Mansfield Park...book review for February

Mansfield Park  by Jane Austen

Published in 1814, this is the third of her books after 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility'.

All about  Fanny Price who is given away at 10 years old by her mother to be brought up by a rich aunt and uncle with her two female cousins and their two older brothers.  Fanny is meek and willing and 'knows her place'  as was the way for young women without means in those good old days.  

As a young woman she is wooed by a friend of the grand family but refuses his offer of marriage.  Henry Crawford is charming but without morals and Fanny has watched from the sidelines and seen through him long ago.  Anyway, Fanny is secretly in love with Edmund,  the younger son of the big house.

After misfortune and several scandals strike the family Edmund realises he is in love with Fanny . They marry (being first cousins doesn't seem to matter) and live happily ever after.

 That's the basic scenario with many twists and turns,  flirtation, duplicity and drama. 

Fanny is rather frail and so shy as to be thoroughly annoying.  By the end of the book though she had become quite likeable I found and a heroine. 

I downloaded this book very cheaply from Amazon but then discovered it was also in audio form.  

Youtube has the full, unabridged book (in two parts) on audio, read by Karen Savage.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her voice reading the book.  She has a clear speaking voice, deepens it a little when she is reading the male lines, makes slight changes for each character and flows along smoothly.

The antiquated language once again made it slow reading but I found listening to it made it easier to follow. 

I was actually looking forward to putting on the headphones and continuing the tale.

Not the sort of book I'd usually read but finding the audio version was a happy surprise and shall look for more books on YouTube.

This was made into a film, like a lot of classics.  It is described as a romantic comedy-drama.  I haven't seen the film and probably won't unless it turns up on greek tv one long winter night.