August 13, 2010

Book Beginnings on Friday : Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted at Page Turners.

Book Beginnings on Friday

Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.
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Mansfield Park (Penguin Classics)
From Amazon:
Mansfield Park encompasses not only Jane Austen’s great comedic gifts and her genius as a historian of the human animal, but her personal credo as well—her faith in a social order that combats chaos through civil grace, decency, and wit.

At the novel’s center is Fanny Price, the classic “poor cousin,” brought as a child to Mansfield Park by the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. Over time, Fanny comes to demonstrate forcibly those virtues Austen most admired: modesty, firm principles, and a loving heart. As Fanny watches her cousins Maria and Julia cast aside their scruples in dangerous flirtations (and worse), and as she herself resolutely resists the advantages of marriage to the fascinating but morally unsteady Henry Crawford, her seeming austerity grows in appeal and makes clear to us why she was Austen’s own favorite among her heroines.


About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

7 comments:

  1. These classic openings give you so much detail - enjoy!

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  2. I think Austen takes out the award for the best ever opening sentences. She seriously hits the nail on the head. The opener to Pride and Prejudice is my favourite. They just set the scene and tone of the book so well, and I love the way that her sentences seem to ramble along and give you so much information, but all of it really interesting stuff.

    I haven't read this one for a very long time, I might have to give it a re-read

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  3. That opener packs in a lot of information! Intriguing...

    Here's mine:

    http://laurelrainsnowswonderland.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/friday-memes-56-book-beginnings/

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  4. This is a classic! I hope you enjoy it! I love all Jane Austen books.

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  5. That's pratically a whole lifestory in just a few lines. Impressive! I'm almost ashamed to admit I've never read a complete Austen novel, not even P&P. Will have to rectify that soon...

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  6. Very nice beginning! I have never read anything by Austen. I tend to avoid Classics. My Friday Meme is from Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold. Happy reading!

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  7. I like the opening but I've yet to make it all the way through an Austen novel.

    My beginning is from Northward to the Moon by Polly Horvath.

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