Mansfield Park (Classic Fiction)

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.

Rating:
Summary: Jane Austen's visit to Palo Alto.
Review: How wonderful to live in a small town in Asia! And how wonderful to belong to a small sect, and to spend much of my life performing two-thousand-year-old rituals!

What has all of this to do with Mansfield Park? Very little. But it has a lot to do with the modern criticisms of Mansfield Park.

People living in the First World, especially in the United States, often forget that there are societies and ways of thinking different from their own. They forget to the extent that they can no longer even imagine such a possibility.

In the Western world today, moral absolutism is treated with suspicion, and as something dirty. Maybe rightly, maybe not. But there's no point in reading every novel as if the author shared your point of view, and then staring in bewilderment when you thus find contradictions in it.

Fanny Price is morally perfect. She is modest, truthful, and certain of nothing but the difference between right and wrong. She is "a loathsome little priss". So how could Jane Austen have made her her heroine? And if she decided to create a revolting heroine, why didn't she express her opinion of her, as she frequently does in her novels? Did Jane Austen like prissy little Fanny? This is the question which is really bothering the critics. Well, maybe she did.

Maybe Jane Austen herself believed in moral absolutes. There's nothing in her letters or novels to make me think that this is impossible. 'But how could an intelligent, sensitive woman think like that?' Why not? I've spent my life studying moral philosophy, and have not yet seen a logical proof for the impossibility of moral absolutes.

It would be unusual for an intelligent, sensitive woman who grew up in Twentieth-Century America to believe in such things. Intelligent people in the United States today are taught to look at many sides of moral issues. But Jane Austen didn't grow up in the United States today. She grew up in a family outwardly very similar to the Bertrams, in a town much like theirs. It is not even clear that Jane Austen herself placed a high value on deep thought and fine moral distinctions. The fact that she enjoyed using them herself is neither here nor there. She may have liked and admired Fanny Price.

I like and admire Fanny Price, too. (According to hearsay adduced by Claire Tomalin, so did Cassandra Austen. Tomalin also quotes some words of Jane Austen which point in the same direction, but I don't know the source.) I wouldn't like to have Fanny Price around, because I wouldn't want my every move supervised by the morals-police. But at a great distance, as a character in a novel, I like her. Because I can imagine a different world, where absolute goodness is absolutely good.

I have no problem with Jane Austen's attitude toward Fanny Price. It's quite possible that Jane Austen could also imagine absolute good. It would be strange if an associate professor from Palo Alto thought in such terms. But Miss Austen wasn't an associate professor from Palo Alto. She was a clergyman's daughter from Hampshire. And she is allowed to think differently from the associate professor. Or from me.

Like many of the critics, I'm not too fond of Mansfield Park. Without Miss Austen's habitual biting wit, her view of society is oppressive. And I can't make any sense of the business with the theatricals. Which annoys me.

But I have no complaints against Fanny Price.

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?

Rating:
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: Great...but uneven.
Review: Jane Austen is one of the best storytellers I have had the pleasure of reading. My favorite aspect of Austen's writing is her characterization; She acquaints the reader with her characters through the most ingenious and subtle techniques. My favorite denizen of Mansfield Park is the irritating and repulsive Mrs. Norris, who is a preeminent example of masterful characterization. For an illuminating artistic look at this novel read Vladimir Nabokov's wonderful and incomparable "Lectures on Literature", which includes a detailed study of "Mansfield Park"---don't miss it, it's a real treat.

While I have enjoyed other books by Austen, this one is unique among them in that the plot structure is, for the most part, quite complicated; and, what singles "Mansfield Park" out artistically is its style, as opposed to its story. Some passages are exceptional; for example, the scene where the main characters stroll about Sotherton Court approximates the scene at the county fair in Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" in its complexity, orchestration, and execution. Parts of "Mansfield Park" are simply exquisite.

Unfortunately, the denouement is something like a train wreck. The last 1/3-1/4 of the book is stylistically dull, though structurally sound, and the last twenty or so pages read like Cliff Notes. The ending should have been much longer in order to resolve the various, complicated elements of the plot with the stylistic grace of the first 2/3s of the novel. The uneven execution sets "Mansfield Park" a step below the best of Austen's (approximate) contemporaries (Flaubert and Dickens, for example), but "Mansfield Park" still makes the short list of my favorite novels.

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps Jane Austen's Masterpiece
Review: Mansfield Park might indeed be the crowning novel of Jane Austen's cannon; in which all of her authorial merits are present and paramount. Where Pride and Prejudice sparkles, Mansfield Park is solid gold. Pride and Prejudice can pass as a whimsy, an entertaining story, but Mansfield Park has pure heart. It ventures slightly deeper into the human condition and emerges slightly higher, ringing slightly truer than what is often considered to be Austen's most popular novel.

For reasons already mentioned, Pride and Prejudice is still my favorite of Austen's books, though Mansfield Park is right up there with it. It would be like comparing the two heroines of each novel; Elizabeth Bennet and Fanny Price. Elizabeth is witty and beautiful and idependent; Fanny is good and wholesome and always considerable of what is right. We, the readers, have more fun tailing after the sparkling Elizabeth, but we admire and advocate Fanny.

In short, Mansfield Park is arguably Jane Austen's best and definitely a must-read for Austen and Victorian fans. And although the cousin-love thing is slightly unnerving to our modern sensibilities, Edmund's final confession can't be rivaled by either Darcy's or Knightly's at all.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: Wow. That was the one word that popped into my mind when I put this novel down at its close. There is nothing else to describe it so perfectly. This, after Pride and Prejudice, is my favorite Jane Austen novel. It has a faster pace than her other books and is easier to read without tiring. This book is about a young girl, Fanny Price, who is a poor relation, sent off to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle. Once there, she is befriended by her cousin, Edmund, and falls in love with him. He is her greatest friend and the only one who truely appreciates her. All around her is high society, courtships, heartbreaks, and scandals. Fanny thinks all is lost until the final scandal and the realization by her cousin of what is truelly important to him, and to all. This is a very, very, very enjoyable book, and one of the best ever written.