Other editions of book Mansfield Park

Jane Austen was an English author best known for her books of romantic fiction. Despite writing many books that are now considered classics, Austen did not gain much fame during her lifetime, likely due to being a woman. Austen was just 41 years old when she died yet she is still considered one of the best writers of English literature. Austin's novel Mansfield Park tells the story of Fanny Price, a young girl who is sent to live with her wealthy relatives.

The backbone of Mansfield Park is based around the marriages of sisters Lady Bertram, Mrs. Norris, and Mrs. Price. Each of these sisters marries a man from a different social class. Lady Bertram marries an extremely wealthy baronet Sir Thomas Bertram; Mrs. Norris marries a clergyman that makes a decent living; and Mrs. Price marries a naval lieutenant, who is injured shortly after they marry causing his career to end with living in poverty. This tale revolves around Fanny Price, who lives in poverty until being sent to live with her wealthy Aunt Bertram. While received warmly at first, what unfolds is a life of cold neglect and further trouble in her new lifestyle.

First published in 1814, Mansfield Park is the novel of the maturity of Jane Austen, who had already been acclaimed for her novels Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. The novel follows the coming of age of Fanny Price for ten years from the age of ten, when she is sent off to a wealthy uncle to be raised and educated. In the background, the economic, social and political events of the period make this one of the most complete and profound works by Jane Austen.

Mansfield Park is Jane Austen’s third novel and the writing that has been considered by critics to be the least intriguing and, paradoxically, the most controversial of all Austen novels. Even so, the novel is still part of the Jane Austen canon and it has still been praised by numerous scholars for its morality as well as for the colorful characters the plot is centered around.The novel starts out with the Bertram family, owners of the Mansfield Park mansion, taking in Fanny, a poor relative aged ten, to give her proper education. The story quickly becomes the story of Fanny’s upbringing and development. Being removed from the environment where she has spent all her childhood, Fanny is faced with numerous challenges – she not only has to get used to her new circumstances, but she is also treated like a poor and unwanted person by several members of the family, humiliations that she responds to in a self-deprecating and docile manner.In order to become the decent upper class young lady she is expected to become, Fanny has to adjust to the view of life and the morals that govern the wealthy colonist Bertrams (the family’s money comes from the plantations they own in Antigua) and she must learn how to handle her new social standing. To make things even more complicated, the plot has a love line, too, a very gentle and quiet love affair that evolves along with Fanny’s character. Mansfield Park is definitely one of the most complex of all Austen novels, a text that opens up for lots of interpretations. It is probably this richness that has made it such an excellent choice for film adaptations – it was first adapted for television in 1993, then into a feature film in 1999, a radio drama in 2003, a chamber opera in 2011 and a stage play in 2012.