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    Mansfield Park
    Mansfield Park
    Mansfield Park
    Audiobook14 hours

    Mansfield Park

    Written by Jane Austen

    Narrated by Wanda McCaddon

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    About this audiobook

    From its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate "poor relation." Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park.

    Written several years after the early manuscripts that eventually became Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park retains Jane Austen's familiar compassion and humor but offers a far more complex exploration of moral choices and their emotional consequences.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 1, 2008
    ISBN9781400176915
    Author

    Jane Austen

    Jane Austen (1775–1817) was an English novelist whose work centred on social commentary and realism. Her works of romantic fiction are set among the landed gentry, and she is one of the most widely read writers in English literature.

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    Reviews for Mansfield Park

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Mansfield Park is only bested by Pride and Prejudice. Truly one of Austen's better works. Even the fact that the male protagonist is at times unbearably weak does not detract from the greatness of this book.
    • 5/5
      Mansfield Park is Austen's third,least popular,and my second favorite of her novels.It is the least popular because like most of her relatives,most readers do not understand the heroine Fanny Price.Fanny's high sense of morals,duty,honor and gentleness are uncommon in our society today.Today society doesn't have a moral code.I am very fond of Fanny and she is one of my favorite heroines.I dislike Henry and Mary Crawford,who most other readers seem to like.Henry Crawford is the kind of man who leads you on,gets sick of you,or gets what he wants or both then skips out on you.Leaving you with a broken heart.Henry Crawford is the best actor of all the young people(in play they almost put on in the book).It's because his whole life is that an act.He cannot be himself because he doesn't know himself.His sister Mary is not much better.She values money over character.Henry charms Fanny's female cousins Maria and Julia.While Mary bewitches Fanny's best friend,cousin,and true love Edmund.Fanny is the only one who doesn't fall under the Crawfords charms.She sees them for who they are all charm,no substance.Fanny Price may not be as lively or witty as some of Austen's other heroines like Elizabeth and Emma but everyone is different.I hope when you read Mansfield Park you love Fanny Price for who she is and not who she isn't.
    • 3/5
      I'd like to love Austen's character as much as she did, but I'm afraid she's too mealy-mouthed and self-effacing for my tastes.

