Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound. The author of Mansfield Park, Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist whose seminal works, inspired by her own upbringing as well as in the landed gentry, have influenced successive generations. With a romantic vein, but nevertheless a realist-known for her style and ironic humor as well as for her fascinating depiction of women's domestic roles of the early nineteenth century-Austen wrote "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), "Mansfield Park" (1814), "Emma" (1815), "Northanger Abbey" (1817), and "Persuasion" (1818), all of which replete with memorable protagonists.Editorial ReviewsReview"Never did any novelist make more use of an impeccable sense of human values."--Virginia WoolfAbout the AuthorJane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. She is also the author of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey.Excerpt. (c) Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Chapter IAbout thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luckto captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raisedto the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comfortsand consequences of an handsome house and large income.All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at leastthree thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it.She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and MissFrances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scrupleto predict their marrying with almost equal advantage.But there certainly are not so many men of large fortunein the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, foundherself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely anyprivate fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse.A classic in Regency, English Literature, Mate Seeking, Literature, and HumanitiesMost Popular Books by Jane austen are: Pride and PrejudiceEmmaPersuasionSense and SensibilityNorthanger AbbeySimilar Authors To Jane Austen are: Charlotte BrontëSara ThomsonLouisa May AlcottEmily BrontëFelicity HopkinsRosemary BorderD.H. HoweHenry JamesThomas HardyGeorge EliotSeth Grahame-SmithElizabeth GaskellKatherine KellgrenAnne BrontëEvelyn Attwood