Fanny Price, a quiet heroine
581686
Fanny Price is such an interesting character because she feels things just as deeply as others, but she hides her feelings from everyone, especially if she thinks they might not meet with approval.  She starts out afraid of everything, taken from the only home she's ever known, poor, dirty & noisy as it was, and placed in an imposing mansion with wealthy relatives she has never met.  She finds only one member of the household that is a sincere and comfortable friend, but she works hard to learn, to fit in, and to endure her nasty Aunt Norris' cruelty.  She has remarkable self control and steadfastness.  When she's pressured to marry someone she doesn't want to marry, she turns out to have a great deal more courage than anyone in the family could have thought possible.  It's a pretty long book (I like that because I can read it over and over and not even get close to memorizing it), and I rank is as #3 on my Jane Austen list [P&P and Persuasion are 1 & 2].

Movie notes:  The most accurate film version is the 1986 BBC production, so if you want to get an idea of the story, that's a good one to watch, even though it's not as polished as newer versions.  Depending on how you feel about reading a long book, it might even be helpful to watch the movie first.  The later movie versions of it are not good adaptations; the casting in the 1999 one is excellent but they add some things to do with slavery/sex that are just crude and gross.  The newer BBC version with Billie Piper is awful; she does not fit the character at all and the way her  character is written reflects many traits that are completely opposite to Austen's Fanny Price.
2423296
Edenbrooke: A tale of a silly child on the eve of womanhood and the relationship she develops with a wealthy suitor that was the target of her sister's ambitious eye. This was a decent book to pass a rainy night inside. I read it in about three hours - it's short and light.

Marianne is a trope character of the most basic kind. Tomboy? Check. Loves to dirty her dress? Check. Freckled? Check. Forgets her bonnet? Check. Loves to ride her mare through the country? Check. Loves to read? Check. Obligatory amazing library scene where she is in awe? Check. I've read about her character so many times that I've bored of her. Unfortunately for this author she may not have visited this character as often as I have.

Trope aside. Our heroine, Marianne, is a bit young to enjoy because she is immature and silly... overly sheltered. She reminded me a little of Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey as she's about the same age, loves to read, has an overactive imagination, has never been "out", lives in Bath for the first time, then relocates to a private, sprawling estate where she is largely alone with a man. Catherine Morland, however, is charming in her naivete and her sheltered views make her precious. Marianne of Edenbrooke came across vapid to me. I had a hard time forming love for her.

Phillip is our hero... a handsome, flirty second son who rose to the position as heir when his brother died. He is still getting comfortable with his position and it's clear he's attempting to fill the role. I'm not sure of his age (I will guess 28) but he is, also, rather immature. He leads the heroine on and says silly, romantic things that were sometimes nice and sometimes cheesy. Being direct and assertive would have cleared up a lot of the confusion and may, yes, have cut out plot points... but I think could have made the novel even more interesting. As the elder person in the situation he should have encouraged more honesty and openness from Marianne and perhaps their love might have been more complex by the time the sister (secondary character) arrived.

On the good side, however, the book retained my interest and I flipped all the pages until the end. I did enjoy some of the plot points and I was indeed rooting for the hero and heroine to get together. I won't spoil any of the actual plot devices as I think they are the best part of the story.