      2000 Jan 25
      1990 Aug 28
    • 4/5
      You can see why Jane Austen is a star - she has such wonderfully developed characters that are so shrewdly observed and described to be compelling and believable across the centuries. While the plot events relate to a particular time, place and social setting; the busybody, the careful thinker, the gruff but caring father, and all the rest of the cast can be readily seen among the people we live with today. Mansfield Park has a more interesting plot line than Pride and Prejudice & Sense and Sensibility, dealing with the results of the poor cousin brought up with rich relatives. Lovely. (Read January 2011.)
    • 4/5
      More of Austen's twists and turns of love gone awry. She can certainly find many ways to tell the same type of story. I wouldn't want to read her books too close together; however, I must say I am enjoying each one of them in a different way.Fanny Price seems to be an unpopular character with some readers. She is a bit lackluster until you consider how she definitely knew her mind when it came to her choice of a husband, and she wouldn't settle for less. She held out for her first choice despite the pressure from her uncle and lack of encouragement from Edmund. I admire her gentle strength, although I deplore her taste in men.
    • 4/5
      Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price. She is born to poor parents and is whisked off as a young girl to live with her wealthy aunt, uncle, and cousins - the Bertrams.She is miserable at first. Shy and timid by nature, frightened, homesick, and continually lectured by her Aunt Norris about how she should be grateful, life is not pleasant for Fanny. But things begin to change when her cousin Edmund shows kindness to her. His friendship helps her adjust to her new home, broaden her mind, and become a lady.Their peaceful family life comes to an end when their father goes away on a lengthy business trip. About the same time, Mary Crawford and her brother move to the area. The young people strike up a friendship, and without the stabilizing influence of their father the Bertrams start to go down the wrong path. Fanny is the only one who seems to realize the Crawfords are a bad influence. But no one pays any attention to her. I won't mention how things turn out because I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't read this.This is not my favorite Austen, but I liked it very much. In the beginning the treatment of Fanny both annoyed and depressed me. However, as she begins to grow and become more confident, the book really took off for me and I couldn't stop reading. There are a lot of sections in this book that sound like sermons - probably because a main character becomes a clergyman - and I can see how that would be hard going for some. It's not as light and fun as other Austen novels. But it is still a very good book and a must read for Austen fans.
    • 3/5
      Summary: When Fanny Price was a child, she was sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle Bertram, who were much better off than Fanny's own parents, and could better afford the care of an additional child. But Fanny is never truly part of the family; constantly reminded how fortunate she is to be taken in by her relations, and constantly compared to her cousins, and without the self-possession or self-confidence to change her position, her only ally is her cousin Edmund. But even as she falls for him, he falls for a friend of the family, and if Fanny can't bring herself to speak her mind, she is in danger of finding herself married to a man she cannot love as she loves Edmund.Review: This is the last of Austen's main books that I've read, and I'm afraid to say, it's by far my least favorite. Fanny is just such a wet rag, incapable of doing or saying anything to promote her own happiness, that I had a hard time caring about that happiness myself. I mean, not that I was rooting for her to be unhappy or anything, but if you're not doing anything to help yourself, I don't have much sympathy for the "circumstances are conspiring against me!" kind of argument. I want my protagonists to have a little more spirit (or at least a little spirit, period). The one time that Fanny does have an opinion that she's willing to express - namely, that she doesn't want to marry Mr. Crawford - we're treated to several chapters of what seems like every other character trying to convince her that she's wrong, that she does want to marry him, and that she owes it to him to love him just because he's decided he loves her. It's gross, and it soured me not only on Fanny, but on most of the other characters as well. Granted, most of them were not particularly likable to begin with, but even Edmund comes off as smug and willfully oblivious to the feelings of everyone around him, even Fanny who he's "molded" to think in a way that's acceptable to him. It made the inevitable ending, in which everyone gets their just desserts, including Edmund's extremely abrupt change of heart with regards to Fanny's suitability as a romantic partner, less than satisfying. I'm sure that, if I were reading Mansfield Park on a deeper, more critical level, there's plenty of sharp satire and social commentary going on in. But since I am just reading for fun, and the main plot could be boiled down to "poor cousin is taken in by rich family and is bullied and treated badly for almost the entire book, and is too weak-willed to say or do anything about it", it wasn't something that I particularly got into. 2.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Oooooh, I hate to say it for something that's as much of a classic as Austen, but: pass. Or at least pass until you've run out of Austen's better, more engaging books.
