Mansfield Park, By Jane Austen Mansfield Park has the dubious distinction of being disliked by more of Jane Austen's fans than any of her other novels, even to the point of spawning "Fanny Wars" in internet discussion forums. Its themes are very different from those of her other books, which can generally be simplified into one sentence, or even one phrase: Sense and Sensibility is about balancing emotions and thought, Pride and Prejudice is about judging others too quickly, Emma is about growing into adulthood, and Persuasion is about second chances. The theme of Mansfield Park, on the other hand, can not be so easily described. Is it about ordination? Is it an allegory on Regency England? Is it about slavery? Is it about the education of children? Is it about the difference between appearances and reality? Is it about the results of breaking with society's mor�s? Any, or all of those themes can, and have been applied to Mansfield Park. The major problem for most of the novel's detractors is the lead character, Fanny Price. She is shy, timid, lacking in self-confidence, physically weak, and seemingly—to some, annoyingly—always right.

Austen's own mother called her "insipid", and many have used the word "priggish". She is certainly not like the lively and witty Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice. But Mansfield Park also has many supporters, whose admiration and loyalty can be attributed to the depth and complexity of the themes in the book and to the main character—a young woman who is unlike most heroines found in literature. One thing is certain, this novel is not like Jane Austen's others. The girl-gets-boy plot of her other work is mostly absent here, and the heroine's success in finding love is treated briefly, quickly, and for many readers—especially those who expected something like the romantic Pride and Prejudice—unsatisfactorily. Only in the final chapter—essentially the epilogue—does Fanny get the love she deserves. The story and themes of Mansfield Park are, therefore, not as closely tied with the heroine's road to marital bliss as in Austen's other novels. Jane Austen began planning Mansfield Park in February of 1811 and finished it in the summer of 1813.

It was published on May 4, 1814 and was Austen's third published novel; though, as with all of her novels, her name was not attached to it until after her death. This was also the first of her novels which was not a revision of an earlier work. Elinor and Marianne was probably written in 1795 and finally revised and published as Sense and Sensibility in late 1811. First Impressions was written between 1796-97, and was finally published in 1813 as Pride and Prejudice. Mansfield Park, therefore, was conceived from its very beginning by a more mature Jane Austen than the previous two novels—written, as they were, first by the young Austen (~ 20 years old) and then the older Austen (~ 36). By the time Jane Austen began planning and writing Mansfield Park she had passed through her eligible years and, at 36, into confirmed spinsterhood. Chapter descriptions are designed to be very vague and cryptic.

They are for people who are familiar with the book to help them find the chapter they want, and they are not designed for the student who might be looking for a quick way to get out of reading the novel. Below, and on the individual pages, there are two sets of chapter numbers. One set reflects the fact that the novel was originally published in three volumes with each volume beginning with Chapter 1. The other set has the chapters numbered in order from beginning to end. Thus, "Volume III, Chapter 4" and "Chapter 35" are the same. Chapter I — The Ward sisters marry. Mrs. Norris suggests an act of charity, Sir Thomas agrees. Chapter II — The ten-year-old arrives in the big house and meets her cousins. Edmund is reassuring, and a letter to William will help put her at ease. The Bertram girls think their cousin is very stupid. Chapter III — The Mansfield living passes to Dr. Grant. Will Mrs. Norris take Fanny with her? No, of course not. Sir Thomas and Tom leave for Antigua to take care of business. Chapter IV — The Miss Bertrams go husband hunting, with Mrs. Norris acting as their scout.

Edmund gets Fanny a horse. Tom returns, and Mr. Rushworth woos Tom's sister and wins her. Mr. and Miss Crawford join their sister at the parsonage. Chapter V — The brother was not handsome; he was absolutely plain, black and plain. He was also a flirt and learned from a bad example, but he grows on the Miss Bertrams. Is Miss Price out? Chapter VI — Mr. Rushworth discusses improving Sotherton, including changing the avenue. Miss Price would like to see it before the changes. Miss Crawford has difficulty finding a cart to carry her harp. To Sotherton they shall go. Chapter VII — Edmund and Fanny discuss Miss Crawford, who they find charming, but there is something lacking. Edmund is enamored. Mary borrows Fanny's horse and is very late in returning it. Fanny gets a headache after cutting roses in the sun and walking twice to the parsonage, and because someone had been riding her horse. Chapter VIII — How shall they get to Sotherton? Fanny gets to go too. Who will get to ride with Mr. Crawford? The scenery on the way there is very nice. Chapter IX — Mrs.

