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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jane Austen was an English novelist. She was born in 1775 and died in 1817. She came from an upper-class family so she spent most of her life going on balls, dancing, visiting friends... She never got married and refused one marriage proposal.

She wrote only six novels, all of them are about love and romance of the upper class in 18th century in England. She criticizes society of that time, but her works usually have a happy ending. Most of her books were published after her death.

CONTENT:

The story begins when Fanny Price, at the age of 10, moves to her aunt and uncle's house, Mansfield Park. It was offered to her, because her own family is quite poor, since she has got about ten other siblings. Fanny is a shy, modest girl and at first is scared by the big house, everybody new and strange. However, she makes friends with her older cousin Edmund and eventually gets used to life on the Mansfield Park. Despite that, she is never invited to a ball and mostly overlooked by everybody. Her other aunt, who lives at her sisters', is very strict to her, so she is very unconfident.

One day, her aunt's friends, Miss and Mr. Crawford (sister and brother), arrive at Mansfield and settle in for some time. They dazzle everyone; even Fanny likes Miss Crawford for some time.

By the time, Fanny is already nineteen and people finally start noticing her. They see that she has grown beautiful and Mr. Crawford even falls in love with her. However, she refuses his marriage proposal because she doesn't love him. She has seen him being rude to her cousins and thinks him mean and wicked. Also, she loves Edmund, who is in love with Miss Crawford.

The refusal is a scandal for the whole family - why shouldn't she marry someone so rich, with such a good relations? The atmosphere is going tense, so Fanny takes an opportunity to leave Mansfield for some time and return to her parents'. She gets quite disappointed by her family, her cursing dad and her dull mother. She spends here a few months, but eventually is moved back to Mansfield, in a state of emergency. It goes out that her married cousin, Maria, ran away with Mr. Crawford and everybody is deeply struck by that. Miss Crawford is on her brother's side, so Edmund finally sees her in the true lights and stops loving her. Instead of that, he falls in love with Fanny and they get married.

MY OPINION:

I didn't like the book at first very much, because it was quite difficult to read. It became much easier after some time. I liked the story, I like Jane Austen's novels, but it is more a fairytale than a real story. It could hardly happen in the real life. But still, I am glad for the happy ending, I think Fanny really deserved it.