Overall I did "like" this one but I wouldn't reread it. It's very decent and worthwhile.
703495
Not an overly strong voice but the price is right.
3778426
Miss Jane Austen (1775-1817) the spinster daughter of a Church of England clergyman wrote only six novels. Of that number "Mansfield Park" is not as well known as such hits as "Pride and Prejudice"; "Sense and Sensibility"; "Emma" "Persuasion" and Northanger Abbey." It is, however one of Austen's finest works; a true class of English Regency fiction which will always live in the annals of great literature.
  Austen's novels all deal with courtship and social mores in small English villages among upper middle class folks. No one ever works! This novel has fascinating characters such as :
Fanny Price: The poor daughter of the feckless Mr and Mrs Price (nine children) who live in a chaotic household in the English seaport of Portsmouth. Fanny is farmed out at the age of 10 to Mrs. Price's wealthy sister Mrs. Thomas Bertram who is wed to Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park. Fanny is the gentlest, most taciturn, socially conservative and physically weakest of Austen's heroines. She is adept at listening and observing the actions of others in her social circle.
Mary and Henry Crawford: These two less than admirable siblings stay at their sister Mrs. Grant's home in the Mansfield parsonage. Mary flirts with Edmuind Bertram; Henry courts Maria Bertram but has his eyes on Fanny. They are both somewhat wild and Austen does not like them. These two bring the amorality of London's fast society to the small bucolic world of Mansfield with disaster ensuing.
Mrs. Norris-One of the most despicable, self-serving, greedy old harridan's in fiction. Mrs. Norris is the sister of Mrs Price and Betram. She coddles Maria and Julia Betram the spoiled daughters of Sir Thomas; she does not care for Fanny. Mrs. Norris could have come out of the pages of Dickens and is odious and unforgettable!
Tom Bertram is the oldest somewhat worthless son of the Bertrams.
Julia Bertram falls in love with Mr. Yates who was instrumental in organizing a play at Mansfield while Sir Thomas is away from home. Sir Thomas owns slaves in Antigua. Austen uses the play as a test of character. She disapproves of such frivolity and sees it as an intrusion into the orderly rural life of Mansfield. Fanny is the only character among the young people who opposes it's production.
  Austen is a subtle writer who uses such ordinary events as card parties, strolls in gardens and quiet conversation to reveal character to the reader. Unlike many great novelist she was a Christian woman who demanded high moral standards in her heroines and heroes. This novel ends well with wedding bells for the good and suitable misery for the evil characters.
  Austen is not everyone's cup of tea! Her novels are long and there is little overt action. It is true that you often have to skim back over an earlier section to remember who is speaking to whom! Her language is formal but she also relishes a good pun or turn of phrase.
Austen is working in a small area of the human story but in that baliwick of young love and romance she stands unsurpassed. Mansfield Park is a novel to savor. The introduction by Tony Tanner is a brilliant piece of literary commentary as he sees the novel as a clash between the order of Mansfield Park and the disorder of modern life exhibited in the disorderly household of Fanny's family in Portsmouth. Austen found virtue in country living; vice in the big city of London. She lived in an age of frivolity under George IV the Prince Regent (1811-182)so her call for moral behavior was a trumpet which needed blowing.
2100082
After reading all of her other works beforehand, 'Mansfield Park' struck me, like many readers, as almost told by a different person from the Austen we know.  It is darker, much more humourless (the scenes of comedy are much  less evenly spread, and even then they are tainted despairingly sarcastic  rather than her usual warm irony), and with a very different heroine.  It  would appear a quieter, if more intelligent version of Harriet Smith from  'Emma' has taken centre stage here--that is, meek little Fanny  Price.
Don't despair.  It's brilliant as always.
To begin with, this  time Austen's novel contains much more 'action'--what I mean by that is her  prose actually describes her characters doing things, even with a touch of  ! dramatic climax!  to them, something she'd never done before.  (Apart  from a few scenes of Lydia's wedding in "Pride and Prejudice",  Austen's novels usually just contain large blocks of dialogue between  characters with the occasioanl longer expositional block detailing the  passage of time.)  The arrival of Sir Thomas, for example, at the end of  volume one, is, surprisingly, thrillingly done with no small amount of  adrenaline shocked into the reader, knowing what exploits he will catch his  children in the middle of.
The humour is a sad loss, but then in this  novel Austen deals with more 'racy' topics than her usual, which she  probably felt deserved even more severe treatment than she would normally  dispense to her characters through her razor-sharp tools of irony.  The  moral quotent, therefore, is much higher than normal--then again Austen  never featured a married woman's affair before, did she?
The last thing  other readers complain about is the lack of any attractive characters in  the novel, save Fanny's older brother, William Price (I'd agree there--he  was delicious!).  Many people dislike and even detest little fanny, after  the 'spirited' and 'lively' exploits of Elizabeth Bennet and her  kin.
Notice how often the word 'lively' is linked to the poisonous Miss  Crawford in this novel, and I think you'll see she was trying to make no  small point about how dangerous an over-'spirited' girl could get!
I  don't understand this hate of Fanny.  Is it just because she's a  disappointment from Eliza?  Because she's morally invincible?  Because she  turns down the dashing hero (Henry Crawford) to marry boring but steadfast  old Edmund?  I can't find sufficient evidence to hate her in ANY of the  above.  She's a pleasant, intelligent, charmingly emotional little  girl--certainly a pleasant change from that spoiled brat Emma  Woodhouse.
My concluding statement is this:  MP is a very enjoyable  novel, if somewhat different from Austen's other works.  Even if you come  away wishing Fanny Price would drop dead on her pious little head, you  should still read it.  It's moral lessons are important, it's characters  are vital additions to Austen's repetoire, and it reveals a very important  shift in Austen's attitude in later life.  Read it, please.
2264298
Set in 1923 England, this series follows the adventures of the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple, a young woman who has defied convention by choosing to make her own living (as a journalist) rather than let her aristocratic family support her.
When Phillip Petries American fianc is kidnapped and held for ransom, Phillip turns to his good friend Daisy for help. Daisys penchant for crime-solving insures her willingness to help her old friend, but she finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place when Phillip asks her not to involve the police. Daisys romance with Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, a widower with a young daughter, certainly makes this dictate difficult to follow.
This is the fifth of the series (preceded by Murder on the Flying Scotsman and followed by Dead in the Water), and although the characters and setting remain as charming as ever, there is not much mystery solving to be had. The perpetrator of the kidnapping is obvious very early on, but the plot revolves more around rescuing the fianc than solving a crime. The story is best described as a caper, with lots of following of suspects, traveling around the countryside, and a climactic shoot-out. Readers who like to decipher clues and try to solve the mystery themselves will be disappointed.
2671043
Definitely not what I expected. This is the second Mansfield Park I've bought (I have the version starring Frances O'Connor) and this one, while it definitely kept to the book more, did not seem to actively grasp the characters. In fact there seemed to be very little personality to anybody, except Mary Crawford, who was much more lascivious than merely misled and progressive in mindset. Henry Crawford was duly wicked, but no more than a blandly personified rake. Sir Thomas seemed always to speak as though in a rage, and in such a low, hissing tone I just stopped trying to hear his lines. Mrs. Norris was mostly disapproving, and mostly silent. Edmund was played well, as was (surprisingly) Lady Bertram, and William was well done as well. But worst of all was Fanny, who seemed to have no personality at all and at most displayed a repressed disappointment when Edmund professed his love for Miss Crawford. There are multiple scenes where she is running about playing tag or hide and seek, or chasing a dog - multiple enough to cause some eyebrow raising and thoughts of, "Really?" I suppose this is to further impress her carefree and cheerful spirit, but this is again not in keeping with the novel's Fanny Price.