Rushworth shows off the house to her guests. They visit the chapel, and Edmund's future profession is discussed. They leave the house to view the grounds. Miss Crawford believes a clergyman is nothing. Chapter X — Miss Price is left all alone. Two people come by; a locked gate bars the way, but they find their way around it and go off on their own, another follows, and the key arrives too late. Fanny was left a whole hour. Chapter XI — Sir Thomas writes he is coming home. His eldest daughter is not joyful at the news. Miss Crawford again discusses Edmund's career with him. Such men do nothing but eat, drink, and grow fat; Fanny and Edmund say otherwise. Chapter XII — Miss Crawford prefers the wrong Bertram brother. Hunting season, and Tom returns. Fanny is critical of Mr. Crawford and thinks he is flirting with the wrong Bertram sister, while others think he is courting the right one. Chapter XIII — Mr. Yates is at Mansfield Park and brings with him theatrical ideas. A play's the thing! Edmund objects, but Tom outranks him. Chapter XIV — What play should it be? It must have the right number of parts to suit everyone.

Casting begins. The play has two female roles, but there are three ladies to fill them; one must be left out. Chapter XV — Edmund thinks the choice of play is bad and argues against his sister's part in it. Fanny will not act. Chapter XVI — Edmund is forced to take a part. Does Fanny agree with his decision? Chapter XVII — Julia is not pleased with the arrangements or Mr. Crawford. Chapter XVIII — Rehearsals and sets progress. Miss Crawford asks Fanny for help, Edmund joins them. Sir Thomas is home. Chapter I (19) — Sir Thomas warmly greets his family and Fanny. They sit around the fire and listen to his tales. Sir Thomas sees what they have been doing and is not pleased. Chapter II (20) — Sir Thomas lays much of the blame on the Aunt, and she is proud of Rushworth. Maria hopes to exchange one man for another, but nothing comes of it. Crawford leaves Mansfield for Bath. Chapter III (21) — Fanny must learn to be looked at, and she asks Sir Thomas about a certain trade. Sir Thomas gets better acquainted with Mr. Rushworth and is not pleased.

Maria tells her father she likes the man. It was a very proper wedding. Chapter IV (22) — Fanny gets caught in the rain and goes into the parsonage. Miss Crawford plays the harp. I had not imagined a country parson ever aspired to a shrubbery. Mary is better reconciled to a country residence. There is nobleness in the name of Edmund. He wishes only not to be poor. Chapter V (23) — But why should Mrs. Grant ask Fanny to dine? Mrs. Norris thinks it a great indulgence. Sir Thomas has the carriage brought round. Crawford has returned and looks back on the theatricals with pleasure; he also wishes to hear his friend's first sermon. Chapter VI (24) — Crawford tells his sister he shall begin a new flirtation. William Price is in England again and comes to visit his sister. Henry extends his stay and his interest in a lady. Chapter VII (25) — A game of Speculation. Edmund and Crawford discuss Thornton Lacey. Sir Thomas notices a gentleman's attentions. William would like to dance with his sister. Chapter VIII (26) — Sir Thomas decides to have a ball.

Fanny would like to wear her cross, but has no chain to put it on. Miss Crawford gives her a present. Chapter IX (27) — Edmund gives his cousin a token of his friendship, and thinks she must keep Mary's gift. William gets an invitation to ride to town with Henry and meet the Admiral. Edmund gets a partner for the first two dances. Everyone is ready to dance. Chapter X (28) — The ball begins, and Fanny is gratified to have a partner. She is to lead the way. The evening afforded Edmund little pleasure, as more was said disparaging the clergy. Chapter XI (29) — Breakfast comes, and William goes. Edward is off to his ordination. With all the men gone, Mary is bored and Fanny relieved. Chapter XII (30) — Crawford returns and tells his sister he has found the women he will marry. Mary is happy to hear it. Chapter XIII (31) — Henry brings news of William's promotion, and his role in it. He states his feelings to his love. Fanny receives and sends a note to Mary. Chapter I (32) — Sir Thomas visits the East Room to talk to Fanny.

Chapter II (33) — He will not take no for an answer, and Sir Thomas is encouraging. The aunts are told. Chapter III (34) — Edmund returns. Henry reads Shakespeare after dinner. Public speaking, sermons and liturgy are discussed. Chapter IV (35) — Edmund and Fanny talk things over. The ladies of the parsonage are not happy with Miss Price. Chapter V (36) — Perhaps a little more time will change her mind. Fanny and Mary meet again in the East Room. Mary discusses the friends she is going to visit. The truth of Mary's necklace. Chapter VI (37) — Fanny does not miss the Crawfords. Lieutenant Price comes to Mansfield Park, but is out of uniform. Fanny is happy to go to her parents'. Chapter VII (38) — A happy trip to Portsmouth. Home at last. The Thrush has gone out of harbour. Betsey has a silver knife. Chapter VIII (39) — You can't go home again. Noise and confusion. William and Sam go to sea. Chapter IX (40) — A letter from Mary with no little offering of love at the end. Susan becomes a friend.

