It's always a pleasure to read Austen, and this constitutes only my third, after Pride and Prejudice and Emma. While her works provide a wonderful snapshot of Georgian manners, the timelessness lies more in her astuteness of observation, the follies and foibles of human nature. Many critics have struggled with Mansfield Park, its ambiguities, moral judgments, and the role of the heroine, Fanny Price. To my mind, Austen's critique of the rich and privileged, the belief in their superior country way of life, is self-evident. That Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny's uncle and de facto sponsor, made his fortune from slavery in the West Indies, is as much a product of its time as it is unsurprising. Slavery is arguably just one of Austen's targets in this novel. The church also comes in for its fair share of criticism, and there is a broader debate current across the whole work: a tension between tradition and modernity. Fanny is fairly unique among Austen heroines in being young, age ten at the start of the novel. There is the trauma of youth and rejection, but it strikes me as a 21st-century reader that she has quite remarkable moral fortitude. The outside perspective she offers has the most worth. Enjoyed this throughout, and the action of the final 50 pages caught me somewhat by surprise. Austen's final chapter suggests just resolution.
By Jane Austen