I was struck with the sudden desire late Wednesday night to pick up Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Among Austen’s works, it is the one I am the least familiar with. I have read it only two or three times and never with any particular sense of joy. Yet suddenly I felt that I must try it again, that this time I might finally unlock its charms.
It does not begin well. Austen, whose masterful opening lines for Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Emma can be readily quoted by even non-rabid fans, was frankly slacking off when she commenced Mansfield Park with a rambling compound sentence on the history of the Bertram family. It is an immediate reminder for readers that this is her least sprightly, least optimistic novel. Even Persuasion has more energy and hope in its pages. Yes, structurally it is beautifully, thoughtfully crafted and has a cast of well-developed characters second only to Emma, but, like Fanny herself, only after a long acquaintance do you come to recognize the book’s virtues and love it. First, you must make it through the opening pages, at least to Fanny’s arrival at Mansfield Park.
Well, I have done that now so, trusting that the worst is behind me, look forward to reading on. But, a bit shamefully, I must admit that I am more excited to renew my acquaintance with the charming Crawford siblings than with Fanny or Edmund.
The Captive Reader 
Aunt Norris is one of Austen’s most biting characters. There’s evil in her. Can’t think of any other character from the other novels who sinks to the lower depths. Agree not top rank but Aunt Norris does expand Austen’s capacity for revealing human nature. Cathy Nicholls
I’ve been thinking about Classic Books that I haven’t read yet and this was one of them. I haven’t read Persuasion either, but I think it’s in the 746. Time to revisit Austen I think…..
Oh no, I like both Mansfield Park and Fanny herself very much! (Emma was the one it took me time to enjoy, although I now do.) The near-opening sentence that “there are not as many men of fortune in the world as there are pretty girls to deserve them” is as good as the start of P&P, and I’ve always thought that Fanny was how Jane Bennett could have been if she hasn’t had a loving family to support her. I think it’s become a trope to say that MP is hard to like and so of course readers then “find” it dull…
I love this book, so glad you’ve found it more enjoyable this time round. I agree, the beginning doesn’t inspire the reader, I had to push past the first few chapters before I was enthralled.
The ONLY book of Austen’s I’ve actually enjoyed is Mansfeild Park
I love Mansfield Park and Fanny in particular – she seems to me to be one of the truest of Austen’s heroines. Hope you enjoy it more this time round…
When you get an urge to read Austen, you cannot ignore it. Mansfield Park has definitely always been my least favourite of her work but I re-read it again fairly recently and found many redeeming features this time around. Isn’t Fanny Jane Austen’s favourite heroine? There must be more to her if she was her creator’s favourite. The whole cousin love thing is hard to get around though…
That’s part of the trouble with the book, isn’t it? The Crawfords are so much more appealing than Fanny and Edmund. I’ve read the book twice and liked it better the second time around. I’m sure I’ll read it again sometime and hopefully I’ll like it even better. Glad you made past the beginning and I hope the rest blossoms out into something good for you.
Dear Claire,
this part about “getting through the worst of it” at the opening of MP reminded me of one of the reader reactions from people she knew that Jane Austen herself sought and compiled. (You can read the whole collection at this article on Slate. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/06/18/jane_austen_the_novelist_s_collected_critiques_from_friends_and_family.html )
“Mrs. Augusta Bramstone – owned that she thought S. & S. and P. & P. downright nonsense, but expected to like MP better, & having finished the 1st vol – flattered herself that she has got through the worst.”
I found MP very tough going the first time I read it (age 17) because I was expecting it be another P&P, which it definitely is not. Don’t give up, though! There is a lot to like here.
Even though MP will never be my favorite Jane, I definitely liked this better on my second reading…and I agree, the Crawfords (and I would add Lady Bertram) are the best things in it.
I reread this two summers ago and it certainly isnt my favourite Austen, although i agree about the Crawfords.
Mansfield Park was the last Jane Austen I came to. I was disappointed with Fanny. I believe the P word* is often used to describe her. I finally got myself to like it by telling myself Jane was having us on with it. As NA was a send-up of the Gothic novel, so was MP a send-up of the moralizing tale. (Though I’m afraid I may be wrong.)
*prude
I love the Crawfords too. I always think Jane Austen unfairly made Henry Crawford terrible at the very end of the book, so that Fanny could marry Edmund.
I find that “favorite” Austen rankings change considerably over time. Definitely MP has moved up with age.
Re-read it late last year, to celebrate its birthday. Was surprised at how much I loved it, considering it was a big meh 15 years ago. Liked Mary more, liked Edmund way less!