Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The best part of Mansfield Park is when Sir Thomas comes home from Antigua and obliterates the play. Rolls up, finds out they turned his bedroom into a green room or something and shuts it down. No anger, no yelling, no harsh language. A few quiet words to the servants, that’s all.
The Stern Victorian Father is like all stereotypes. But this is a character it’s hard to disrespect.
Edmund disappointed me a couple of times. First by falling in love with Mary, who he knew very well didn’t share his high principles. Then by failing to tell his father what had been going on between Henry and both his sisters. One of whom is already engaged.
Fanny, the protagonist, is meek but has integrity. Austen tests that integrity over and over again, increasing the pressure on it bit by bit. By the end, everybody she respects is telling her to do something she knows is wrong. There’s no way to explain herself, and she’s miserable. But she maintains her integrity, and good for her.
She gets the reward for that integrity in the end, marrying her childhood crush. Who should have realized what a treasure was right under his nose from the beginning. (Which you expect in a Jane Austen novel.)
In my view, most of the novel is a gigantic, elegant picture frame for this tiny portrait. The woman who won’t betray her principles, although it pierces her to the heart to look so ungrateful and foolish.