Mansfield Park (Naxos Edition)

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson

Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

At the tender age of 10, Fanny Price is 'adopted' by her rich relations and is removed from the poverty of her home in Portsmouth to the opulence of Mansfield Park. The transplantation is not a happy one. Dependent, helpless, neglected and forgotten, Fanny struggles to come to terms with her new life until, tested almost to the limits of endurance, she assumes her rightful role....

Public Domain (P)1995 Naxos Audiobooks

People tend to come down hard on Fanny...

I actually really enjoyed this book. There are a number of reviews where people harp on the frailty of Fanny Price and her timid nature. While, she is no Elizabeth Bennett... I do think there is something to be said about the true soul of Miss Price. She lives in a world where she has been told again & again that her station was beneath those around her. Wouldn't being sent away from parents and siblings to a world of fashion and elegance where people make sure you know that you are inferior and should be grateful of EVERYTHING could make one want to blend into the background? I think that Henry Crawford starting his attentions just to relieve boredom by making her fall in love with him and then falling in love with her because of her nature and how different it is to those around her. I'm ashamed to say that I watched the 1999 movie before reading the book. I like the relationship with her brother; who is not in the movie at all. But, I prefer that Edmund seems to love Fanny all along in the movie rather then the original story of disappointment in Mary showing him the benefit of Fanny. Still, it's worth the credit.

Stevenson is an absolute genius as a reader

Where does Mansfield Park (Naxos Edition) rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is fast becoming my favorite audiobook of all time. I tend to pick books based as much on the narrator as the book, since I do enjoy reading quite a lot as well. Stevenson reads all the voices so wonderfully and distinctly. She is a joy. Her Mrs. Norris makes my blood run cold.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I am a huge Austen fan and have read the big six novels many, many times. I will defend Fanny Price to my last breath.

What does Juliet Stevenson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She has a wonderful sense of the characters and she understands English accents and class differences: Tom Bertram's Bertie Wooster-esque slang and bravado, Mr. Rushworth's slow, insipid manner, Mary Crawford's arch, seductive voice. It's all so well done. I've listened to it twice now and I am sure it will get dragged out again for long car trips, etc.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

One of my favorite moments in the book is the scene between Fanny Price and Sir Thomas in the East Room where he notices that she doesn't have a fire. It always gets me and Stevenson does such a marvelous job with it, using a light touch.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend the novel and this reading of it.

Another lovely read by Juliet Stevenson

Juliet Stevenson is the best narrator I think I’ve ever heard - she delightfully reads even the most lengthy of passages and adds all the feeling and intonation but also reads it just as the time dictates and it really feels like watching one of the films in that her voice provides the taste, manners, and atmosphere of the setting so very well.
Mansfield Park is my least favorite Jane Austen novel because of how irritatingly dense everyone except Fanny is for a large part of the novel. However I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Juliet Stevenson read it, and she made me like it better than I ever have before.
Lovely performance!💙

Not my fave Austen

Any additional comments?

Still my least favourite Austen. Of course, Austen at her worst is better than pretty much anyone at their best. Mansfield Park is a compelling and enjoyable story, but I just find Fanny and Edmund so frustrating. I actually liked the secondary characters so much more. They're not so perfect and prissy, and I found them much easier to sympathise with for most of the book. Plus what happens to them is so much more interesting - the scandal! The snark! It's so much fun. Fanny, meanwhile, is so weak and insipid, and Edmund is stern and completely clueless. Fanny spends the whole book mooning over him and it literally took til the last eight minutes of the audiobook before Edmund realised it or even thought about her as more than a friend (or, I should say, cousin). Definitely not my favourite romance.

Felt Like Austen forgot where she was going

Where does Mansfield Park rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Juliet Stevenson is amazing. She does a great job at giving the text the inflection it needs. She can portray happy, distraught, shallow, etc. All that is necessary for a true portrayal of Austen's characters. But I felt like, somewhere in part 2, Jane Austen forgot where she had meant for this book to go and it sort of dragged on with the details of everyday until she could finally work her way back around to the desired ending.

Excellent narrator and a great story

Any additional comments?

Juliet Stevenson is my favorite narrator for the Jane Austen books. The only one I don't have by Stevenson (can't find) is Pride and Prejudice, which is my favorite JA novel. Maybe she hasn't narrated it? Her voice is easy to listen to, and doesn't go to extreme high volumes, which can be annoying in an audio book.

The reason I love Mansfield Park is all summed up in the very last chapter. It does move a little slow, and it can be very trying to follow Fanny Price, but only because her personality is steady and quiet. In the end, she is rewarded for her upstanding character, and every other character in the book receives their just reward, as well. The summation of the entire story is so well done in that last chapter. I love listening to it just to get to that part.

I've listened to this one many times and am not tired of it yet!

excellent performance

This is not Austen's best book, but still well worrh listening to. And, as always, Juliet Stevenson reads beautifully.

Wonderful!

Overall production was good.....
Great story and Beautiful narration by Juliet Stevenson!

I love these audibles.

Deep

Mansfield Park is perhaps Austen’s least favorite novel among readers. It celebrates a heroine who is not witty or popular or rich; rather, she is insightful, reserved and virtuous. Furthermore, the most superficially attractive characters turn out to be the villains. If you must have an Elizabeth Bennet or a Mr. Darcy to love, this book may disappoint you.

But if you are willing to be patient, to steep yourself in this world which, more than that of other Austen novels, reveals the distance between then and now, you will find rewards. More than her other novels, this is a story of a whole family, whose members learn and grow, or fail to learn and suffer consequences. We see into the lives not just of the rich family at the eponymous estate, but also into the home of their relatively poor cousins. And in the heroine, Austen paints an acute and sympathetic picture of a shy and sensitive person who, despite being completely dependent on relatives who mostly see her as someone to exploit, remains true to her principles.

As in the other Austen titles in this series, Juliet Stevenson gives a beautiful, intelligent performance.

All good!

The only Jane Austen novel I hadn't read - enjoyed it thoroughly! But the narrator was the best part. Juliet Stevenson is so talented and reads so well. she brings each character to life and distinguishes each them at the same time. She really cracked me up as the lazy, good-for-nothing Lady Bertram. She's the best narrator I've listened to so far in any genre.