Now what was the reason behind this nomination?
I read Austen's books primarily as romances first time round, and I'm interested to find what else I see this time round.
Often I read books just the once and maybe was disappointed by them or maybe enjoyed them at that particular moment but once the book was finished that was that. Overall however books to me are a bit like pieces of music, if you like them you will play/read them at intervals.
Over the years some books remain very significant and enjoyable reads while others which were previously enjoyable and significant become less so. I also notice that even those which retain their significance and enjoyment factor often change as you continue to re-read them. You experience them in different ways, find them enjoyable or significant in different ways, notice different things in them and so on, this can increase or decrease the appeal of the book. Sometimes I think this is just because a book is very complex or perhaps contains many layers at which it can be appreciated so you find new things when you re-read, sometimes it may be the moment when you are reading them or the life stage at which you are reading.
I started reading Jane Austin in late childhood (both my parents were fans) - long before my very second rate selective girl's secondary school started trotting out Jane Austin over and over again as an 'easy' (as our mostly second rate teachers saw it) option as opposed to tackling new, different and challenging stuff. But I continued to enjoy her work despite the stultifying approach of my school. I've continued to re-read her work throughout my life though Mansfield Park less than others, it has never been a favourite.
I have to say that Austin is now to me an ever decreasing pleasure. I still get a great deal of enjoyment from 'Pride and Prejudice' though the experience of reading the book has changed quite radically over the years but there is a lot there to enjoy especially the character of Elizabeth. Many of the characters in that book are quite appalling but at least the description of their appallingness is interesting and the characters seem to me to be realistic - I've met people like Elizabeth's mother and her father and Lydia and so forth in real life dressed up in modern clothes, driving cars and clutching smart phones but showing many of the same characteristics as Austen points up in the characters in P&P. There is also a keen thread of wit running through P&P which leavens the weight of many of these frankly totally useless and rather revolting people.
Mansfield Park? Well the last time I re-read it I passed from 'probably my least favourite' to being on the verge of feeling 'I positively dislike this book and my liking for the author is rapidly draining away'. I'm stunned by the complete uselessness of the majority of the characters, their purposeless lives, their viciousness and complete lack of empathy and concern for anyone but themselves and their excuse of 'Christianity' and 'morals' for following and working themselves into emotional lathers over a rigid code which has a lot to do with position and class and very little to do with Christianity in particular. I'm also stuck by the viciousness of the author as she describes the foibles of these people. Austin is, of course, a vicious writer but normally the viciousness is tempered by wit but wit seems lacking in Mansfield Park.
The sympathy for the young Fanny dropped into the chilly emotional atmosphere of Mansfield Park and then mostly left to fend for herself and, of course, the kindness of Edmund the only one to show any concern for her or to be able to grasp her needs, is no longer enough to sustain for me interest throughout the novel in what are two fairly 'thin' and not terribly interesting characters.
Finding myself experiencing ever reducing enjoyment of what was once a favourite author, and especially of this particular book, I nominated it because I wanted to get some as it were 'raw' reaction from other people who had actually recently read the book. Austin is constantly mentioned as a great author but I've become increasingly suspicious that at least some people who make this statement don't actually read her books or only read them long ago and are operating on memories rather than on current or recent experience.
Austin of course makes for good TV or at least for the sort of TV many people like to watch - the country houses, the balls, the clothing, the 'romance'. I suppose that increasingly people experience Austin via TV which may in turn colour their view of her as an author.
As my nomination of Mansfield Park was accepted, I did read it again, but if it hadn't been for the purpose of Book Club I think I'd have abandoned it early on.