2.5/5 -- Comedy Central Presents: The Roast of Fanny Price

I am a firm believer that just because a book is a classic does not mean that it is truly a good book, and most unfortunately Mansfield Park is a testament to that belief. Lady J, what happened?

I am a big Jane Austen fan and am currently working my way through her collective works, but I have to say this book fell short for me in many ways. I've done some research and yes yes I understand that Mansfield Park is argued to be a societal commentary in contrast to her typical clever romances, but unfortunately that knowledge was not enough to save the book for me. Fanny, while moral and upstanding and the center of everyone's mind by the end of the novel, was simply boring. The plot was completely lackluster and dragged on and on in many places (the play, her time in Portsmouth, etc) and I feel Austen certainly had the skill set to portray this social and moral commentary while maintaining a level of intrigue that accompanies her other novels. The ending felt similar to an episode of Scooby-Doo where the villain is caught and they divulge the entire plot/ending in the last two minutes of the show. Why she decided to roll credits the way she did confounds me.

Lastly, I know that this was a different time period, but I simply could not get behind the whole marrying-your-first-cousin-that-you-were-basically-raised-with-as-a-sibling thing. I could have looked past it had Edmund not so frequently described his love for Fanny as being the same as that of a sister.