It has been far too long since I first read this book. Each rereading of a great book brings additional pleasure and additional understanding. This book will be discussed at BYU Education Week August 2021, so I revisited it.

Review from my First Reading

It is a delight to read these older books which have words such as: charity, humility, grace, charm, virtue, kindness; these kind of words have so much disappeared from our everyday discourse but yet these are words that bring joy, words that are delightful to get reacquainted with. It is so nice to read a book that uses discourse different from our "modern" everyday conversation. I enjoy reading classic literature.

Because it is Jane Austen, I had something of an idea how the book would end. Still, I was in a fair amount of suspense because I hadn't read any book summaries, and thus wasn't sure which way it would go. ( )

So many reviews, this is just a note to myself. I enjoyed the read, Austen has a way with words that no one else does. However, I didn't love anyone in this book and so was not invested in the story. ( )

Come on now, why is Pride and Prejudice Austen’s most beloved novel when Mansfield Park is so much better! No, I know, Elizabeth Bennett is far more witty and lively than Fanny Price, who, uh, isn’t either of those things. Mr. Darcy is far more dreamy than Edmund Bertram, who is rather a bore. And the love story in P&P throws sparks all over the damn place, while the main love story in Mansfield Park is so not the point that it only gets a desultory narrator’s treatment in the last couple of pages of a 400 page novel. I imagine Austen going “Yeah, okay, you expect it, so here it is, it happens, whatever.”

Mansfield Park though is a far more complex novel, wide ranging, touching on issues like nature vs nurture, ethical vs factual education, the identity and nature of home, even the slave trade and the moral quandary of indirectly benefitting from the morally indefensible, for good measure. Meanwhile, Fanny suffers nobly as a bit of a doormat, but then resists what she knows is bad, although materially highly rewarding, with an admirably stubborn and immovable will, while her cousins from the rich side of the family make poor decisions and completely fall apart. She’s the steady and under-appreciated bit of good surrounded by glitz and glam, an underdog worth rooting for. ( )

It took me about half of the book to finally get into the rhythm of Austen's voice. Once there, her voice was natural in my head. I'm so glad I pushed forward (or in the words of Austen - improved). I struggle to call Fanny Price a "hero". In my view, she is simply a faithful saint. She is fraught with fears and insecurities, but her bravery is in her choice to do right. I like that about her.

I think Austen likes to show struggles and vices like so many marks on a pendulum. Idleness, busyness. Lady Bertram, almost completely idle. Mrs. Norris, always busy (and even a busybody). Fanny shows the middle. Weak, but sitting and observing and learning. Yet busy - attending to a host of needs. The Crawford siblings are conspirators - the far side of the pendulum of self and independence. Fanny and Edmund are "sibling" confidants in the middle. The other siblings in the book are estranged and backbiting. I think the author likes us to see the Christian as not perfect, not foolish, but faithful.

The characters have sucked me into the Austen universe - and I think I will not only remember these, but will happily discover all of the others. ( )

Surprisingly entertaining; the introduction warns that this is one of Austen's serious books.

We never learn much about Sir Thomas's Antigua estate, but it may have been worked by enslaved people. All we have is this conversation in which Edmund encourages Fanny to talk more in public:

[Fanny] “But I do talk to him more than I used. I am sure I do. Did not you hear me ask him about the slave-trade last night?”

[Edmund] “I did—and was in hopes the question would be followed up by others. It would have pleased your uncle to be inquired of farther.”

[Fanny] “And I longed to do it—but there was such a dead silence! And while my cousins were sitting by without speaking a word, or seeming at all interested in the subject, I did not like—I thought it would appear as if I wanted to set myself off at their expense, by shewing a curiosity and pleasure in his information which he must wish his own daughters to feel.” [p. 135]

Mary Crawford's ultimate fault is that she sees adultery as a folly which could be mitigated, and not a capital offense. Unfortunately, in her eyes, her brother, Henry, does not marry Maria and make an almost honest woman out of her; even more unfortunately, Henry and Maria were caught, thereby ruining Henry's hopes of marrying Fanny, who could have made a decent man out of him. Although, given his succumbing to vanity and Maria, it would have been a difficult task. I must admit that I side with Mary more than Sir Thomas, who believes it is only right that Maria go off to another country with Mrs. Norris and live in shame far away.
And another thing: while Sir Thomas is concerned at the beginning of the story about first cousins marrying, he is quite happy to see this happen at the end.
Unlike many another story, the heroine's quiet but true worth is appreciated by others. (I'm thinking in particular of The Moonstone, which I recently finished , and Miriam Halcombe. ( )