If not for the wonderful invention that is the iPhone, the great app that is Stanza and the great idea that is Project Gutenberg and of course some idle time spent on trains in many a country, I would probably never have ever picked this book off any bookshelf to read. Ever since I found Emma too bold a volume to complete I have been a little wary of anything thicker than Northanger Abbey, but an electronic volume belies no clue as to a book’s thickness and thus I commenced my reading.

Mansfield Park, published in 1814 is considered Austen’s most ambitious work, a work that shows her maturity in place of the gayness of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. For this, the heroine is now the quiet member of the set instead of the most vivacious and outgoing. I found that Fanny Price needs some time for the reader to warm up to due to the nature of her person as described in the story, after all the quiet and timid of a group is seldom the first to gain the notice and friendship of others no matter how well their uprightness and goodness.

Edmund, on the other hand is a well liked character from the beginning of his kindness to Fanny even though he does not reciprocate her love till the end. His good character and strong sense of responsibility stood him in good stead throughout the book even when he was at his most silly and being in love with Mary, deluding himself as to what she really is like.

This story is wonderfully told and I really enjoyed reading it from beginning to end, even staying up late to devour it for two nights in a row. I confess I rather thought the ending might be different until the sudden development as the story took quick turns and twists right at the very end and ended up very differently from what I thought it would be just a few chapters before. The changes are pleasant of course and I do not complain although I rather hoped it could have been developed slower and gave me some time to enjoy the pleasant turn in events.

A recommended read for anyone who liked her other movies or books and do not find the language too tough to understand and the social bits of it too puzzling to grasp.