Mansfield Park

I have always been a very great fan of Jane Austen's work. However, I have never made my way through the entire collection of her works. BUT thanks to my two great friends, who gave me a giant Austen Collection book for Christmas, I have decided to reform my ways and to read the three novels which I have never completed. They are: Mansfield Park, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. I chose to start with Mansfield Park, mostly because I have never even attempted to read it, and knew the least about it's story.

So, I am now fully captivated by it's story and am about one-fourth the way through. Here are my thoughts so far:

1 - Mrs. Norris is the devil. I cannot stand her! Every time she begins another of her awful speeches, I catch my breath and try not to yell at her through the pages of the book.

2 - Edmund. He is definitely not my favorite heroes yet. Although I am sure he will grow on me as the book progresses (since he DOES end up with Fanny, I know) but right now I think he is almost as bad as all the other thoughtless characters. He is kind and generous to Fanny, but then Miss Crawford looks prettily at him and he lost and Fanny disappears. And he chews everyone else out for neglecting Fanny! Ugh. I think I may have judged him too harshly... I hope so, because I want to be happy about him getting with Fanny by the end of the story.

3 - Fanny Price. What to say? She is so different from any other Austen heroine, I think. I was not expecting her to be "delicate"... tiring so easily from exercise. Am I just enterpreting her character wrong? Maybe. But I do like Fanny a lot. She is a character that you empathize with and can relate to, the feeling of being ignored and overlooked at times, except for, with Fanny, it is almost all the time.

Ok, I am sure I have droned on long enough. I will probably post something else about how I like it when I am all finished with it. We'll see...