Not unenjoyable, but a little unbelievable.
2707469
The pace is gentle. There are no mad dashes or lists of information. Instead we become involved in the details of Agnes' life. The style is more  19th century,so it is surprising to realise that it is contemporary,although very little of modern life appears in the story.  It then just comes to a halt as though the writer has lost interest.
1492695
this must have been one of her first romance novels. I am a huge fan of her works in all three pen names, but this was a bit bland compared to others of her works. The moral was good, but a tad unrealistic.
237180
She may be the most famous person I never heard of.

Hannah More (1745-1833) wrote plays for the great 18th century actor David Garrick. She was a friend of Dr. Johnson (yes, Boswells Dr. Johnson). She knew the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. And Horace Walpole. And Edmund Burke. She worked closely for decades with William Wilberforce to outlaw slavery, and died a few months after seeing that cause successful. She was a poet, and an educator, an intellectual when women intellectuals were frowned upon.

Karen Swallow Prior brings More to life in Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More, Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist. Its a biography, yes. But its more than that as well, a work of love reflecting a determination to bring to life a human being who should not have been forgotten.

More was born near Bristol, England in 1745, the third of four sisters. When Hannah was three or four, her mother discovered she had already learned to read. Her father, a schoolmaster, was alarmed that his daughter could grasp such masculine subjects as Latin, Greco-Roman history and mathematics. As she and her sisters grew older, they opened a school  teaching, Prior says, was the only profession acceptable for a woman above the laboring class and beneath the aristocracy.

