Mansfield Park

Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: I'm surprised that so many people found this book boring or hard to get through---I enjoyed it immensely and couldn't put it down! Fanny might disappoint if you're hoping for a vivacious, witty heroine like Elizabeth Bennet, but she and her story are interesting in their own right and the book is full of realistic people and situations that held my attention completely. To be fair, though, I can see how a person who found the plot horribly boring would begin to resent Fanny. As to it being "darker" than Austen's other work, my feeling is that although MP deals with serious issues (adultery, religion, etc.) it's still done by way of the entertaining social gatherings, gossip exchanges, and family snafus that happen in her other books, so the tone didn't strike me as different from her others. By the way, if you're interested in this book I'd recommend reading it soon, before the upcoming movie version comes out!

Rating:
Summary: Johnson shines as editor
Review: The Norton Critical Edition of Mansfield Park is a gem as and edition. Claudia L. Johnson's footnotes are extremely informative and (and are actually footnotes on the same page, praise be) and her selections in the critical apparatus are very solid. Read this edition of Austen's most challenging work before any other--but read Pride and Prejudice before you read Mansfield! This one is too dark and subdued for many Austen fans.

Rating:
Summary: Jane Austen's Mansfield Park transcends time
Review: If ever there was a book that could be applied whole heartedly to any space and time it is Mansfield Park. Fanny Price is a hero whose quiet and shy reserve masks a heart filled with unrequieted passion. As a stern observer we through the eyes of Fanny experience all the folly's of youth and infatuation. Jane Austen really identifies with her readers and captures the passions of youth. There is a real spirit in her writing that emotionaly binds you to her characters with a genuine warmth.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I couldn't put it down! I wanted to know what was to become of Fanny. Much to my surprise, I thought one way, but of her outcome was but a happy surprise to me in the end. Adultery we know was not a typical theme to Jane Austen, however it is real life as we all know it to be. Who knows perhaps she herself experienced in her life in one way or another!!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have been an avid Austen reader for many years and I place "Mansfield Park" at the bottom of my list as a favorite. Jane is really boring in this one. I have read her books over and over, especially "Mansfield Park" hoping that I would appreciate it more, but to no avail. I purchased the BBC video not too long ago and that was boring also. I recently purchased the EIGHT cassette version read by a Maureen O'Brien. This was the WORST. Miss O'Brien speaks so rapidly, she cannot be understood half of the time! I had to keep re-running the tape to grasp what she was saying! This certainly has not made "Mansfield Park" more appealing. It's still down at the bottom of my list!

Rating:
Summary: Certainly not one of her best works
Review: Generally a fan of Austin's writing, I was surprised at the dullness and ineptness of the text. The story dragged on leading the frustrated reader in no direction. Do not recommend this as a first Austin read.

Rating:
Summary: Oh geez...
Review: This is one of the dullest works by Austen. However could someone get into the book and actually finish it without having fallen asleep. A dreadful book to read, indeed.

Rating:
Summary: The variety in Mansfield Park
Review: 'Mansfield Park' is a strange one to review having not the strength of a central heroine as in P&P or the eponymous Emma but I think it is in many ways more charming and captivating than any of her other works simply because of the richness and variety in the other characters in the novel. Mrs Norris, Mary and her brother Henry are an entertainment in their own right and while the plot winds along a la all Austen's novels and Fanny's reward is never in serious doubt (and by gum the girl has suffered for this reward) there seems to be more interaction between the characters in MP which I believe makes it an easier read than some of the others, not,as some have said, more laboured. Certainly the Year 9 class that I'm teaching the novel to wouldn't agree but hopefully at least one of them will go on to be an avid Janeite! Forget the "wimpy heroine" - MP has much more to offer the discerning reader...

Rating:
Summary: Dull, dull, dull
Review: While this book touches upon the society of English countryside gentry and their sexist, classist and patriarchical lives, it is quite dull. The plot drags and the characters, though their personalities are developed, don't do much. Nothing interesting happens until the last 50 pages or so. Overall, a good book to fall asleep with.

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful; Delightful!
Review: I am an avid fan of Jane Austen's writing. Her wit and social satire are brilliant and still incredibly relevant today. While Mansfield Park does not, to me, surpass her brilliance with Pride and Prejudice, I found I enjoyed this book more than Emma, which I think is slightly overrated. Mansfield Park had me on the edge of my seat for the final third of the book--Jane Austen is a timeless author and a breath of fresh air to those of us who are tired of the sex, violence and lack of originality so prevalent in today's "literature." Three cheers for Jane!!!