Mansfield Park is not necessarily a place I would want to live either, but I do love the book. I won't spoil anything for those who've never read it before, but I should point out that I hated it when I read it at age 18, and loved it when I read it at age 40 and then again at 50.

In this last re-read, I found parts of the first few chapters to be laugh-out-loud funny, especially the zingers Austen throws Mrs. Norris' way, such as:

As far as walking, talking, and contriving reached, she was thoroughly benevolent, and nobody knew better how to dictate liberality to others; but her love of money was equal to her love of directing, and she knew quite as well how to save her own as to spend that of her friends.(from Chapter 1)

or

Under this infatuating principle, counteracted by no real affection for her sister, it was impossible for her to aim at more than the credit of projecting and arranging so expensive a charity; though perhaps she might so little know herself as to walk home to the Parsonage, after this conversation, in the happy belief of being the most liberal–minded sister and aunt in the world. (Chapter 1)

or

he Grants showing a disposition to be friendly and sociable, gave great satisfaction in the main among their new acquaintance. They had their faults, and Mrs. Norris soon found them out. (Chapter 3)