Another silver knife. Fanny joins a library. Chapter X (41) — Henry comes to visit the Prices. They all take a walk to the dock-yard. Chapter XI (42) — Crawford joins them and goes to church. He offers to take Fanny to Mansfield in his carriage. Should he go home to take care of business? He knows what he ought to do. Chapter XII (43) — Mary writes that Mrs. Rushworth's first party was a success, and to offer her brother's carriage again. A party will keep Henry from Everingham. Chapter XIII (44) — Edmund finally writes. He tells of his dissatisfaction. She is the only woman in the world whom he could ever think of. Tom Bertram is ill. Chapter XIV (45) — Tom is back at Mansfield, and his brother takes care of him. Fanny knows where her home is. Miss Crawford would like to hear of Tom's condition. Chapter XV (46) — A most scandalous, ill-natured rumour has just reached Mary. Mr. Price reads the newspaper. Edmund writes with the particulars, and to say he is coming for the Price sisters.

Fanny is happy to be busy and to be headed for Mansfield with her sister. Chapter XVI (47) — The whole truth is known. Edmund describes his meeting with Miss Crawford; the charm is broken, his eyes are opened. Chapter XVII (48) — Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery (but Sir Thomas was longest to suffer.) Everyone gets what they deserve. Lovers Vows' : Read the play which is the focal point for much of the first volume of Mansfield Park. Includes a synopsis, an analysis with respect to Mansfield Park, and a cast list. Fanny's Tears : Fanny has often been accused of always being in tears. Here is a list of the times she actually is. Tirocinium : This is a poem by Cowper which is mentioned in Vol. III Ch. 14. The poem focuses on the way boys should be educated, and it is instructive to see how Jane Austen uses similar themes in Mansfield Park. An analysis of the poem with respect to Mansfield Park and the poem itself can be found here.

Mansfield Park : This is a website dedicated to Mansfield Park and includes a number of essays on the characters and the themes of the novel, as well as links to other Jane Austen and Mansfield Park resources. Prepared by Ann Haker. © 2000 Copyright held by the author. Mansfield Park shows the dark side of Jane Austen - Telegraph Books Mansfield Park shows the dark side of Jane Austen Ignore its uptight reputation – Mansfield Park, published 200 years ago this month, seethes with sex and explores England’s murkiest corners Johnny Lee Miller as Edmund and Frances O'Connor as Fanny in a 1999 film adaptation of Mansfield Park Photo: Rex By Paula Byrne 9:00AM BST 26 Jul 2014 It has always been a deal-breaker in my relationships. It’s impossible for me to love anyone who doesn’t love (or at least admire) Jane Austen’s least-loved novel, Mansfield Park, published 200 years ago this month. Why it’s her most unpopular book remains a source of mystery to me. It’s her sexiest one, without doubt.

I was 14 years old, brought up in a working-class family in a tiny house in Birkenhead, full of love and life but noisy and chaotic. It was as far as you could imagine from the traditional image of Jane Austen’s world. Like many Northern girls, I grew up adoring the Brontës: storms, wind, rain, Cathy and Heathcliff. Austen didn’t cut it for me. I agreed with Charlotte Brontë, who found her style anaemic: “What did I find?” she wrote after reading her novels, “a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers – but no glance of a bright vivid physiognomy – no open country – no fresh air – no blue hill – no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses.” But then my odious English teacher refused to let me sit English Literature O-level. I set out to prove him wrong. At night school, I discovered Mansfield Park – a story about a girl born in a small house and an urban community, not the Austen I was expecting. I fell in love. And it changed my life.

How wrong could Charlotte Brontë have been? Passion, eroticism, danger, illicit love and incest simmer below the surface in Mansfield Park. The anti-hero, Henry Crawford, is every bit as sadistic and sexy as Heathcliff; he just has more charisma (more sinister altogether) than Brontë’s charmless hunk. Of all Austen’s novels, Mansfield Park is the one written on the widest canvas. It’s the only one to be called after the name of the house (Northanger Abbey was given its title posthumously by Austen’s brother – she in fact called it “Susan”). This gives us an important clue. Jane Austen does nothing accidentally and every small thing counts. Related Articles Jane Austen fans break world record at gathering in Bath 14 Sep 2014 Mansfield Park is not, as it is commonly misunderstood to be, a great old English country house such as Mr Knightley’s Donwell Abbey or Darcy’s Pemberley. It is a newly built property, a house erected on the proceeds of the British slave trade.

Every literate person in Austen’s time knew the name of England’s most famous Lord Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, and his contribution to the abolition of the slave trade. His landmark ruling in the infamous Somerset case signalled that on English soil, at least, no man was a slave. It was also widely known in polite society that Lord Mansfield had adopted his mixed-race great-niece, Dido Belle. Mansfield was devoted to Dido, left her a substantial legacy and confirmed her freedom in his will. (She is the subject of a new film by Amma Asante based on my biography.) She was beautiful, well educated and accomplished, brought up at Kenwood House in Hampstead alongside her cousin, Elizabeth Murray, who knew Austen and her family. Austen found Elizabeth Murray rather quiet and dull, but she was greatly interested in the story of Lord Mansfield’s adopted black daughter. A young girl is brought up by wealthy relations at a large country house. Her status is ambiguous: is she a servant or a lady? How should she be raised?