She had wit, a keen skill of observing and a love of language. And she wrote poems, plays, and essays. She came to the attention of the greatest actor at the time, David Garrick, and wrote plays for his theater. She spent a number of years traveling back and forth between Bristol and London, accepted and welcomed in acting, cultural, literary and even aristocratic circles. She knew the leading intellectuals of her day, and she was one of them.

Perhaps no friendship that a greater impact that that of More with WilliamWilberforce. Likely inspired by her strong Anglican faith, she worked with him for decades to see the end of slavery in the British Empire. Both would die in the same year, shortly after Parliament finally voted to end it.

While this poem of Mores was not written for Wilberforce, it might have been:

Inscription on a Cenotaph in a Garden, Erected to a Deceased Friend

Ye lib'ral souls who rev'rence Friendship's name,
Who boast her blessings, and who feel her flame;
Oh! if from early youth one friend you've lov'd,
Whom warm affection chose, and taste approv'd;
If you have known what anguish rends the heart,
When such, so known, so lov'd, for ever part;
Approach! - For you the mourner rears this stone,
To soothe your sorrows, and record his own.

Prior, the author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (2012; T.S. Poetry Press), has written a warm, engaging biography of More) and includes a discussion of why and how More slipped into obscurity). Fierce Convictions is the fruit of solid and extensive research, and an admiration for what this notable woman accomplished often in the face of criticism and disdain.

The book also includes an introduction by Eric Metaxas, biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce.

Fierce Convictions may come to be one of my all-time favorite biographies. Its that good.
586153
The  heroine  is pretty, innocent  and  spunky;  the  hero  is a  hard case, uninterested  in  innocents and  unwilling  to  involve  himself  in others' lives.  Yet he takes  her under his wing, inexplicably  fascinated by  her.  No new ground  is broken  here, but  some  interesting  characters, an unusual  situation, and  very  competent  writing  make  it  an enjoyable  read.
2311763
I became a Jane Austen fan as an adult, never having been required to read her as a student.  I'm glad, because I have been able to enjoy her works thoroughly without having to take examinations on them.

Although I delight in all the books, my favorite might well be MANSFIELD PARK - the one many other Austen fans love to hate.  Yes, Fanny Price is an unlikely heroine.  Heroines should be spunky, outspoken, captivating, and confident (though not perfect).  Fanny is timid, nervous, self-effacing, unambitious, and well nigh invisible!  One might think the heroine really ought to be Mary Crawford, or even Maria Rushworth; they're the ones with all the qualities.  Yet they fall short.  What does Fanny have that they haven't?  That's the point.

Human society is a complicated thing, and many factors make a person think, act, and believe the way he or she does.  It is said of Fanny's situation from the beginning that "nobody meant to be unkind, but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort."  Perhaps precisely because Fanny is not considered highly - because she is given little attention (except from Edmund) and isn't pressured or persuaded into self-importance and desire for "success" - she is able to be a moral compass for those around her, although not in a repugnant way.  Her uncle, Sir Thomas, is hampered by aristocratic tradition; the neighbors, Mary and Henry Crawford, bring with them all the charm, ambition, and moral ambiguity of cosmopolitan values; three of her cousins, trained up for social success by their family status and (in the cases of Maria and Julia) the efforts of their self-serving aunt, are captured by the same sophisticated glitter.  Even Edmund, whose sincere desire for a career in the church cuts him out of fashionable living, is misled by the sparkle and shine.  Fanny sees things clearly, and though she hasn't the confidence to promote herself or persuade the others, she has the trembling courage not to bend.

The characters may not be painted in the colors some readers would like, but they're painted well, with lovely shadings and subtleties.  I enjoy Miss Austen's mature writing - the tale flows and the humor in the telling is delightfully subtle and sharp.

