Mansfield Park
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Mansfield Park
Buy Now for $1.99
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Narrated by:
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Beth Kesler
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By:
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Jane Austen
About this listen
Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on estate business in Antigua (the family's investment in slavery and sugar is considered in the Introduction in a new, post-colonial light), Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive at Mansfield, bringing with them London glamour, and the seductive taste for flirtation and theatre that precipitates a crisis.
While Mansfield Park appears in some ways to continue where Pride and Prejudice left off, it is, as Kathryn Sutherland shows in her illuminating Introduction, a much darker work, which challenges 'the very values (of tradition, stability, retirement and faithfulness) it appears to endorse'. This new edition provides an accurate text based, for the first time since its original publication, on the first edition of 1814.
©2019 Jane Austen (P)2019 Page2PageInconsistent narration
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I wasn't fond of the narration at all. The voices for characters were inconsistent, and some of them were quite annoying (especially Mrs Bertram -- I almost switched it off). If you must read this book, I'd choose an edition with a different narrator.
STORY:
If I were reviewing this book as an academic, I’d probably discuss how this is arguably Austen’s most serious novel which digs into issues of family duty, social class, moral compromise, and emotional endurance instead of the fun, idealised romance of books like Pride and Prejudice or Emma; how, viewed through a post-colonial lens, the journey of Sir Thomas and Tom to Antigua indicates that the peace and tranquillity that Fanny so loves about Mansfield is built on the backs of slaves; how, viewed through a feminist lens, Fanny’s meekness can be recast as resistance – a refusal to compromise her moral principles despite immense pressure from her social superiors.
But I’m not reviewing this as an academic, I’m reviewing it as a casual reader. And, as a reader, this book is duller than a rusty razor blade. Austen does a whole lot of ‘telling, not showing’ and the prose can, at times, come across as a bit preachy. Plus, the characters are shallower, more formulaic, than I have become used to in Austen’s writing.
Speaking of characters, I don’t dislike Fanny as much as other reviewers seem to, as I can see myself in her a little – timid, trying to please everyone, while hiding how sad and lonely she’s feeling – I used to be like that too, so I don’t hate her for it. I do dislike how carelessly Edmund treats her, however, though I believe this is down to self-absorption, rather than callousness. And I can’t seem to decide if Miss Crawford is malicious or truly oblivious to her effect on Fanny. I also feel like everyone seems quite unfair in their thoughts towards Sir Thomas. I get that, as readers, we’re privileged with many of his thoughts and feelings, where the other characters are not, but he doesn’t seem to be anything like the man the other characters perceive him to be.
Overall, this novel is just a bunch of shallow people being sweet to each other in person while bitching about each other behind their backs; women trying to catch a rich, handsome husband; men attempting to procure a pretty, pliant wife; and everyone doing their best to sabotage the efforts of everyone else.
Basically, Mansfield Park is The Bold & The Beautiful in period costume, without the fun of murders, kidnappings, and brain tumours to relieve the monotony. Die-hard Austen fans might enjoy it, but first-timers should start elsewhere.
Wasn't great
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