Is the story of Dido Belle a shadow flickering in the background of Mansfield Park’s Fanny Price, who rises from being the most lowly member of the household to being the best loved? THE BEST BOOKS OF 2014 At the start of the novel, the house’s owner, sugar baron Sir Thomas Bertram, is having problems with “poor returns” from Antigua. His absenteeism causes damage not only in his plantations but on his estate in England. When he returns to Antigua, taking his wild, wayward son with him, he leaves the house under the guardianship of a vicious bully, Mrs Norris. One of the ironies of the novel is that Sir Thomas goes to Antigua to sort out his problems, only for his own house to be thrown into moral chaos by his absence. Norris’s unregulated power in the great house causes damage to the people living there. Jane Austen was being mischievous in using the name Norris for her villain. If the name Mansfield was synonymous with abolition, then that of Norris was known for its opposite. Robert Norris was an infamous slave trader and a byword for pro-slavery sympathies.

The novel shifts gear with the arrival of the sexy, sparkling Crawfords, Mary and Henry. Londoners through and through, they burst into the country house like exotic birds of prey: loose of morals, quick of wit, stylish and sporty, utterly seductive. Austen loved to subvert conventions, so rather than using the traditional motif of the country girl coming to town and being corrupted, she brings the Crawfords to the country, where they corrupt everyone around them. They bring the poison of the city to the heart of England. But one person resists their charm: the awkward, timid Fanny Price, who sees into their dark souls. Mansfield Park was written immediately after Pride and Prejudice, and it seems to me that Austen set herself the challenge of creating a very different kind of heroine from Lizzy Bennet. What if a character like Lizzy were the anti-heroine — the witty, pretty Mary Crawford — and the heroine demure? Why not write a novel undoing the heroine-centred courtship romance? Mansfield Park is perhaps the first novel in history to depict the life of a little girl from within.

Fanny is 10 years old when she is uprooted from her loving but noisy home in Portsmouth, and finds herself in a mansion where nobody pays her the slightest attention. She is delicate in health and nervous; she shudders when she hears the footsteps of her stern uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram. She lives in the attic, which is cold and gloomy; her aunt bullies her unremittingly; her female cousins ignore her. Only her cousin Edmund takes an interest and she pays him back by loving him. Some readers are disappointed by Fanny. She is not witty and not pretty. She is shy. Even the author’s own family disliked her. Austen took down their “Opinions of Mansfield Park”, noting drily that her mother “thought Fanny insipid, Enjoyed Mrs Norris”. But Fanny is clever, kind and watchful. She is spiritual, romantic and in touch with nature. Readers who miss the point of Fanny Price miss the point of the novel. She is the filter through which we view the mesmerising Crawfords. They turn the big house into a theatre, and put on an erotic play called Lovers’ Vows chiefly so they can flirt like crazy.

Henry Crawford creates havoc and rivalry between the Bertram sisters, Fanny’s cousins. Edmund, destined for the church, falls in love with Mary Crawford, and takes part in an inflammatory scene in which a pious, uptight clergyman is seduced by a coquette. All the time, Fanny is watching and despairing. BEST BOOKS TO READ Sex runs through this novel. A day trip to Sotherton Court predicts the ruin of Maria Bertram, Sir Thomas’s eldest daughter, who is betrothed to the weak-chinned idiot James Rushworth. The young people stroll through the grounds of his big house, trailing along a “serpentine path” (shades of Satan in the Garden of Eden), until they come to phallic iron railings, and the wild countryside beyond. Maria and Henry, both flirting, want to climb over. Fanny cries out to Maria: “You will certainly hurt yourself against those spikes, you will tear your gown.” We don’t need Dr Freud to work that one out.

Fanny begs them to wait for the key, but they refuse to listen, and off they go, across the ha-ha into the wilderness, leaving poor old Rushworth behind – just as they will later elope, again leaving Rushworth behind. Fanny observes it all. She sees Rushworth’s despair, notes sister Julia Bertram’s jealousy. Fanny is herself consumed with sexual jealousy. She has to watch while Edmund, the man she loves, becomes hopelessly in thrall to Mary Crawford. Like a siren, Mary lures men by playing her harp, seducing them with her liveliness. She is also given Austen’s filthiest joke, when she makes a pun about sodomy in the Navy: “My home at my uncle’s brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears and Vices, I saw enough. Now, do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat.” Fanny alone sees how morally bankrupt the Crawfords are: “They care for no one but themselves.” The twist in the novel is when the villain Henry decides to seduce Fanny. It’s a conquest game for him, “to make a small hole in Fanny Price’s heart”.

