“You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you.”
I’m going to be brave and give my actual opinion on this book no matter the backlash. I get it’s a classic, that Austen is a genius, but Mansfield Park is just not my cup of tea. Does it really make me a bad person to hate a classic?
My number one complaint is with the characters. Fanny is anything but likeable, falling more into the annoying category, and all her actions are cringe worthy. She lets the world just happen to her, taking abuse from her extended family. And her ultimate love in the end feels forced. What else can it be when it occurs during the last two pages? Readers are told an acceptable time passed for the awkward relationship to morph into love. For the gentleman’s eyes to open and see the angel in front of him. But the reader is given nothing else to feel that it’s more than a brotherly affection. You can’t say that Austen didn’t stay true to her characters, but the story is just about a meek girl with no backbone until she refuses a comfortable life and turns into the idyllic women.
Mix unlikable characters with drawn out monologues and repeated content, and you have a story that like slogging through a bog. There was no conflict except for the play. In truth, there was not a single character want. I never understood the importance of character wants until I read a book lacking any. It’s assumed that all ladies of that time period would want an eligible match, but Fanny’s desire for marriage isn’t clear. She could have easily, and probably happily, ended up as an old maid and companion to Lady Bertram. I assumed that she couldn’t look outside her little bubble. Did she even know men existed? Besides knowing that Mr. Crawford was a bad man, there was no other reason for her to refuse an eligible match - unless she planned on staying on as Lady Bertram's companion. What were her plans in life?
“But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.”
Austen is still a master in many forms. In all her books, she paints these unique family pictures, meshing different circumstances into stories. All her books are about marriage. Yet somehow, they’re all unique in how the ladies ultimately get there. She gives the characters flaws, refusing to make them perfect. But maybe that’s the problem with Fanny. Her faults feel watered down, almost fake. They don’t make her strong. Austen uses them instead to make her seem like the ideal woman.
Even if Mansfield Park is boring, it’s still different and interesting in its approach. I really enjoyed the 1999 movie version, though it didn’t stay exactly true to the original story. Somehow the movie made the ending more awkward.
“I was quiet, but I was not blind.”
Maybe this is Austen’s apology to clergymen. In her other stories, she paints horrid pictures of the profession, putting them as the butts of her jokes. It was going on so long I thought she hated them. But Mansfield Park is a different creator.
Three down for the book challenge. Three more to go. April is Northanger Abbey. I’ve never read this one and I’m very excited. I’m already through the first 15 pages, which have been better than the entire Mansfield Park story. Fingers crossed that it will be this good all the way through.
“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”
Happy Reading
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 30/100