“There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.”
Too many side characters; lengthy and dragging; weak romance; story line coated in misfortunes. Well, Austen’s Mansfield Park is not the best of Austen’s novels but there is a certain charm to it. It’s less dramatic and the heroine is level-headed but someone who accepts her misfortune and quietly suffers it, in a way accepting it. Most would consider this book overwritten and redundant. But it is also fascinating as one delve deeper into the book. A one of a kind book on a young woman’s struggle to find her identity in a world where it is designed to suppress her. Truly, Austen aced in depicting the 18th century English society in a way or two.
Fanny Price, a girl from a poor family is sent away to her rich aunt’s house in Mansfield Park to stay with them from her impoverished home. Fanny grew up in Mansfield Park; a good niece to her aunt. But the high society that she lives with were only slightly kind to her. Through the heroine , Austen gives a subtle examination of social position in a society and how it impacts lives. Maybe one need to truly understand the antics of the Austen world in order to truly appreciate and understand an Austen novel. This one needs to be given time and slowly absorb the charm that comes with it.
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