Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on estate business in Antigua (the family's investment in slavery and sugar is considered in the Introduction in a new, post-colonial light), Mary C...more

Begun in 1811 at the height of Jane Austen's writing powers and published in 1814, "Mansfield Park" marks a conscious break from the tone of her first three novels, "Northanger Abbey", "Sense and Sensibility", and "Pride and Prejudice", the last of which Austen came to see as 'rather too light.' Fanny Price is unlike any of Austen's previous heroin...more

Begun in 1811 at the height of Jane Austen's writing powers and published in 1814, "Mansfield Park" marks a conscious break from the tone of her first three novels, "Northanger Abbey", "Sense and Sensibility", and "Pride and Prejudice", the last of which Austen came to see as 'rather too light.' Fanny Price is unlike any of Austen's previous heroin...more