Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price, a principled heroine caught between two worlds: one 'mercenary and ambitious' the other' entirely deficient in self knowledge, generosity and humility.'
Raised since the age of nine at Mansfield Park, the grand home of her uncle Sit Thomas Bertram and his family, Fanny quickly become vital to the happiness of the house-hold. But when she and her four cousins- Ton, maria, Julia and Edmund- reach the age of marriage, Fanny is forced to confront the artifice and insincerity of her upbringing as she wards off a serious rival.
I don't know whether I enjoyed this or not, there is amazing detail of family life as there has to be as the book is almost a one scene setting. I suppose life was like this at the time . There were very few entertainment options, only the wealthy could travel even the shortest distance's, so the smallest things took on importance that would not even be noticed in our enlightened times.
There is humour throughout this book, little asides by Austen that are clearly digs at attitudes of the times.
Our hero Fanny Price has nasty things happen to her, but Austen never goes full Dickensian and has her sent off to a gulag in Siberia by her nasty aunt Mrs Norris. Its more Mrs Norris is an old bitch and life moves around her.
So, the story is a bit too static for me and it is a formula tale, so the outcome is fairly obvious but I can see why Austen has survived, reading the book time slips away which for me is the sign of quality.
The thing that really disturbs me is this cousins marrying. This practice may explain a lot of the undershot jaws you see these days.
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