Jane Austen almost at her finest and definitely at her most hilarious. It was hard keeping track of who was who among the Miss Bertrams and the Crawfords and the brothers, but even the characters acknowledged the difficulty. Austen’s final novel is actually a little racy, as men and women in tight laces talk politely until they’re blue in the face about how indecorous behaviour is the last thing anyone wants, all while participating in a full theatre production about adultery and wife-swapping. They even get the priest to join in! Conjugal infidelity is actually mentioned. By name! This novel is downright salacious. And amongst the noisier than usual plot, there is a main character who is an introvert. As an introvert myself, Fanny is an island of calm in the storm of keeping track of who is canoodling who behind the ha-ha. Was Jane Austen an introvert too? She could hardly have done better. As usual for Austen the prose is exquisite, so light and perfect, the characters making love to each other with their polite conversation. Austen is a master of seduction with all your clothes on. Although also as usual, everything gets wrapped up really quickly at the end and there’s no strong finish to the delightful journey. Cousins getting married, ew.

I am mid read and am enjoying how the characters develop and the relationships change throughout the novel. It's a relaxing, well written and fun read.

It's a very, very tough call, but this is my favorite Jane Austen novel, and beating out Emma and Pride and Predjudice, and Northanger Abbey is no mean feat. I can not explain the fascination that I share with so many people with Austen's writing but share it we do, and next to Dickens she is my favorite novelist.

Fanny annoyed me at times just because she was so physically frail and doesn't always view herself highly, but she is otherwise sensible and does what's right.

I really don’t understand the hype about Miss Austen’s books... This is the third I tried and could not pass the first few pages. (And I read classic books all the time, from Rousseau to Henry James and Eça de Queirós.) The only book by her I liked was Emma. I enjoy the movies made of her books, but not the books. I much prefer Georgette Hayer and Juliette Benzoni’s books.

I found it a little slow, but very well written.

I normally love Jane Austen novels, but I didn't like this one. I thought it was really boring at times.

I've heard people call Fanny Price a cookie-cutter, undynamic, goody-two-shoes... and, in a sense, she is. I don't think she makes a single immoral or improper move throughout the entire novel. However, that's precisely what makes this book so interesting -- rather than resolving a situation by making a character undergo a personality change, Austen creates a character who refuses to budge for a millimetre from her moral values, and puts her in extremely difficult situations *without* changing her nature. It's an unconventional approach, and it kept me wondering how the plot would resolve. My favourite Austen.

The tone of Mansfield Park different from other Austen novels but I don't think that should be held against it.

Not one of Jane Austen's best. The book moves really slowly and is quite boring at times. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are much better.