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Summary: One of Austen's best
Review: I have read all of Austen's works and "Mansfield Park" is one of the best. I could usually feel for the main character, Fanny Price, and relate to her. By loving her cousin Edmund so completely, she suffered greatly when Mary Crawford drew his attention and admiration. I would have been rather angry if I were Fanny been left sitting alone for a whole hour while they walked through the woods. Mr. Crawford's love of Fanny rather surprised me, because he didn't deserve her after flirting so mercilessly with her cousins. I was a glad that there was a happy ending. I believe the most satisfying reads (like those by Jane Austen) always have happy endings.
Rating: 
Summary: a flat boring read...
Review: This book was a major disapointment. I had never read a Jane Austen novel before I read this book and I thought it would be a pleasant experience. I found the book's main character to be flat, and dull, possesing none of the characteristics that make an interesting person or an interesting read. I thought the book would never end and when it did I felt like throwing a party. This novel isn't dark and complex, its just bad and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I hope to have better luck with other Jane Austen titles in the future.
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Summary: I've read 4 of Ms. Austin's books and enjoyed every one.
Review: This book is one of my favorites along with Pride and Prejudice. It is a shame that most of the books today do not have the same quality. I recieved this book as gift and I'm glad to have it. I really enjoyed this book. I hope to read the rest of her works.
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best
Review: This book is very deep underneath the rather frivolous surface. It is good and I think that at the beginning you get very much caught up in the story. However I also think that it can be very boring near the middle and it made me almost throw away the book in exasperation. While a good book on its own, compared to the other fantastic literary achievements of Jane Austen , it seems lacking in finesse, wit and charm.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice look into the past
Review: This book entertains me from the beginning to the end. Unlike Jane Austens other books this one wasn't very predictable, at least not for me. I wasn't very sure if it would be a happy ending until I finally read the last page. This book is much better written than Jane's earlier works, she develops the characters much more thoroughly. A drawback of this book must be the character of the main character, she is extremely naive, it was rather difficult for me ( as a feminist-like person ) to relate to her. I was also quite a bit disappointed by the last two pages, I thought the book ended quite abrupt. Still I think this is one of Jane Austens best creations. It gave me a nice look into the past.
Rating: 
Summary: This is no walk in the park...
Review: I am an avid reader of Jane Austen and the main reason is her use of wit and empowered female characters. Unfortunately, Mansfield Park has neither of these. It is touted as one of Austen's most "complex" and "intricately plotted" works. I enjoy the sense of fun that is so evident in most of her novels, and perhaps, I simply find Mansfield Park to dark for my taste. I could not relate to the main character, Fanny, who, in my opinion, was an extremely naive ninny. While I pleasurably breeze through Austen's other novels in an afternoon, I found Mansfield Park took me several days to read, because of the breaks I took when I became bored with the story. (Something which has never happened to me with any other of her books.) This novel is not a style I find appealing, but, who knows, you just might enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!!!
Review: This is one of the first real "classics" that I read on my own--without having it forced on me by a teacher. It is easy to read and you will be rooting for Fanny throughout the entire book
Rating:
Summary: Loved and Hated
Review: "Mansfield Park" has always been Jane Austen's most controversial novel.The heroine of the book is Fanny Price, a powerless and socially marginal young woman. To almost everyone she knows, she barely exists. As a child, she is sent to live with the family of her wealthy uncle. Her parents give her up without regret, and her uncle only takes her in because he is deceived into doing so. Fanny's wealthy relations, when they deign to notice her at all, generally do so only to make sure she knows of her inferiority and keeps in her place. Fanny is thus almost completely alone, the only kindness she receives coming from her cousin Edmund. Forced by circumstances to be an observer, Fanny is a faultlessly acute one, as well as the owner of a moral compass that always points true north. Those who dislike "Mansfield Park" almost invariably cite Fanny as the novel's central fault. She is generally accused of being two things: (1) too passive, and (2) too moral. The charge of passivity is perplexing. Surely it is evident that for her to challenge those in power over her is extremely dangerous - in fact, when she finally does challenge them, on a matter of the greatest importance to her and of next to no importance to them, she is swiftly reminded of the weakness of her situation by being deported back to the impoverished family of her parents, who receive her with indifference. The charge of morality is easier to understand - many readers feel themselves being silently accused by Fanny, and they don't like it. The interesting thing is that those same readers often enjoy "Pride and Prejudice", even though it is evident that the same moral standards are in place in both books. So, why do readers feel the prick of criticism in one and not the other? Part of the answer is that in "Mansfield Park" the stakes are higher, which squeezes out the levity of "Pride and Prejudice". Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of "Pride and Prejudice", can afford to smile at the follies of others - they are not dangerous to her (at least she thinks not - she comes to think differently before the book is over). Fanny, however, can seldom afford to laugh. Vices that are funny in the powerless can be frightening in the powerful. Fanny's vulnerability to the faults of others is clear to her, and she suffers for it throughout "Mansfield Park". Another part of the answer is that attractions that are combined in "Pride and Prejudice" are split in "Mansfield Park". In "Pride and Prejudice", Mr. Darcy is both rich and good; in "Mansfield Park", Henry Crawford is only rich. In "Pride and Prejudice", Elizabeth Bennet is both witty and good; in "Mansfield Park", Fanny Price is only good. Readers who liked "Pride and Prejudice" because it had a rich man attracted to a witty woman, will either find nothing in "Mansfield Park" to engage their enthusiasms, or, as is not uncommon, they will actually find themselves drawn to the book's sometimes-antagonists, the Crawfords. Having dealt with why some people dislike "Mansfield Park", it remains to deal with why other people like it. Its central attraction is the skillful blending of the story of Fanny Price herself, which is the Jane Austen's adaptation of the "Cinderella" archetype, and the story of the other characters, which are of the great Christian themes of fall and redemption. "Cinderella", is of course the story of hope for the powerless. It has been subject to a certain amount of well-intended misreading in recent decades, but the motive for that misreading really concerns an accident of the eponymous story - the sex of the main character - rather than its real theme, which is universal. "Harry Potter", for example, shows how easily and successfully the Cinderella archetype can be applied to a male protagonist. Fall and redemption is the other story of "Mansfield Park". At the start, the characters other than Fanny are fallen or falling. Some are so corrupt that we are have no hope for them; their presence is purely malign, endangering those not so badly off as themselves. Others have fallen far, but are not quite so far gone that we do not have hope for them as well as fear of them. Finally, there are those who are only beginning to fall, whose danger is all the more alarming for it. In "Mansfield Park", these stories are not just side by side, they are interwoven. Jane Austen's Cinderella saves not only herself, but also saves - and almost saves - others as well. All but the worst characters in the book are drawn to the goodness in Fanny, even while they yield to the temptations that threaten them. The book has real tension in that we don't know who will make it and who will not. Those who feel sympathy for the Crawfords are not entirely misreading the story - we are not wrong when we sympathize with a drowning man clutching at a rope thrown to him. Where we can go wrong is not when we wish not for the drowning man to be pulled to shore, but when we wish for the person at the other end of the rope to be pulled in after him.
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Summary: Austen's most controversial novel.
Review: In this somewhat atypical Jane Austen novel, Austen abandons her precise characterization and carefully constructed plots, usually designed to illustrate specific ethical and social dilemmas, and presents a much broader, more complex picture of early nineteenth century life. Though the polite behavior of the middle and upper classes is always a focus of Austen, and this novel is no exception, she is more analytical of society as a whole here, casting a critical eye on moral issues which allow the upper class to perpetuate itself. 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
Rating:
Summary: Morally complex, and not about the slave trade...
Review: I don't know what book the other reviewer read, but it couldn't have been "Mansfield Park." "Mansfield Park" is a political satire according to some, and I think there's reason to believe this assessment. According to Jane Austen, "Mansfield Park" is about ordination (some dispute here, but she wrote it in a letter). Ordination comes from the word "order" and given the events in Europe at the time order was a major issue. Jane Austen's father had 'interests' in the West Indies from which he derived income, and he was very pleased the British Government (Tories) defended these colonies and kept them from joining in the American Revolotion. Jane Austen had two naval brothers who served as part of the effort to keep the English interests en tact. In "Persuasion" a discussion at dinner one evening centers around the West Indies--and the talk is not about slavery. Like it or not, Jane Austen's conscience about slavery did become manifest until she wrote "Emma" and even then she barely touched on the subject. Jane Austen's main concerns involved the lives of women and their place in society. And we have no right to judge her from our perspective 200 years later. Jane Austen was a Tory at the time she wrote "Mansfield Park." The Tories were a conservative party that backed the English king and he had no interest in seeing English colonies in the West Indies--from which he derived income--disappear. The Tories were landed gentry (country aristocrats) and did not want their old agrarian way of life abolished. It was under threat from the Industrial Revolution, and other social change. The Tory opposition party was Whig. Whigs supported the American and French Revolutions, and wanted change (the Abolutionists were mostly Whig). Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" symbolizes the old agrarian landed gentry way of life. Portsmouth (where Fanny's mother lives) represents the chaos of the masses. London (home of the Crawfords) is an interesting but dangerous way of life. Fanny is a very moral girl. My only complaint of Fanny is that I wanted her to stand up for herself--which she does. She always did, she just didn't do it the way we women who have been emancipated would. Critics from Lionel Trilling to Tony Tanner have defended Fanny's right to be Fanny--i.e. a moral and good girl of her times. We who are caught up in the modern world may not appreciate Fanny, but there she is--and who dares judge her? Fanny holds the course (like the Tories). She is the voice of morality who objects to the London stage play the other youngsters at Mansfield Park stage in the absence of Mr. Bertram (the lord of the manor and the upholder of virtue). Fanny will not be coerced into violating her principles. She will not marry Mr. Crawford because she can see he is immoral. She chides Edmund to stay on the straight and narrow. She facilitates Edmund's remaining on the path to ordination. Say what you will, Fanny gets her man, and she gets him the way she wants him. Was Janie spoofing us all along? Was Fanny right?
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