But it doesn’t work because she loves Edmund. Then, unexpectedly, Henry does fall truly in love. When Fanny, who cannot think highly of a man who “sports with any woman’s feelings”, refuses Henry, she is punished by her uncle and sent back to grotty Portsmouth as a “medicinal project on her understanding”. This is a terrific section of the novel. Portsmouth comes alive as a bustling seaport. Inside the Price family home, Jane Austen wanders into previously uncharted territory in her depiction of the lower-middle-class family. Fanny’s eyes are now open to the dirty reality of life without servants to clear up after you. She is horrified by the filth: “half-cleaned plates, and not half-cleaned knives and forks”, dust motes circling in the glare of the sunshine, china “wiped in streaks”, “the milk, a mixture of motes floating in thin blue”. The descriptions are superb: this is Jane Austen writing with her corsets loosened. Fanny’s father drinks grog with his sailor friends, and eyes her up inappropriately, making her the subject of “coarse jokes”. Her mother is a slattern who cannot control her numerous unruly children.

But it is the Price children who ultimately succeed, because unlike the Bertram children they know the meaning of hardship and hard work emerging from the squalor and alcohol fumes of their terraced house in Portsmouth. Mansfield Park is pioneering because it is a novel about meritocracy. Austen repeatedly emphasises the claims of innate merit and talent over social position and inherited wealth. At the beginning of the novel, Sir Thomas is keen that Fanny should know her social place; she is not to be considered “a Miss Bertram”. By the end he comes to acknowledge “the advantages of early hardship and discipline, and the consciousness of being born to struggle and endure”. The novel is a profound exploration of the duty of parents to shape their children’s moral and spiritual development. It includes a father who is emotionally distant, his children “chilled into respect”. It reflects on the importance of home, the nature of a good education, the alienation of sons from their fathers. At the centre of the book is a displaced child with an unshakeable conscience. A true heroine.

Mansfield Park | The Jane Austen Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Published 1814 About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. Mansfield Park is a novel by Jane Austen , written at Chawton Cottage between 1812 and 1814. It was published in July 1814 by Thomas Egerton , who published Jane Austen's two earlier novels, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice . When the novel reached a second edition, its publication was taken over by John Murray , who also published its successor, Emma . Contents Edit The main character, Fanny Price , is a young girl from a relatively poor family, raised by her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram , at Mansfield Park .

She grows up with her four cousins, Tom Bertram , Edmund Bertram , Maria Bertram and Julia Bertram Yates , but is always treated as inferior to them; only Edmund shows her real kindness. He is also the most virtuous of the siblings: Maria and Julia are vain and spoiled, while Tom is an irresponsible gambler. Over time, Fanny's gratitude for Edmund's kindness grows into romantic love. When the children have grown up, the stern patriarch Sir Thomas leaves for a year so he can deal with problems on his plantation in Antigua . The fashionable and worldly Henry Crawford and his sister Mary Crawford arrive in the village, and stay with their sister, the Parson's wife . The arrival of the Crawfords disrupts the staid world of Mansfield and sparks a series of romantic entanglements. Mary and Edmund begin to form an attachment, though Edmund often worries that her manners are fashionable and her conversation often cynical, masking a lack of firm principle. However, she is engaging, beautiful and charming, and goes out of her way to befriend Fanny. Fanny fears that Mary has enchanted Edmund, and love has blinded him to her flaws.

Henry plays with the affections of both Maria and Julia, despite Maria being already engaged to the dull, but very rich, Mr. Rushworth . Maria believes that Henry is really in love with her, and treats Mr Rushworth coldly, invoking his jealousy. Fanny is little observed in the family circle - her presence is often overlooked and she frequently witnesses Maria and Henry in compromising situations. Encouraged by Tom and his friend Mr. Yates, the young people decide to put on Elizabeth Inchbald 's play Lovers' Vows ; Edmund and Fanny both initially oppose the plan, believing Sir Thomas would disapprove and feeling that the subject matter of the play is not appropriate. Edmund is eventually swayed, offering to play the part of Anhalt, the lover of the character played by Mary Crawford. As well as giving Mary and Edmund a vehicle to talk about love and marriage, the play provides a pretext for Henry and Maria to flirt in public. Sir Thomas arrives unexpectedly in the middle of a rehearsal, which ends the plan. Henry leaves, and Maria is crushed; realising that Henry does not love her, she marries Mr. Rushworth and they leave for Brighton , taking Julia with them.