    • 4/5
      It was a little slow to get into.I found Edmund a bit of a prig.But I enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      This is probably my least favorite Jane Austen I have read so far. That is mainly because the main character is not a very sympathetic girl, who needs a good kick in the butt and a dose of self confidence. Actually, there are very little 'good' people in the book. However, I will not call this a bad book, because the characters are funny and well described; I can easily imagine them all. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, and will probably read it again.
    • 5/5
      what a book. I don't think it's anybody's favorite Austen book, simply because Fanny is not as likeable a heroine as Elizabeth or Anne (my personal favorite) or even Emma; she's not strong-willed in a spunky way; she doesn't stand up for herself; she doesn't win her man by making him crazy about her against his will, but rather by default when the woman he really is crazy about turns out to be a soulless heathen. I'm not as bothered by some aspects of the book as most other people are -- I can get past the extremely dated narrative objection to (shock and horror) PLAYACTING because I can see it as a representation of moral collapse and indecency, which I do have a problem with myself. I like that the lack of moral underpinnings in Henry and Mary Crawford is a major stumbling block in their relations with upstanding people, and I like the disapproval subtly heaped on Sir Thomas because he neglected the moral training of his children, and I like the fact that a married woman who ran away with another man felt the consequences for the rest of her life. In short, I'm enough of a fuddy-duddy that a lot of the story resonates with me in a way that it fails to do with most modern readers. ;)
    • 3/5
      Although this is a fine Jane Austen novel with plenty of social satire, Fanny Price is not nearly as charming or engaging as some of Austen's other heroines.
    • 4/5
      One of the lesser known novels by Jane Austen. The film made in 1999 was very poor and gives a false impression of Fanny Price's character and of the main action of the book. Anyone who has ever had an interfering or overbearing relative will appreciate the delineation of Aunt Norris. Anyone who has a weak, vacillating, self-indulgent friend or relative will appreciate the delineation of Aunt Bertram. This edition includes the text of the play, Lover's Vows, which became a bone of contention during an extended house party, as well as footnote, illustrations and an essay about the difficulties of travel by coach during this period.
    • 5/5
      This book took a few tries for me to get into, but once I did, I got REALLY into it and read it voraciously. Fanny, our reserved heroine, is more of the "Eleanor from 'Sense and Sensibility'" type than the "Elizabeth from 'Pride and Prejudice'" type. What is remarkable about her is how deeply shy she is and how great an effect this has on the way people treat her. All the same, she has a steadfast sense of moral rightness and never loses it in the face of the disrespect heaped on her from all sides.Austen follows Fanny's life from a very young age to her growth into adulthood and manages to believably develop her personality within the odd circumstances of Fanny's "adoption" into her rich relations' household. At it's heart "Mansfield Park" is less about romance (although there is plenty of it) than about the struggle to hold onto one's own sense of self, come what may.
    • 5/5
      (Contain spoilers.) I firmly believe no librarian ever read Mansfield Park, otherwise Lord Bertram’s burning all the copies of Lover’s Vows he found would have banished it from libraries! (Chuckle) This book has all Miss Austin’s talented penmanship, but very little—or nothing, rather—of the comic situations I found in Pride and Prejudice and most especially in Emma. This is a deeper, more serious novel, highly moralizing, with lots of inner thoughts and questionings, which sometimes might get a bit long to the modern reader unused to this kind of literature. Through this book—as in all her others—she makes very clear what she expected (not only society), that “girls should be quiet and modest” and “perfectly feminine.” She condemned, on people in general, the “want of that higher species of self-command, that just consideration of others.” In the story 10 year-old Fanny Price, goes to live with her wealthy uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Bertram, in their beautiful and tranquil estate of Mansfield Park. There she meets four cousins, two girls and two boys, of which, second son, the mature and highly honorable Edmund, becomes her ideal since the beginning. (Edmund was not a priest, but was ordained a couple of chapters before the end of the book.) The story evolves through ups and downs, lots of misunderstandings, to culminate in a happy ending. Unlike what is portrayed in movies inspired by Mansfield Park, Fanny is not treated unkindly, nor relegated to a dungeon-like room. Her sleeping quarters were a “little white attic” with connection to the old “school-room” which contained her plants, her books—of which she had been a collector from the first hour of her commanding a shilling—her writing desk, and her works of charity.” The lack of fire in that room was due to her Aunt Norris constant meddling and a