her cousins. Only Edmund, the youngest of the Bertram sons, pays genuine attention to her, and her love for him is real, though secret.
Review: I don't think, when I started listening to "Mansfield Park", that I'd fully realized how long it was. But that's a good thing! So far it's been my experience that JA's long books (like Emma and P&P) are far superiour to her shorter ones (like Persuasion and Northanger Abbey), and that was also the case here. At any rate I was very pleasantly surprised, and while P&P is still my favourite Jane Austen, this one rates among the top 3.
And by reading "Mansfield Park", I believe I've finally read all of JA's books. Yay!
Book List
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: Classics
Rating: 8/10
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: June, 2007
Summary: Fanny Price, the main character, is the daughter of a genteel woman who married for love but soon found herself in poverty. When Fanny's aunt and uncle, the wealthy owners of Mansfield Park, invite Fanny alone, of all the children, to live with them, Fanny enters a new world, where she is educated, clothed, and housed, but always regarded as an "outsider."
Through Fanny's two cousins, Maria and Julia, Austen shows the complex interactions of the upper class as they negotiate marriages, try to maintain the family's reputation and wealth, and react to those "beneath" them socially. Fanny, having experienced both poverty and plenty, comments on what she sees, and though she lacks the witty charm of some of Austen's other characters (such as Elizabeth Bennett), she shows an intelligence and conscience lacking among her cousins. Only Edmund, the youngest of the Bertram sons, pays genuine attention to her, and her love for him is real, though secret.
Review: I don't think, when I started listening to "Mansfield Park", that I'd fully realized how long it was. But that's a good thing! So far it's been my experience that JA's long books (like Emma and P&P) are far superiour to her shorter ones (like Persuasion and Northanger Abbey), and that was also the case here. At any rate I was very pleasantly surprised, and while P&P is still my favourite Jane Austen, this one rates among the top 3.
And by reading "Mansfield Park", I believe I've finally read all of JA's books. Yay!
Book List