Meanwhile, Fanny's improved looks and pleasant temper endear her to Sir Thomas, who pays more attention to her care. Henry returns to Mansfield Park and decides to amuse himself by making Fanny fall in love with him. However, her genuine gentleness and kindness cause him to fall in love with her instead. When he proposes marriage, Fanny's disgust at his improper flirtations with her cousins, as well as her love for Edmund, cause her to reject him. The Bertrams are dismayed, since it is an extremely advantageous match for a poor girl like Fanny. Sir Thomas rebukes her for ingratitude. Henry decides he will continue to pursue Fanny, hoping that in time she will change her mind by coming to believe he is constant. Sir Thomas supports a plan for Fanny to pay a visit to her relatively poor family in Portsmouth , hoping that as Fanny suffers from the lack of comforts there, she will realize the usefulness of a good income. Henry pays Fanny a visit in Portsmouth, to convince her that he has changed and is worthy of her affection. Fanny's attitude begins to soften but she still maintains that she will not marry him.

Henry leaves for London, and shortly afterward, Fanny learns of a scandal involving Henry and Maria. The two had met again and rekindled their flirtation, which quickly had developed into an affair. The affair is discovered and hinted at in a national newspaper; Maria leaves her husband's house and elopes with Henry. The scandal is terrible and the affair results in Maria's divorce; however Henry refuses to marry her. To make matters worse, the dissolute Tom has taken ill, and Julia has eloped with Mr. Yates . Fanny returns to Mansfield Park to comfort her aunt and uncle and to help take care of Tom. Although Edmund knows that marriage to Mary is now impossible because of the scandal between their relations, he goes to see her one last time. During the interview, it becomes clear that Mary does not condemn Henry and Maria's adultery, only that they got caught. Her main concern is covering it up and she implies that if Fanny had accepted Henry, he would have been too busy and happy to have an affair, and would have been content with merely a flirtation. This reveals Mary's true nature to Edmund, who realises he had idealised her as someone she is not.

He tells her so and returns to Mansfield and his living as a Parson at Thornton Lacey. "At exactly the time it should be so, and not a week sooner." Edmund realises how important Fanny is to him, declares his love for her and they are married. Tom recovers from his illness, a steadier and better man for it, and Julia's elopement turns out to be not such a desperate business after all. Austen points out that if only Crawford had persisted in being steadfast to Fanny, and not succumbed to the affair with Maria, Fanny eventually would have accepted his marriage proposal—especially after Edmund had married Mary. Characters Edit Fanny Price - The second eldest of nine children who is sent to live with her mother's sisters at Mansfield Park. Her mother married a poor lieutenant of marines for love. Mrs Price's alcoholic husband was disabled and released from the service on half pay, and she had to settle for a life far less comfortable than those of her sisters. Fanny is sensitive, shy, intelligent, seemingly virtuous, with a good sense of morals; and her status at Mansfield Park as a dependent poor relation only intensifies these traits.

The bulk of the novel takes place when she is eighteen and nineteen. She has been in love with her cousin Edmund since she was young and when both realise their feelings, they get married. Fanny is pursued by Mr. Henry Crawford. Edmund Bertram - The younger son of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram; he is six years older than Fanny. He plans to be a clergyman. He alone among his family has any consideration for Fanny's feelings. As her protector and friend, he has a great deal of influence over her and helps form her character. Edmund becomes attracted to Miss Crawford, but her opinions on the scandal involving Mrs. Rushworth and Mr. Crawford mortify him. He later realizes he is in love with Fanny and they are married. Supporting Characters Mrs. Norris The officious, skinflint sister of Lady Bertram who lives near Mansfield Park. Her husband, Mr. Norris , is the parson at Mansfield Park until his death. She dislikes Fanny and takes every opportunity to put her down and make a distinction between Fanny's treatment and that of her wealthier cousins. Mrs.

Norris also takes every opportunity to save money, such as taking jellies and sewing materials from the main house for her own home. Sir Thomas Bertram The husband of Fanny's aunt, Lady Bertram. He owns the Mansfield Park estate and an estate in Antigua. He is initially stern and correct. He later realises his behaviour may have caused the ruin of his eldest daughter. He wishes his own children were more like his niece and nephew, Fanny and William Price. Thomas Bertram Bertram The older son of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram; he is seven years older than Fanny. Tom is principally interested in carousing in London society and enjoying the pleasures of the theatre with his friend, Mr. Yates. Tom incurs large debts, forcing Sir Thomas to sell the church position that would have gone to Tom's younger brother, Edmund. One celebratory journey leaves Tom with a fever and he later learns the error of his ways. Maria Bertram The very beautiful elder daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram; she is three years older than Fanny. She becomes engaged to Mr. Rushworth but she becomes attached to Henry Crawford. She expects Mr.

