Mansfield Park for the first time

MP is the last Austen novel I will read for the first time.* My memories of Persuasion and S&S are pretty foggy--I read them eons ago, back when I was a dewy-eyed child (slash in high school)--but I know the major parts will come back as I read them. In a way they will be new to me, because I have changed: I am a different reader than I was in high school. Still, I won't be experiencing them for the first time. As much as I enjoy the pleasures of rereading, I am conscious while reading MP that I will never meet and get to know these characters in this way again. 

As inevitable as MP may seem to someone who knows Austen's novels inside and out, for me it is still excitingly new and unexpected. Like--Fanny visits her family?! I read Vol. III, chapters 7 to 12 last night and I couldn't put it down. Here was Austen writing about poor(er) people and SERVANTS! Way to surprise me, Jane. 

I don't know how MP will turn out. I know it will wrap up the way they all do--everyone will be married happily, more or less. At least comfortable. I have a feeling I know who will end up with whom, but really, I don't know. She could surprise me. Ah! The charm--the suspense! of the first reading. What a lark! What a plunge!

*I still haven't read most of her juvenalia or unfinished works, like The Watsons and Sanditon, so there isn't cause for despair yet.