BTW, I like Persuasion, which is, I think, the sweetest of the Austen novels. Not the funniest, or the best, but the sweetest. I like Anne and dislike Fanny. And I find Anne’s relatives to be some of the best of Austen’s ridiculous charactatures, while Fanny’s are too real to be funny.
I just finished Mansfield Park for the first time… is it rude to dig up a year old thread in the hopes that someone else still wants to talk about it? I know zombie rules have been relaxed…
Anyway, I agree that Fanny seems like a major downer of a person and Edmond, while sweet to her, is also too much of a wet blanket to really want to be around. I hoped until the end that somehow the stuff with Henry was all a misunderstanding and that Fanny would learn to love him. Oh well…
Mrs. Norris was properly evil–is the cat in Harry Potter named after her or is it a coincidence?
I thought the book had a rather jarring ending. It seemed like Jane said “ok, time to wrap it up. Here’s what happened to everyone. The end.” rather than actually writing the rest of the story.
I believe JK Rowling has confirmed that Mrs. Norris the feline is named after the Austen character, and quite aptly too!
And I think most of Austen’s novels end like that. It is like once the two main characters get together - that’s it. We never hear what happens to any of the other characters. Like Fanny’s sister Susan, or Julia, how did her surprise marriage work out? Did Tom ever straighten out and get married? Who knows.
If you’re interested, Joan Aiken wrote a sequel, “Mansfield Revisited,” that follows up with Susan Price’s life at Mansfield Park. (She also wrote “Jane Fairfax,” which is “Emma” retold from Jane’s point-of-view.)
I have actually read both of those. 
I thought Jane Fairfax was a bit more interesting, but then I have always been intrigued by the twisted relationship Jane and Frank seemed to have. He was so cruel to her, I thought he had to be punishing her for something.
Nah… Frank’s just a self-satisfied jerk who likes to toy with women’s affections.
Vladimir Nabokov had a discussion on Mansfield Park in his Lectures on Literature book which is fascinating. In fact, every novel he discusses in that book is worth re-reading while keeping in mind his thoughts, as he has interesting viewpoints on literature in general. I would have LOVED to have him as a professor.