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Mansfield Park


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Though Jane Austen was writing at a time when Gothic potboilers such as Ann Ward Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto were all the rage, she never got carried away by romance in her own novels. In Austen's ordered world, the passions that ruled Gothic fiction would be horridly out of place; marriage was, first and foremost, a contract, the bedrock of polite society. Certain rules applied to who was eligible and who was not, how one courted and married and what one expected afterwards. To flout these rules was to tear at the basic fabric of society, and the consequences could be terrible. Each of the six novels she completed in her lifetime are, in effect, comic cautionary tales that end happily for those characters who play by the rules and badly for those who don't. In Mansfield Park, for example, Austen gives us Fanny Price, a poor young woman who has grown up in her wealthy relatives' household without ever being accepted as an equal. The only one who has truly been kind to Fanny is Edmund Bertram, the younger of the family's two sons.
Into this Cinderella existence comes Henry Crawford and his sister, Mary, who are visiting relatives in the neighborhood. Soon Mansfield Park is given over to all kinds of gaiety, including a daring interlude spent dabbling in theatricals. Young Edmund is smitten with Mary, and Henry Crawford woos Fanny. Yet these two charming, gifted, and attractive siblings gradually reveal themselves to be lacking in one essential Austenian quality: principle. Without good principles to temper passion, the results can be disastrous, and indeed, Mansfield Park is rife with adultery, betrayal, social ruin, and ruptured friendships. But this is a comedy, after all, so there is also a requisite happy ending and plenty of Austen's patented gentle satire along the way. Describing the switch in Edmund's affections from Mary to Fanny, she writes: "I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that everyone may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to time in different people." What does not vary is the pleasure with which new generations come to Jane Austen.

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Recent Forum Posts on Mansfield Park

Film - Masterpiece Theatre

Did anyone enjoy the new Masterpiece Theatre version of Mansfield Park? I enjoyed it well enough, probably more than Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Austen is such an excellent writer that it's just so much more enjoyable to read her books! :)

Posted By sciencefan at Fri 1 Feb 2008, 5:28 PM in Mansfield Park || 3 Replies

An opinion on Mansfield Park

This place looks almost devoid of discussion, but I think this novel possibly deserves the most attention of all of Austen's books. I've heard lots of people talk about how they hate Edmund and Fanny and like Henry the best, and possibly Austen wrote the book so well that they were deceived by all the acting that Henry and Mary Crawford do. What is missed is the fact that right choice of vocation (which means calling, or to simplify, career) in the case of Edmund, or the right choice of spouse (in the case of Fanny and Edmund) will not necessarily be glamorous. Throughout the novel Mary Crawford contrasts fashionable London with life in the country and fashionable life with the life of a country clergyman, trying to convince Edmund to give up his unfashionable calling. Of course, Edmund holds out for virtue against fashion and seems to have gotten a bad rep among readers of this book for being boring. He and Fanny are too boring. Of course they're boring; it's usually boring to do what's right, after all. Hmm. If doing what is right means sticking to your principles (ruining the party by refusing to act, because you know the owner of the house wouldn't like it...etc.) and going directly against what is fashionable and fun, what would you do? Austen wants the reader to make a good decision, and I think how much you like the book will depend on what decision you would make. (ie; would YOU marry Henry Crawford?)

Posted By Sarie at Fri 2 Nov 2007, 6:31 PM in Mansfield Park || 5 Replies

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So far i've only read P&P and Mansfield Park. P&P was alright, but Mansfield Park got on my nerves a little, i bet we could build a flood with Fanny's tears. & why does she always have 2 be so tired? I think the ending needs more passion between Edmund & Fanny but then again he is her cusin so I take it back. I did though enjoy the Crawfords @ least they brought life in2 the story.

Posted By Natalie at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies

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Mansfield Park is a very interestingly plotted book of Jane Austen's. I've only read Pride and Prejudice and this one so far. The subject of marriage jumped out at me through Miss Crawford's perception of it. It seems that marriage is a frequent topic of Austen's.

Posted By 17-YR-Old inexperienced reader at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 1 Reply

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i loved the beginning of the book but the end was so stupid that i hated it.I thought that it was the best book that i ever had read but at the end it dissapointed me. I hated Edmund and i hated mary and i hated henry it was a little stupid the book.

Posted By a at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 1 Reply

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T like Jane Austen who gives me rustic description. "Mansfield Park" , I read, as if I lived here, really and vividly written. There is contrast between wordily and unwordily, Can man be judged by dance and common behavior? seemingly, I sympathize Fanny.

Posted By ellan at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies

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I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice. It was very fusturating that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy wouldn't hurry up and marry but I loved the suspense it held. I really like Jane Austen's style in her writing and her female characters personalities. I really enjoy reading her books even though I have only read Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Darcy was my favourite character. I loved him :)

Posted By Mystique at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies

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I think that Mansfield Park, is a wonderful book, i have in turn also seen the television production of the text, it seems to sex up the text version. I do however prefer the book, in so many ways!
I especially like the characters Fanny Price and Henry Crawford, as Fanny can see through Henry, either to the point of when he skes to marry her, that he is only marrying her to gain the Bertrum money or that she see's he is a wild child, and will for certain cheat on her.
I think Edmund and Fannu make the perfect couple, i would have even preferred for a futher chapter to be written, including the return of Maria, and the wedded couple Edmund and Fanny, and how they built a family, and lived happily ever after!
But over all it is a great book, it gets a big thumbs up from me!

Posted By jenny at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies

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As far as I can tell, those who have posted comments in this site are rather superficial in their opinions of Jane Austen's work. I have yet to find another writer who so clearly and shrewdly portrays the "civilized" English society of that particular period. Classic novels should be appreciated not only for their literary value, but also for their ability to connect the modern world with those long gone. I enjoyed "Mansfield Park" because its characters were not perfect (who is?) and they made misjudgments parallel to those of today. They were human, and therein lay their beauty.

Posted By Scarlett O'Hara at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 6 Replies

No Subject

This novel is indeed cleverly put together. I'm really impressed by the style of writing that Jane Austen has chosen. Some sentences are as nine lines long. I belive this is what drags us to the next sentence, then to the next, until we have read a whole page. Although i found the first fifteen chapters tedious, i realised that the novel is about the dificulty of preserving true moral consciousness among the selfish manoeuvring & jostling of society. An interesting book.

Posted By Unregistered at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies

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