Mansfield Park in Reading the Classics

Jun 27, 2014 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Fanny Price's mother had two sisters as beautiful as she, one married an affluent gentleman Sir Thomas Bertram, and everyone said this would enable her siblings, to do the same. Nevertheless little England hasn't enough rich men, to accommodate deserving ladies. Another married a respectable quiet clergyman, with little money. Sir Thomas's friend, Reverend Norris good yet dull , gets him a church and a cottage in Mansfield Park, Northampton, on his vast estate. The kind Sir Thomas is very willin Fanny Price's mother had two sisters as beautiful as she, one married an affluent gentleman Sir Thomas Bertram, and everyone said this would enable her siblings, to do the same. Nevertheless little England hasn't enough rich men, to accommodate deserving ladies. Another married a respectable quiet clergyman, with little money. Sir Thomas's friend, Reverend Norris good yet dull , gets him a church and a cottage in Mansfield Park, Northampton, on his vast estate. The kind Sir Thomas is very willing to help the last of the sisters. Still she has pride with a streak of stubbornness... this young woman marries a coarse , hard drinking Lt. in the marines, Mr. Price, to the disgust of her family and soon her own regret . The fertile Mrs. Price has nine children at the time, when our story commences there will be more. The sister who married the clergyman wrote a letter to Mrs. Price, to send a child of hers to Mansfield Park , to be raised in all the advantages that wealth can provide. Mrs. Norris, strangely is not a nice woman, indeed just the opposite. She likes to scheme though, when ten year old Fanny, arrives scared, homesick for her brothers and sisters especially William , a year older in fact the eldest child of the poor dysfunctional family. Their father is disabled from the military with a small pension, but a big thirst, it doesn't benefit anyone that he still gets drunk everyday... The lonely, timid girl, meets her aunt and uncle, she is quite reserved, and her gorgeous cousins, Maria, 13, and Julia, a year younger, and the boys, wild Tom, 17, and gentle Edmund, 16, they have nothing in common. ..The girls have a teacher in the mansion, Fanny joins them , in class, she feels isolated and miserable, this unfamiliar environment, is frightening and the cousins, while not mean, aren't really friendly either. Living upstairs in a cold modest room , Fanny, develops tremors in this place, whenever her terrifying uncle , speaks to her . Aunt Bertram, is the laziest woman on Earth seldom leaving her sofa, though basically an agreeable person, that is always tired. You can't say that about the other aunt, Mrs.Norris, who lives a short distance away , and comes constantly to Sir Thomas's opulent house, she increasingly grows to hate Fanny. Why? Maybe the clergyman's wife and now happy widow, thinks the little girl is an intruder, too low bred to fit into a classy upper class family, and will hurt their standing in society. She, when older will not go to balls with her cousins, to afraid even if asked to come, but is never invited, of course to Fanny's relief. Yet the girl is becoming beautiful, which nobody notices, not even her only friend cousin Edmund, who has eyes for another woman, pretty , lively, rich Mary Crawford the sister of Edmund's friend Henry , the handsome pleasure seeker with money, too, he likes to flirt with every attractive woman, it doesn't hurt that he is fabulously wealthy, unlike the second son, Edmund, studying to be a minister. Which Miss Crawford, abhors not enough salary for her taste. And Edmund wants to marry , Mary, jealous Fanny nevertheless becomes secretly enamored of her sweet cousin. Henry tells Fanny , ( who knows all his foibles) after properly disclosing it to Sir Thomas, this... his love for her, and receiving permission to proceed, yet she greatly dislikes him. An ungrateful woman of 18, how can she refuse a honorable proposal such men, are scarce ...He has flirted with Maria and Julia both liked it, before, but will she ever trust his love? This book will show again why Jane Austen was and is such a magnificent writer , to those few who doubt this obvious conclusion... ...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Nicole D. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Mansfield Park is Austen's third,least popular,and my second favorite of her novels.It is the least popular because like most of her relatives,most readers do not understand the heroine Fanny Price.Fanny's high sense of morals,duty,honor and gentleness are uncommon in our society today.Today society doesn't have a moral code.I am very fond of Fanny and she is one of my favorite heroines.

I dislike Henry and Mary Crawford,who most other readers seem to like.Henry Crawford is the kind of man who le ...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Reread. and still love it.

It's a bit too long for my taste, but nevertheless, I love, love, love it! The complexities and all the events in Mansfield Park are all enlightening and entertaining to read. I adore Fanny and Susan. They are very likable sisters and I prefer them to Eleanor and Marianne of Sense and Sensibility (I like Eleanor, but not Marianne). I might not reread this book again for a long time after this, but I will definitely listen to the audio book more often than I'd care to ad ...more

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Jul 06, 2014 Nicole D. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Mansfield Park is Austen's third,least popular,and my second favorite of her novels.It is the least popular because like most of her relatives,most readers do not understand the heroine Fanny Price.Fanny's high sense of morals,duty,honor and gentleness are uncommon in our society today.Today society doesn't have a moral code.I am very fond of Fanny and she is one of my favorite heroines.

I dislike Henry and Mary Crawford,who most other readers seem to like.Henry Crawford is the kind of man who le ...more

1 like · Like · see review