Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
I finished reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen last night. It’s the first Jane Austen novel I’ve ever read. It was difficult to get into at first, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.
Erin, Becky, and I were going to read Mansfield Park as our March book for our book club. But, everything got really crazy with work, so we abandoned it. By the time we decided to abandon it, Becky had read the first chapter, Erin had read 11 chapters, and I had read part of the first paragraph. 
Once work slowed down a bit, Becky and Erin decided they didn’t want to finish reading Mansfield Park. (Becky was too interested in other books and Erin despised Fanny, the main character, so she didn’t want to continue to read it. 
)
I started to read Mansfield Park in mid-April. Even though I didn’t quite get into it at first, I forced myself to read until I did. I wanted to read a classic since I’ve only read one–The Scarlet Letter. I don’t think I would’ve been able to get through the first few chapters without the help of Spark Notes, not because I didn’t understand what was going on (except for the first chapter), but because it helped me see the end goal of the book.
I’m very glad I did force myself to read until I got into the book because I ended up enjoying the story quite a bit. It was very interesting to read about the focus placed on one’s “place” in society, the importance of marrying well, and the social implications that occurred during the 1800s.
The story’s about a girl, Fanny, sent to live with her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas Bertram and Lady Bertram, in Mansfield Park. She grows up with Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram’s four children, Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia. Almost everyone in the household, including another aunt, Mrs. Norris, treats her as an inferior. The only reprieve she gets is from Edmund, who becomes her only friend. (As a little tidbit of trivia, the cat Mrs. Norris from Harry Potter was named after Fanny’s aunt Mrs. Norris.)
My rating:
As I stated in a previous post, I learned quite a few words while reading Mansfield Park. Here are the rest of the words I learned:
- À la mortal: Of great intensity or severity.
- Accede: to give consent, approval, or adherence; agree; assent; to accede to a request; to accede to the terms of a contract.
- Affable: pleasantly easy to approach and to talk to; friendly; cordial; warmly polite.
- Ardour: (British form of ardor) great warmth of feeling; fervor; passion.
- Assiduous: constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive.
- Augur: soothsayer; prophet.
- Austerity: austere quality; severity of manner, life, etc.
- Avarice: insatiable greed for riches; inordinate, miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth.
- Belie: to act unworthily according to the standards of (a tradition, one’s ancestry, one’s faith, etc.).
- Boatswain: a warrant officer on a warship, or a petty officer on a merchant vessel, in charge of rigging, anchors, cables, etc.
- Canopus: a first-magnitude star in the constellation Carina; the second brightest star in the heavens.
- Cant: insincere, esp. conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.
- Capricious: fanciful or witty.
- Constitution: the physical character of the body as to strength, health, etc.
- Coze: a friendly talk; a chat.
- Deprecate: to urge reasons against; protest against (a scheme, purpose, etc.).
- Dint: force; power.
- Elucidation: to make lucid or clear; throw light upon; explain.
- Encumber: to impede or hinder; hamper; retard.
- Epicurism: The beliefs, tastes, or lifestyle of an connoisseur.
- Étourderie: thoughtlessness; blunder; careless mistake.
- Eulogium: a eulogy.
- Exigeant: (British form of exigent) requiring immediate action or aid; urgent; pressing.
- Fag: to tire or weary by labor; exhaust (often fol. by out).
- Fracas: a noisy, disorderly disturbance or fight; riotous brawl; uproar.
- Grog: a mixture of rum and water, often flavored with lemon, sugar, and spices and sometimes served hot.
- Halloo: used to catch someone’s attention.
- Holla: a very loud utterance (like the sound of an animal).
- Imbibe: to consume (liquids) by drinking; drink.
- Insidious: intended to entrap or beguile.
- Insuperable: incapable of being passed over, overcome, or surmounted.
- Inure: to accustom to hardship, difficulty, pain, etc.; toughen or harden; habituate.
- Knave: In cards, a Jack.
- Liturgy: a form of public worship; ritual.
- Minutiæ: precise details; small or trifling matters.
- Palpably: readily or plainly seen, heard, perceived, etc.; obvious; evident.
- Pelisses: a long cloak or outer robe, usually of fur or with a fur lining.
- Portmanteau: a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, esp. a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
- Propitious: presenting favorable conditions; favorable.
- Purport: the meaning, import, or sense.
- Quiescent: being at rest; quiet; still; inactive or motionless.
- Riband: a decorative ribbon.
- Sagacity: acuteness of mental discernment and soundness of judgment.
- Sallyport: a small, easily secured door in a castle wall or other fortification.
- Scruple: a moral or ethical consideration or standard that acts as a restraining force or inhibits certain actions.
- Slatternly: slovenly and untidy.
- Sloop: a single-masted, fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessel, with or without a bowsprit, having a jib-headed or gaff mainsail, the latter sometimes with a gaff topsail, and one or more headsails.
- Spurn: to reject disdainfully or contemptuously; scorn.
- Tout ensemble: the assemblage of parts or details, as in a work of art, considered as forming a whole; the ensemble.
- Vicissitude: a change or variation occurring in the course of something.
- Wont: custom; habit; practice.
Hi! Welcome to my blog. I'm Jenni Elyse. This is a blog about my life--the books I read, the parties I go to, the hobbies I enjoy, etc. I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them! If you want to get to know me better, check out the 
Congratulations on finishing the book! You’re a trooper for reading about that doofus Fanny for an entire book.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Jane Austen! Honestly Mansfield Park is not my favorite… you should try Pride and Prejudice next time you’re feeling like getting an arcane vocabulary lesson!