Crawford to propose and when he doesn't, she marries Mr. Rushworth for his £12,000 a year, despite knowing him to be a boorish young man with little but his money to recommend him. Mr. Crawford returns to her life soon after her marriage and they elope together. Rushworth divorces her and she is left to the mercy of her family because Mr. Crawford refuses to marry her. She ends up living with her aunt Norris. Julia Bertram Yates The younger daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram; she is two years older than Fanny. She has strong feelings toward Mr. Crawford, but soon learns that he prefers Maria, despite, or because of, her sister's engagement. Mr. Yates pursues her, which is swiftly ended when Sir Thomas returns to the house. Julia later goes with Mr. and Mrs. Rushworth on their honeymoon and to their house in town. About the same time Maria runs away with Mr Crawford, Julia elopes with Mr. Yates, ostensibly to avoid being blamed by her father for Maria's elopement with Mr. Crawford. Mr. Henry Crawford Brother of Mrs.

Grant and Miss Crawford. A charming, extremely intelligent and eligible bachelor who plays with the emotions of Maria and Julia. This is observed by Fanny. After Maria's marriage, he decides to make Fanny fall in love with him but instead falls in love with her. He loses any chance with her after he and Maria elope together. Miss Mary Crawford The pretty and charming sister of Mr. Crawford and Mrs Grant, who takes a keen interest in Edmund Bertram in spite of his being a second son. However, though she seems charming, she has certain views and opinions which mean, in the end, she loses Edmund. She is often kind to Fanny Price, but is not a reliable friend since she is aware of her brother Henry's plan to toy with Fanny's heart, but does nothing to discourage him. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Search eText, Read Online, Study, Discuss. Mansfield Park - love it or loathe it? Mansfield Park is probably the least favourite of Austen's novels for some and, certainly in the past, the most loved for others. I'm reading it again at the moment.

The character of Fanny is not a problem for me at all - I warm to the Cinderella, Ugly Duckling aspect. Just thought Mrs Norris and the Bertram sisters are Cinder's stepmother and sisters, though I'm not sure Austen would have known that version of the story. There are other deeply disturbing aspects though, not least Fanny preferring Mansfield Park to her mother's home in Portsmouth. OK, Mrs Price is Lady Bertram's sister and although she works her socks off, there is the same selfishness and lack of consideration at work. What makes Mansfield preferable is to a large extent that it is supported by wealth, and wealth based on slave labour at that. Any other ideas? Is Mrs Norris the nastiest woman Austen created? (I can think of a self important busy body she reminds me of, who some think is a hard working treasure and some think is an utter menace.) Posted By Jackson Richardson at Fri 23 Oct 2015, 8:21 AM in Mansfield Park || 21 Replies redacted Posted By L.M. The Third at Thu 8 May 2014, 4:21 AM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies An abrupt end???

Dear all Don't you feel that Mansfield park ended abruptly..The story was going on smoothly when suddenly fanny gets the news that Charles and maria have eloped..Even at that time, Mary Crawford tends to take her brother's side.. Then in quick succession Edward breaks up with Mary whom he admired ardently and marries his sister-like-cousin fanny.. What might have been the mood and mental framework of Jane while picturing this and ending the novel in an imbroglio way..??:out: Kindly comment... Thanks for your time in advance... Posted By Gorki at Fri 5 Nov 2010, 11:21 AM in Mansfield Park || 1 Reply I have just finished Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and still find the character of Fanny Price a bit enigmatic. Can anyone define her in a few words?

Posted By cgdtaylor at Mon 25 Oct 2010, 8:33 AM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies Mansfield - the best Austen novel I know I will come to many objections here by stating this, but out of all the Austen novels, I feel "Mansfield Park" is the best due to the less formulaic principles she relies on. I do not want to ruin the ending, but unlike "Pride and Prejudice" where the final romance felt forced, the ending of "Mansfield Park" felt more realistic to life. As it says towards the ending, when Edmund considers perhaps he has loved the wrong girl the whole time, such is how things often work in reality. Usually we are blinded by the wrong person and find the right person has been in front of us the whole time. It was a bit disturbing they were cousins...but such was the time. I am also new here and wanted to use this post to say a big hello to everyone! Posted By Autumntastic at Fri 2 Jan 2009, 6:34 PM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies Did anyone enjoy the new Masterpiece Theatre version of Mansfield Park?

I enjoyed it well enough, probably more than Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Austen is such an excellent writer that it's just so much more enjoyable to read her books! :) Posted By sciencefan at Fri 1 Feb 2008, 10:28 PM in Mansfield Park || 3 Replies An opinion on Mansfield Park This place looks almost devoid of discussion, but I think this novel possibly deserves the most attention of all of Austen's books. I've heard lots of people talk about how they hate Edmund and Fanny and like Henry the best, and possibly Austen wrote the book so well that they were deceived by all the acting that Henry and Mary Crawford do. What is missed is the fact that right choice of vocation (which means calling, or to simplify, career) in the case of Edmund, or the right choice of spouse (in the case of Fanny and Edmund) will not necessarily be glamorous. Throughout the novel Mary Crawford contrasts fashionable London with life in the country and fashionable life with the life of a country clergyman, trying to convince Edmund to give up his unfashionable calling.

