Mansfield Park (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Fanny Price, the main character, is the daughter of a genteel woman who married for love but soon found herself in poverty. When Fanny's aunt and uncle, the wealthy owners of Mansfield Park, invite Fanny alone, of all the children, to live with them, Fanny enters a new world, where she is educated, clothed, and housed, but always regarded as an "outsider."

Through Fanny's two cousins, Maria and Julia, Austen shows the complex interactions of the upper class as they negotiate marriages, try to maintain the family's reputation and wealth, and react to those "beneath" them socially. Fanny, having experienced both poverty and plenty, comments on what she sees, and though she lacks the witty charm of some of Austen's other characters (such as Elizabeth Bennett), she shows an intelligence and conscience lacking among her cousins. Only Edmund, the youngest of the Bertram sons, pays genuine attention to her, and her love for him is real, though secret.

This is a darker novel than Austen's others, showing conflicts between late eighteenth century rationalism and the growing romanticism of the nineteenth century. Sir Thomas maintains his wealth through his expedient participation in the slave trade, a business that his sons Thomas and Edmund abhor. Often unfeeling toward his own family, Sir Thomas also shows cruelty toward Fanny when she rejects a marriage he has negotiated for her to a man she does not love. Cousin Maria chooses to marry Rushworth for his fortune, but she succumbs to her passion for someone else, and introduces a romantic, new sexuality into the novel.

Unfortunately, Fanny, though sweet and reasonable, is also quiet and predictable, while Edmund, the only other potentially empathetic character, is naïve and often appears to be weak. Austen's light touch and quiet humor, which make her other novels vibrate with life and come to a satisfying ending, are less obvious here, and the abrupt conclusion leaves many questions unanswered. Mary Whipple

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In Mansfield Park, Austen was pushing her art and her ability into a new arena. She created in Fanny Price, a far more complex heroine, whose vulnerability and shyness is painfully clear and often irritating until you understand the appalling circumstances that she has been forced to live with since she was 10 years old. Living as a poor relation in a wealthy household must have been worse than being a servant and Fanny is never at ease, never among equals, always on parade and at everyone's beck and call. Only when she goes home to her natural family is she among equals only to discover that she has gotten used to a higher standard of living and that they aren't her equals any longer.

There is still a tremendous amount of toe-curling humour and wicked exasperation with the appalling Mrs. Norris. The romantic aspirations and faux pas of many of the characters is still there to entertain and exercise the mind but this time there is a deeper point being made. Austen must have been aware that the world was changing with the industrial revolution just around the corner and a faster, cruder way of life rising to the surface. Shallow, superficial ways of behaving were beginning to gain currency. The crueulty of playing with people's emotions in a dishonest and careless way is someting Austen is clearly targetting. Fanny and Edmund are flung around by this prevailing wind until they both regain their moral compasses. To some readers this is going to seem dull and pompous but if you take Fanny's state of mind as your starting point, her vulnerability and need for a safe haven you can understand their disapproval more easily.

In Mansfield Park, Austen clearly wants to show that society is on a collision course with itself if the 'anything goes' mode of living becomes the norm - a point of view that is still relevant today and that is what makes this Austen novel her most interesting and wide ranging in terms of ideas and debate about the human condition.

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