Dear Miss Austen,
It is with regret I am putting your book, Mansfield Park, aside. I am 35% of the way done and I may come back to it. I intend to finish it some day. I want you to know how much I admire you as an author. Your wit and sense of humor, your social commentary, not to mention the pure pleasure of reading your prose, makes this difficult to say. Mansfield Park is lacking that fire and cleverness you have so powerfully displayed in Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and even Persuasion. I'm just not sure what you're trying to do with Fanny Price or Edmund or the Crawfords in this novel. This issue about the play... I can't get interested in the whole affair and it seems to be dragging on. Must Fanny be so sensitive and odd? She's not the type of heroine I can root for.
I do hope you'll forgive me but my leisure time is limitted and so I must turn my attention to a more amusing plot and dialog. Perhaps I am in the wrong mood and Mansfield Park will become more engaging a few weeks or months from now. Maybe I would benefit from a lively discussion with yourself and your admirers about the novel and what it is I'm missing?
Sincerely,
Chelle
You're not the only one that felt like this one was dull. I eventually made it all the way through, but I was pretty disappointed by it.
ReplyDeleteI think that both Emma and Mansfield Park operate heavily on whether or not you identify with the herione...I felt like I got Fanny, and it was still a long read for me.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I love this letter!! I can't imagine that I'd like this either.
ReplyDelete