"Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen

Is it alright to admit that I don't like one of Jane Austen's books? Please censure me if you must. I recently read "Becoming Jane" by Jon Spence which is an interesting biography of Jane Austen, although I think the biographer was a little too liberal in his interpretation of her letters and her life in general; but in the course of this biography it was mentioned that Cassandra, Jane's sister, preferred "Mansfield Park" to the rest of her sister's novels. This peaked my interest and so I set out to read it. The beginning was quite witty and I was excited to get into it. I quote from page the first: "...there are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them." It sounded like a good start with the general sardonic humor that Jane is so good at writing.

I had seen a couple of movie versions and so I had a basic idea of the plot, though I knew the book would be more detailed, etc (by the way, I did NOT like the recent BBC version just made in 2oo7 starring Billie Piper as Fanny).

Here is my summary of the story:

• Fanny Price, Austen's most uninteresting heroine ever, leaves her poor family at age ten to be raised by her rich relatives at Mansfield Park.
• She has the hots for her cousin Edmund.
• There is a play that takes up a third of the book.
• Her cousins Maria and Julia run away with men at the end of the story (Maria is already married at the time).
• A Mr. Crawford tries unsuccessfully to woo Fanny.
  
• Edmund decides to love Fanny after he realizes that the woman he loved, named Mary Crawford, has some serious character flaws.

And it takes Austen 439 pages to tell all of this. I am generally a huge Austen fan; I love "Pride and Prejudice" and "Persuasion." One thing that is difficult about reading Jane Austen books is that during long sections of dialogue it sometimes becomes very difficult to tell which character is talking. I found this particularly difficult in this book because it just was not holding my attention. Unfortunately, a mechanical reading of this novel is all I can boast of. I was hoping to present my thoughts in a more sophisticated, essay like manner, but it took so long to read this book and many details are very sketchy in my mind, and besides, I don't want to put any more effort in thinking about this book!

My recommendation is this. If you must read "Mansfield Park" to say that you have read all of Jane Austen's novels, then go ahead, but don't expect me to join you. I don't think I'll pick it up again. I would love to hear your comments if you have read this book.

I know that my survey is not over yet, but the way it is going so far, it looks as if I should dive into "The Three Musketeers." I am going to close the poll early. So here it goes...

My daughter just finished reading "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale and she would like to post her thoughts on this book so check back later to read her report!