I also love Juliet Stevenson's performance of this unabridged audio book.  She gives wonderful characterizations, from the timid Fanny to the stable but love-struck Edmund to the nearly-wicked Mrs. Norris.  The production is done very well and, if you already enjoy MANSFIELD PARK and intend to listen to it quite a few times, is worth the cost.
3751565
This short story was enjoyable. I wouldn't call it one of her best.  For a period piece, it had some stretches, such as a single young woman on a ship going on deck alone on a regular basis.  Would it be considered predictable to get fired then receive a long awaited letter the same day?  Gave me a feel of a harlequin book style, just a few pages shorter.
2554364
This review is for the Dover Thrift Edition, I love Dover and how cheap they make reading the classics.
Having read a couple of Jane Austen's other novels I would have to say that this one suffers by comparison, it lacks the polished wit of her later work. Having said that it is still a pleasure to read and anyone who enjoys classics or even just English fiction in general will like  this novel.
I  think it's worth pointing out what to expect with Jane Austen if you haven't read her before. She doesn't write about social or political issues the way Dickens or Gaskell did. Her novels are fundamentally light and focused on human manners and emotions rather than any big issues. A good book for lovers of the classics to lose themselves in.
232465
A little less of Mary and Sherlock but with a geeat support character
4088687
It's been more than a year since I originally reviewed this book, and since then it's been fun to read the war of words between Fanny-defenders and Fanny-bashers; one reviewer says she can't understand this "hate" of Fanny, while another is amazed at the "loathing" Fanny engenders in some readers, and a third admonishes that appreciating Fanny's saintliness takes time and harrumphs, "Fanny upholds what is right, how not to love her?" I have read and reread "Mansfield Park" (it's one of my all-time favorites) and my response regarding Fanny is, "what's to love?"
The reviewer who described Fanny as an "odious little priss" hit the nail slam-bang on the head; Fanny is an impossible killjoy.  She is a case of conscience run amok, without any of the tempering graces of understanding or acceptance.  Whatever emotions Fanny engenders, hatred or loathing doesn't come into it; there is not enough in Fanny's character to loathe.  What she engenders in this reader is more like a profound sense of irritation; one wants to grab her by the shoulders, give her a good shake and tell her to lighten up.  Jane Austen's other heroines know how to leaven virtue with common sense and a dash of humor, none more so than Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice"; Fanny acts like she never cracked a joke in her life and wouldn't understand a joke if she heard one, let alone appreciate it.  She is thus a perfect match for her cousin Edmund, who is the most puzzling character in this excellent book.
I have never yet come across a sympathetic character in a novel who becomes so thoroughly unsympathetic as Edmund Bertram.  He certainly starts out as likeable enough, as Fanny's champion and protector from her obnoxious aunt Norris.  We can understand and sympathize when he falls in love with Mary Crawford, whose worldly upbringing makes her despise his vocation as a minister.  But Mary is torn between her materialistic ambitions and her genuine affection for Edmund.  She really loves him and appreciates his good qualities, as he is able to love her for hers; he realizes she is shallow and superficial, but she is also loving, kind, generous, open-hearted, and doesn't have a mean bone in her body.  She is "the only woman he could ever want or accept for a wife."
So what happens to blow this whole scenario to bits?  In Edmund's eyes, Mary is insufficiently outraged by the adulterous relationship between her brother and Edmund's married sister.  Edmund is in anguish when Mary says she is disgusted by their stupidity in carrying on the affair.  For him, this proves she is totally without virtue.  But is she really?  Mary may have been as outraged as Edmund was; but where Edmund can only think of retribution, Mary is more concerned with damage control.  Where Edmund insists on divine and temporal punishment and damnation, Mary prefers to try to make the best of a bad situation.  For Edmund, Mary's common sense translates into vice.  From a paragon of virtue, she suddenly becomes a monster of licentiousness.  Edmund drops poor Mary like a hot potato.  He may thus endear himself further to Fanny Price, but he certainly doesn't endear himself to this reader.  Edmund comes across as a sanctimonious prig, more interested in judging people than in trying to understand and forgive.
So let the debate continue.  I'm looking forward to reading more opinions pro and con about Fanny Price & Co.; the fundamental fact remains that, whatever you may think of Fanny and the other characters, Jane Austen is one of the greatest writers of all time in any language, and Mansfield Park is her greatest book.
989964
A nice combination of Regency era aristocratic themes and just a touch of lightly witch-friendly wise woman traditions.  I found it to be a pleasant read for those who like a strong, modern-ish heroine and a sturdy hero with just enough issues to be interesting (without being too flawed).