I only started to take an interest in Jane Austen about four years ago and I have loved her ever since. Northanger Abbey, Emma and Pride and Prejudice are my favourites of her works and whichever one I pick up first is invariably too short and leaves me wanting more goddamnit which leads me to one of the other two, because there isn’t really anyone else who writes like Jane Austen. Usually, once I’ve read all three I’ll have had enough and won’t think of them again for a few months.

This time though, having now completely finished the entire Sherlock Holmes collection (sob) and craving some more 19th century fiction I was forced (yes that’s right, FORCED) to pick up Mansfield Park. I’m about two-thirds of the way through and painfully reminded of why I despised it so much the first time round. Is Fanny Price the most boring, frigid, judgmental, melancholy, insipid and downright bitchy heroine ever written? When I first read it, I thought she was just dull. Now I see that she’s actually a complete cow. Henry and Mary Crawford are the only likable characters in the book – they, along with Mrs Norris (probably one of Austen’s most ridiculously hilarious characters, second only to Miss Bates) are the only things that save the story.

Anyway, so tiring of the little noises of disgust and irritation coming out of my face while reading it, I thought I’d see how far the Fanny-hatred is spread amongst the Janeites, and I wasn’t disappointed when I found a blog post comparing her to a quivering blancmange, written by the author of Bitch in A Bonnet.

Continue reading →