Mansfield Park

I have read four other Jane Austen books and I was looking forward to this one. 

I mean, I'm a typical girl that has watched a ton of period movies. Mainly from the 1800's.

One thing that has always attracted me to Mansfield Park is that it was about a girl not born in good society. She had family connections, but no honor from her own name.

Steadiness of character is the attribute of Fanny that creates the novel. Jane Austen set up her novel around one stationary girl that has family heartbreak happen around her, but her never altering opinion and morals bring her happiness. 

I believe there are still people like Austen's characters which is why they are so timeless. There will always be people who do what they feel is right and never give in to what others say like Fanny Price. Or people who will let vanity and conceit dictate they're choices like Henry Crawford. Or even some who will let money, vanity and connections cloud their judgement when they should marry for love, like Mary Crawford (my least favorite character.)

There were other surprises in the story compared to my predictions and the movie's I've seen. Thankfully, because books are always better. 

This is my favorite Austen novel. I recommend reading this one, of course Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma are wonderful as well. 

I'm not really sure how to rate books but here's what I think:

1 wasted my time

2 don't make me read it again

3 barely finished

4 wouldn't recommend it 

5 an ok read

6 will maybe mention it 

7 will talk about it

8 will recommend it

9 talk, text, tweet,

10 reread 

I give Mansfield Park a 10! 

Get out there and read. 

Onto book 4.

Books are better

I am sure I have mentioned how I feel about books coming first to any thing really. A movie is a story too, but a book can capture every reader differently and impact their lives, I believe, on a deeper level than a movie. Although a movie can impact and move us, a book is the structure of society. They have been around for thousands of years. People have tried to censor books for hundreds of years, without succeeding. I have seen what a book can do for someone. Personal histories alone could make me boast about why books should be read. Then you have the battle like today where movies are inspired by books. So what came first the book or the movie? The BOOK! Pick up a movie and most likely it has a book linked to it. You pick up a book and you may see the influence of something before the book was written. Another book probably.

Read a book and you can connect to the author's life in such a way that it stays with you for years. Movies can stay with you, but another remake or new release can cloud your vision. A book however, you go back to the book that touched you. You open it up and the smell makes you remember why you picked it up in the first place. You remember where you were when you finished it for the first time. You read it again and again over the years. It helps you through the hardest times in your life. A single book can shape your thoughts and ideals. Can mold you into a better person, or at least on a different path. Movies sell things. They can bring books to life, but it will never be the same. A book can conjure up different imagines to the different readers, and therefore cause a different change. We can all read the same book and have millions of separate thoughts. Movies show you one way of seeing something. And if you're lucky enough to read into the story it will not have as great as an impact as a book.

Flipping pages, on a touch screen or physically, is a more powerful motion than pressing play.