Mansfield Park: Here's a snappy title

Not a lot of people get Mansfield Park. Unlike Northanger Abbey, which is a joy to read but slight compared to Jane Austen's other works. All my fellow Austenites out there know how this goes: Sense & Sensibility is about the yin and yang of sisterhood, Emma is about escaping the trappings of snobbery, Pride & Prejudice is about the most perfect couple in British literature, and Persuasion is about getting a second chance and a good-weather-induced makeover.

In Mansfield Park, the wealthy and fashionable Bertram family takes in a young cousin, Fanny Price, from a poor family in the name of charity. As Fanny grows up, she falls for her caring, do-gooder cousin Edmund, while the rest of her extended family party, spend their inheritance, and take every opportunity to remind her that she is unworthy. A pair of siblings from London, Henry and Mary Crawford, beguile the Bertrams with their sophisticated charms. Fanny's self-preservation instincts are put to the test when smooth-talking Henry turns his attentions toward her, as his caustic sister toys with Edmund's heart. Corrupted with bad instincts and carelessness, all hell breaks loose among the two families - and Fanny is caught in the middle. Mansfield Park is a Cinderella story where the Cinderella in question barely gets a word in edgewise in her own story. Or at least, that's the reputation it has among a lot of readers.

But that's not the way to read the novel. Look at the title. Mansfield Park isn't Fanny Price's story: it's about the evolution of an entire household of snobs. It's Emma with baggage; it's Pride & Prejudice without the "opposites attract" message. MP is unromantic, somber, moralistic, and uncool. Like, so uncool, you guys. Lizzie Bennett wouldn't be caught dead hanging out with Fanny or Edmund, would she? No, she'd make a beeline for the charismatic Henry and Mary, who lets the anal jokes fly no matter whose company she's in.*

That's how the thinking tends to go. But trust me: MP's uncoolness is exactly what makes it so deliciously awesome. Austen had an agenda when she wrote this thing, and I eat it up every time I read this novel. There are times when I think I like MP better than P&P. It is the codex of all things Austen and a frustrating but rewarding lens through which readers can read her entire work - not to mention a surprisingly timely story of survival and hope. MP is about Fanny Price's upbringing, true - though she's more often than not her own best parent and confidant - but it's also about Sir Thomas learning that there's more to people than rank and stature. It's about Edmund learning how to see through deception and how anyone, whether upright or corrupted, can deceive themselves. It's about how we overlook the small, good things in life because we tend to judge by size and not depth.

I love this book so much.

So I'm doing a read-along. This is for my own pleasure, so it's not going to be a great academic work. I'll see how long I can stick with this. I'll try not to spoil stuff, but who knows. I'm just another Austen fan with an English major and a blog. But if I can impart anything meaningful, it's that Mansfield Park rules. (And the 1998 film version is, like, 65% crap.)

To read Chapter 1, click here.

*Academics seem to want to dispute this. After all, Austen was an unmarried genteel woman born to a country rector. I argue that she was also a sharp observer with two naval officer brothers, keen hearing, and a Hobbesian view of humanity. Ultimately, the reader gets to decide.