Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

I had gotten a bad review from a friend of this book before I started it, calling it the most boring book from the Jane Austen repertoire, or maybe in history, but I found that I liked it as much or more than the more famous Austen novels.

I can imagine that there would be resistance from other people to the character of Fanny Price, as far as general likability goes. She's much less easy to like than an Elizabeth Bennett or one of the Dashwood sisters. But there was an honesty to her character that I thoroughly appreciated. Fanny had much more realistic flaws to me and I certainly saw more of myself in her than in the other heroines. To me Elizabeth Bennett has always been a little too much of a superwoman, a little too perfect to be realistic. Elizabeth Bennett seems confident in every situation she is put into. She rarely stumbles. Discomfort, shyness, physical weakness--these are strongly characteristic of Fanny Price.