About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be ...
Read More
About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride-from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married. Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of her conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended each sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period. - Taken from "Mansfield Park" written by Jane Austen
Read Less
Add this copy of Mansfield Park to cart. $29.04, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Independently published.
Add this copy of Mansfield Park to cart. $61.89, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Independently published.
If you love Jane Austen, you have to read and re-read them all, but this is the one I'm ambivalent about, that I enjoy in spite of the priggish heroine and hero and a plot line that emphasizes a code of conduct foreign to us today.
Fanny is just not very appealing. One feels sympathy for her timidity and delicacy, but she's pretty pathetic. At the same time, she is silently judging those around her by a very strict and moralistic standard, with more apparent concern for propriety than for kindness.
She winds up being right, but I always felt that Austen loaded the dice here, that in particular Mary Crawford's ugly letter at the end was out of character (framed! forced by her creator to justify the heroine's cold, judgmental response to Mary's warmth and generosity).
That said, Austen's humor alone (particularly effective re Fanny's aunts) make it worth the trip, and well, everything else about Austen's lovely language, interesting characters, amusing dialog. And on the umpteenth reading (yes! and this is the Austen I don't like! that's how beguiling she is), I did find myself able to see it a little differently.
If Fanny sensed the superficiality of the Crawfords' attractive warmth (as opposed to assuming it because she disapproves of their more unconventional outlook and feels jealous of their appealing qualities), that would put her in the right.
It still doesn't make her a very lovable heroine (as Mr. Knightly conceded to Emma about Miss Fairfax, "She lacks the open temperament that a man wants in a wife." [Gist, not checking for an exact quote])
But she does by that scenario deserve winning her incestuous love (she was pretty young when she started living as a sister to him, and we certainly now consider 1st cousins too close anyway). And I could never begrudge underdog Fanny the general love and acceptance she earns by the end.
Ellyb
Mar 20, 2008
Deeper Austen
This book took a few tries for me to get into, but once I did, I got REALLY into it and read it voraciously. Fanny, our reserved heroine, is more of the "Eleanor from 'Sense and Sensibility'" type than the "Elizabeth from 'Pride and Prejudice'" type. What is remarkable about her is how deeply shy she is and how great an effect this has on the way people treat her. All the same, she has a steadfast sense of moral rightness and never loses it in the face of the disrespect heaped on her from all sides. Austen follows Fanny's life from a very young age to her growth into adulthood and manages to believably develop her personality within the odd circumstances of Fanny's "adoption" into her rich relations' household. At it's heart "Mansfield Park" is less about romance (although there is plenty of it) than about the struggle to hold onto one's own sense of self, come what may.
LauraK
Jun 29, 2007
Once you get in to it...
As far as Jane Austen novels go, I found this one a bit difficult to get in to. Fanny is such a reserved, gentle character, that she's hard to really relate to. However, I found by the second volume I was much more attached to the story. This is definitely a heavier novel than Pride & Prejudice, which feels much more like a romance. Mansfield Park dwells much more on pointing out virtues and vices. Ultimately, I think the lesson that Austen portrays in this novel is against vanity, and if you're tough enough to muddle through the beginning, you will be well rewarded by the time you reach the end. It's a very fulfilling novel.
