[tps_title] 6. Mansfield Park [/tps_title]
Taking our last spot is Mansfield Park – let’s face it Fanny Price is as unlikeable a Jane Austen heroine as you’re going to get. Although we first meet Fanny at 10 and follow her up to the ripe old age of 18, still on that trajectory she does not become more likeable over time – instead she manages to remain obstinately pious and virtuous, a ‘fun sponge’ of the Austen era and her attitude to her parents feels uncomfortably snobby, making her an overall unlikeable heroine.
Mansfield Park begins when Price’s family send her to live at the household of her wealthy aunt and uncle. At Mansfield Park, Fanny grows up with her cousins – Tom, Maria, Julia and Edmund. Fanny falls for Edmund over the course of her teenage years, but when the Crawfords come to stay, Mary Crawford and Edmund fall for each other – though she wants him to become rich. Henry Crawford meanwhile falls in love with Fanny and proposes to her, only to be turned down and consequently forced to return to her parents house. Ultimately after various turns of events, Edmund comes to ask Fanny to return to Mansfield and marry him.
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