shocked Lord Bertrand belatedly corrects this injurious situation. British society was then divided into classes and Fanny, while enjoying much of the benefits of living with the family, belonged to a very poor branch—hence the differed treatment she received. “If tenderness could be ever supposed wanting, good sense and good breeding supplied its place,” Jane Austen writes about the Bertrand family in relation to Fanny. Miss Austen’s high moral standards permeate the entire book, it is full of Fanny’s eagerness to do what is right and proper, to think good thoughts and do good deeds. Good and evil were clearly discerned and exposed in the situations Austen weaves; the elopement of a married woman with a bachelor is to her a “sin of the first magnitude.” I feel sure Jane Austen, whose heroines were invariably highly principled, moral young women, would have been devastated had she a chance to see the state of today’s youth, particularly of girls. I only wish young women would read more of this kind of literature instead of the filth available now in all American libraries.
    • 4/5
      I LOVE LOVE LOVE this story. If I had more leisure time to read, it would have been more enjoyable. It, or the language I should say, is quite florid. It was pretty language but a bit much at times. I'm no writer but I believe I oculd have said in 2 or 3 pages what Jane Austen said in 6...though not as beautifully of course.I'm glad I read it though. Fanny Price and Edmond Bertram are great examples of what a human being should be. Everybody else just needs a good spanking!...okay except of course for William and Susan.
    • 1/5
      Easily my least favorite of Austen's. The heroine is pretty dull, no Elizabeth Bennett spirit here. My main gripe with this story is that it’s all buildup with a very unsatisfying ending. Skip this one.
    • 4/5
      I can't count how many times I've read, "People think Mansfield Park is Austen's best or they hate it." A bit of an overstatement there, I think. I enjoyed it but don't consider it my favorite of her works. I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice more and Sense and Sensibility less.I suspect that those kinds of reactions to this book occur because Fanny is so unlike Austen's other female main characters. She's shy, unassertive and a bit lacking in self-confidence; she doesn't burst out of the pages as does Elizabeth Bennet. I didn't find any of the prissiness or priggishness that some people ascribe to her—I perceived only that she had a set of principles to which she stuck quietly and, living as a poor relation with the Bertrams, a consciousness of not participating in activities that would offend the uncle whose charity pulled her out of poverty.One of the things I enjoyed about this story was that the characters seemed a bit more human and a bit less like Regency "Stepford" gentry. Edmund, normally perceptive, loses it over a pretty face and nice figure despite the warning signs. Fanny, normally dutiful, sticks to her guns on her perception of Henry's character despite all of society telling her what she "should" think and feel. I also like the language of this story. It had a bit more dry humor, moments of tongue-in-cheek poking through in each chapter.If you like Austen, I don't see any reason not to try this and make up your own mind.
    • 3/5
      I liked this austen, with the main character of Fanny, who is in love for the whole book with her cousin Edmund, but not without a lot of pitfalls along the way.,
    • 4/5
      While Mansfield Park is certainly not on par with some of Jane Austen's other novels, it is is still a pleasant read and is not without the little gems of wit and skillfully constructed sentences that make Austen's writing so wonderful.
    • 3/5
      The overall story was very good, however, I found that many of the descriptive sections carried on far too long. There were many run on sentences, which sometimes made the narrative difficult to follow. At times, I found myself having to read passages multiple times, simply to tell which of two conversing characters was the one speaking at a particular point in the conversation. The characters themselves were very well defined, and very diverse. The contrast between Portsmouth and Mansfield Park, as well as the contrasts in characters themselves is most of what made this book an entertaining read.
    • 3/5
      You can tell this novel was written by a woman because the flashy, supposedly charismatic, superficial suitor who represents the shallow, "worldly" option is short and the stolid, boring suitor who demonstrates our heroine's good sense and solid values in choosing a man for his moral character, just coincidentally happens to be tall.Once you get over that though it's actually pretty good. I could have done with even more of the author talking shit about her characters (who are mostly realistically shallow and self-absorbed in the way that bad people actually are in real life) but what's there is frequently funny, and the protagonist is a very charming and likable figure (which is fortunate since we spend so much of the book in her head).
    • 3/5
      My least favorite Austen. The heroine simply has no spunk, no fire, no personality whatsoever except to simper quietly in the background.
    • 4/5
      I first read this book when I was 14 - it was the second Jane Austen book I read after Pride and Prejudice, which I loved. However, I found Mansfield Park dull and lacking the humour of Pride and Prejudice, and I didn't manage to finish it.I have read it again recently and this time I found that I enjoyed it. It's true that Fanny Price is not very interesting as a main character, but the book is still worth reading, particularly if you're a fan of Austen's other works.
