Mansfield Park is a story of Fanny Price, who as a small girl, is transplanted from her mother’s house to a new home when her mother’s sister decides to do an act of charity by relieving her poor mother of the load of one more child.
After coming to Mansfield Park, Fanny has to adjust to a variety of characters. Her uncle Sir Thomas she finds too dignified and serious; her Aunt Bertram she likes better, though she rarely ever leaves the sofa and thinks very little of anything other than her own comfort. The other people in the house are her spiteful Aunt Norris with her miserly nature and blind partiality towards her cousins, her eldest cousin Tom who is an irresponsible elder son, her two female cousins, handsome and selfish and encouraged in their pride and superiority complex by their doting Aunt Norris, and her cousin Edmund.
Edmund is the only one person in the house who sincerely takes an interest in her and helps her in whatever ways he can. He has strong ideals and he guides her in most of her reading and other activities and plays a major role in the forming of her mind. She in turn grows respecting him and loving him, and as she grows, this love turns into something much more. But he thinks of her and loves her only as a beloved sister.
When a brother-sister pair from the city comes to live in the neighbourhood of Mansfield, affairs get more complicated. Fanny has to suffer seeing Edmund fall in love with a woman, who she knows is totally unworthy of him. Again when she is expected to bestow her hand upon a person she doesn’t love but in fact abhors, she is torn between feelings of propriety, gratitude, love and helplessness. Fanny’s turmoils are so beautifully described that we feel along with her, her every sorrow, every pang, every consoling joy...
If I elaborate further, I’ll end up giving you the whole story, so I’ll shorten it by saying that finally through a lot of unexpected happenings, where the guilty are all punished as they deserve, the deserving lovers are finally joined and live together happily ever after, with the blessings and good wishes of all their loved ones.
Mary Crawford and Henry Crawford are well sketched out characters, the sort of characters whom we meet in our day-to-day life. I don’t know if a Fanny Price really exists in this world, bur there are a lot of Henry’s and Mary’s around for sure! Even the negative characters (excepting perhaps Mrs. Norris) are not all that bad, they also have their own merits and weaknesses.
Okay, I’m no great reviewer, but I’ll say that I loved this book, and I read it at least five times and will read it again at the first chance available. Anyone romantic by nature is sure to love this book, and find something of himself or herself in its characters.