Austen 250 Reader Series: Mansfield Park (Intro)

Hello dearest readers.

Thank you for joining for the newest installment of the Jane Austen Summer Program’s 250 Reader Series! I’m Na’dayah, and you lucky readers get to read Mansfield Park with me for the next several weeks.

A bit about me:

You probably know me best as a vlogger/sometimes-blogger for Jane Austen Summer Program and as a tech director for Jane Austen & Co. If you’ve attended any of the Jane Austen & Co. events in the past year and a half or watched the Sense & Sensibility vlog series, then you’ve definitely seen my face.

While I’m definitely not qualified to call myself a scholar, I’ve been a fan of Austen—albeit unknowingly—since watching the 1995 film Clueless (a film adaptation of what would come to be my favorite of Austen’s novels, Emma) with my mother as a child. I’m still a rather newly indoctrinated Austen fan, but as of now I’ve read all of her published novels at least once!

This is going to be my second time reading Austen’s third novel. And before we jump into things, I want to get the hard stuff out of the way.

I’m going to say something that might be deemed controversial. . . .

I. HATE. Mansfield Park.

Some of you might be nodding your heads in agreement with me, and others might be crossing yourselves at my blasphemy.

I have my reasons for passionately disliking this novel. For starters, I read it right on the heels of my first read of Pride & Prejudice, AKA Austen’s most coveted novel. Reading P&P was an absolutely thrilling experience—it was my first exposure to the novel. I hadn’t even seen the film at that point. It was an eye-opening, enlightening experience.

After that, to me, Mansfield Park was just . . . boring. I blamed it on the protagonist. Whereas Elizabeth Bennet was flawed—overflowing with the titular faults—Fanny Price felt overwhelmingly good. Even in the face of all her maltreatment, she stayed true to her morals and values.

BOOOOOOORING!

I thought then, at least.

I wanted the drama! The chaos! And I wanted the main character to be central to it! Not just a passive observer!

I was disappointed by Mansfield Park compared to Pride & Prejudice. It didn’t help that afterward, I immediately read Emma—which, to this day, is my favorite of all of Austen’s novels. Emma had everything that Mansfield Park had been lacking, so I instantly forgot about what I deemed the most boring of Austen’s novels.

You’re probably wondering. If you hate Mansfield Park so much then why the heck are you about to read it for this blog series? I know—it seems counterintuitive.

My goal, with this second read of Mansfield Park, is to give the novel a second chance.

I admit, I felt a bit ashamed about disliking Fanny Price. “Because she’s too good” sounds like such a callous reason! I wondered if maybe I wasn’t more like the Bertrams, and if that wasn’t the reason I disliked Fanny and her goodness so much.

So, I’m here to redeem myself, and to give Miss Price a second chance. It’s been about two years since I read the novel for the first time, so I get a bit of a fresher start. I’m going into this with an open mind, an open heart, and my trusty Pilot G-2 0.7 pen.

Whether you’re a longtime Mansfield Park lover or a fellow Mansfield Park naysayer, you might be interested in following along with me as I read the book. I’ll be reading chapters with the schedule below—if you’re interested, feel free to follow along each week!

• 7/16 — Chapters 1-10

• 7/23 — Chapters 11-18

• 7/30 — Chapters 19-25

• 8/6 — Chapters 26-31

• 8/13 — Chapters 32-40

• 8/20 — Chapters 41-48 and final thoughts

Whether you love it, hate it, haven’t yet read it—I want to know. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts on Mansfield Park are! I enjoy the comments, especially when they’re kind.

You’ll hear from me next week about chapters 1-10. In the meantime, happy reading!

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