    • 3/5
      This is a very unmemorable book. There are a few good lines, but I was actually quite bored while reading it. Not to say that I disliked it, but Fanny is fairly unremarkable as a heroine. You don’t get the sense of desperation of her situation or her relationships as you do with many of the other Austen novels. Also, a lot of the book, particularly the play scenes, come off as massive filler and don’t contribute much to the story
    • 5/5
      I've found that audio books are the best way for me to listen to and actually finish a Jane Austen novel. I chose Mansfield Park first on a bit of a whim. In Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford, Jane says her favorite heroine is Fanny Price. Curious to see why vampire Jane might feel that way, I decided to start there.Mansfield Park is Austen's third novel. It opens with Fanny Price, age ten, being sent to live with her wealthy cousins at Mansfield Park. Though she is the most quiet and best behaved, she is forever treated as an inferior and an outsider, especially by Mrs. Norris, the middle sister of the three adult sisters who make up Fanny's family (mother and two aunts).It was not through Fanny, that I found my connection with the novel. Instead, it was Mrs. Norris. She is the prototype for Hyacinth Bucket of Keeping Up Appearances. From there I couldn't help but continue to draw comparisons between the novel and the television comedy.If Mrs. Norris is Mrs. Bucket, then Fanny is from Daisy's side of the family. She is sent, then, to Violet, the wealthy and successful sister. Of course Hyacinth's family is far more dysfunctional than Fanny's but there's still some odd ball family dynamics.
    • 5/5
      After reading through some of the other reviews I have decided that you must either hate this book or love it. I LOVED it. It is by far my favorite of Austin's novels, although I still have yet to read persuasion. If you can understand the strength that Fanny has, even though her personality is polar opposite that of Austin's other heroines, you will enjoy the novel. Fanny is loved, not because of her bold ambitious nature, but because of her moral center and acceptance to be the person she was born as. She is content with her lot, never winy or selfish, and although everything around her seems to set a bad example, she never follows suit. I won't spoil the story for you, but I will say that if you get the chance please please please read this novel, and when you do read it, don't expect it to be a copy of Pride and Prejudice in a new cover, this is Mansfield park.
    • 5/5
      Mansfield Park in my favorite Jane Austen novel. Fanny Price is such a timid young lady, and I loved her character at once. As a child, she is sent to live with her aunt and uncle at Mansfield Park because her mother can hardly afford to care for all her children, She grows up with her cousins and gossipy Aunt Norris. When her uncle goes off on business, they decide to put on a play, which will include their new neighbors, the Crawfords, who are of questionable character. Sweet, shy Fanny always does what is right; but gets pulled into this crazy scheme against her better judgment. Add to that Mr. Crawford's proposal and she doesn't know what to think. In the end, she followed her heart and made the right choice. It ended happily ever after, like all good Austen novels.
    • 2/5
      Another Austen romance.Fanny Price, about age 9, is "invited" to live with her Bertram cousins--her parents have too many kids in too small a space in the city of Portsmouth. Her mother married down. Her oldest sister married up, to a Bertram, and lives at Mansfield Park. Her other sister, Mrs Norris, now widowed, married laterally to a minister, and now lives within walking distance of the Bertrams. It is Mrs Norris' idea that the Bertram's should offer to house one of the sister's daughters.Mrs Norris makes sure Fanny knows her place. She is expected to stay home and help Aunt Bertram, who is the most mild and boring woman ever. Mrs Norris is the cruel aunt, and constantly reminds Fanny of her position. She is more helper than cousin.And this goes on for years. As they age, their relationships shift, though Mrs Norris always blames Fanny and thinks she doesn't deserve anything. The Bertram family has a bit of an implosion, with illness, elopement, running off, and unrequited love. Because of course, this is a romance.And in the end, exactly what I expected to happen happened. Because it's a romance!
    • 4/5
      After reading all these reviews, I was surprised to like this book as much as I did. I think it is essential to understand the period in which Austen was writing and the morals of the time, because otherwise the book ends up looking silly and the characters completely boring. While Fanny is very timid and has little spark, making her a less interesting heroine, I find that the treatment of her by everyone who expects her to meekly be obedient is what has made her that way. Moreover, the fact that Edmund is her only true friend has also shaped her morals in a way that makes her less likely to be bold. Basically, in this novel I found the characters less engaging but the implications and the society very interesting. Austen clearly laments the lack of morals in her society and in the process provides much food for thought.
    • 2/5
      One of the few books I really, really hate.