Oh, Fanny.

After finishing this book, Mansfield Park, I felt a little bit let down. Not because it wasn't a good story, or well written, or engaging but because I was rooting for Henry. Yes, I know a few of you might be gasping (or wondering, how I could root for him already knowing the outcome of the story from the movies), but I have reasons. I want to believe in the changing power of love. Henry's heart was good and generous, though his fault of vanity and poor upbringing brought him down, he truly loved Fanny. He loved her for her goodness and knew that if he could secure her affections he would be tamed and influenced for good by her. Also, even though I know it was not uncommon for cousins to marry in those times I was still a little bothered by it, I mean come on, FIRST cousins? A little too near incest for my taste. I knew it was hopeless but reading about the change in Henry's affections and actions made me hope for the impossible. 
I disliked Fanny at times for her unbending nature. It is supposed to be her greatest virtue but being stalwart and true to her own affections kept her from saving a man from himself, a man who I believe she would have grown to love if she'd been able to let go of her feelings for Edmund. I was reading an afterward in the copy I had borrowed from the library and in it the author points out that Fanny is probably Austen's only character that doesn't undergo a change of heart. To which opinion I agree. I will give her some credit for being so unchangeably moral. She was always in the right but for that very reason I found her to be somewhat boring.  
My very favorite relationship in the book actually became Fanny's relationship with her uncle. It was very gratifying to see her gain his esteem and get some of the attention she was deserving of all along. Well, that's about all I can say at the moment, I waited a little too long to write my review and find the book not quite so fresh on my mind. To end, I think it is worth the read though not a personal favorite.