Of course, Edmund holds out for virtue against fashion and seems to have gotten a bad rep among readers of this book for being boring. He and Fanny are too boring. Of course they're boring; it's usually boring to do what's right, after all. Hmm. If doing what is right means sticking to your principles (ruining the party by refusing to act, because you know the owner of the house wouldn't like it...etc.) and going directly against what is fashionable and fun, what would you do? Austen wants the reader to make a good decision, and I think how much you like the book will depend on what decision you would make. (ie; would YOU marry Henry Crawford?) Posted By Sarie at Fri 2 Nov 2007, 10:31 PM in Mansfield Park || 16 Replies No Subject So far i've only read P&P and Mansfield Park. P&P was alright, but Mansfield Park got on my nerves a little, i bet we could build a flood with Fanny's tears. & why does she always have 2 be so tired?

I think the ending needs more passion between Edmund & Fanny but then again he is her cusin so I take it back. I did though enjoy the Crawfords @ least they brought life in2 the story. Posted By Natalie at Tue 24 May 2005, 10:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 0 Replies No Subject Mansfield Park is a very interestingly plotted book of Jane Austen's. I've only read Pride and Prejudice and this one so far. The subject of marriage jumped out at me through Miss Crawford's perception of it. It seems that marriage is a frequent topic of Austen's. Posted By 17-YR-Old inexperienced reader at Tue 24 May 2005, 10:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 1 Reply no subject i loved the beginning of the book but the end was so stupid that i hated it.I thought that it was the best book that i ever had read but at the end it dissapointed me. I hated Edmund and i hated mary and i hated henry it was a little stupid the book.

Posted By a at Tue 24 May 2005, 10:07 PM in Mansfield Park || 1 Reply An Invitation to Mansfield Park | Sarah Emsley An Invitation to Mansfield Park An Invitation to Mansfield Park Read Mansfield Park with us! 2014 was the Year of Fanny Price, and I wanted to celebrate Jane Austen’s strongest heroine. I put together an exciting series of guest posts on Mansfield Park and I was absolutely delighted to bring together so many interesting people to talk about this brilliant novel. All thirty-nine of the contributions to the series are listed below, along with my other blog posts on the novel and the 2014 JASNA AGM in Montreal, and links to essays on Mansfield Park elsewhere on the web.

Here’s the list of the wonderful people who wrote guest posts for “An Invitation to Mansfield Park“: Maggie Arnold, Elaine Bander , Deborah Barnum , John Baxter , Lyn Bennett , Diana Birchall , Lorrie Clark, Sheryl Craig, Katie Davis, Karen Doornebos , Jennie Duke , Natasha Duquette , Lynn Festa , Jacqui Grainger , Sharon Hamilton, Margaret Horwitz, Syrie James , George Justice, Theresa Kenney , Ryder Kessler , Hugh Kindred , Sheila Johnson Kindred, Cheryl Kinney , Elisabeth Lenckos, Devoney Looser , Sara Malton , Juliet McMaster , David Monaghan , Laurel Ann Nattress , Amy Patterson , Mary C.M. Phillips , Mary Lu Redden , Lynn Shepherd , Julie Strong, Margaret C. Sullivan , Joyce Tarpley , Judith Thompson , Deborah Yaffe , and Sarah Woodberry . The series launched on May 9, 2014, the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mansfield Park, with a new post every Friday until the end of the year, plus one post per day during the week of Jane Austen’s 239th birthday in December.

Prelude to An Invitation to Mansfield Park: “I have something in hand…” – The Publishing of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park , by Deborah Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont, May 2, 2014: “today I am going to talk about the physical object, the book Mansfield Park as part of our material culture – how did it come to be, what it looked like, who bought it and what it cost, followed by a brief introduction to the later printing history that included the American, illustrated and foreign editions.” Part 39: “The Happy Endings of Mansfield Park,” by Sheila Kindred Blog posts about An Invitation to Mansfield Park: 200 Years of Mansfield Park! Planning the Mansfield Park Party (Many thanks to Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose.com for the title “An Invitation to Mansfield Park.”) I’m very happy to be hosting so many guest writers on my blog – but of course I can’t resist having “my share in the conversation” too, so here are some of the things I’ve written about Mansfield Park.

Mansfield Park is a Tragedy, Not a Comedy : “Many readers find the ending of Mansfield Park disappointing. I think that’s because most of us tend to approach Austen novels with the expectation that they will be romantic comedies. And most of them are. But not this one.” My essay “The Tragic Action of Mansfield Park,” based on the talk I gave at the JASNA 2006 AGM in Tucson and published first in Persuasions On-Line 28.1 (2007), was published in October 2014 in the MLA volume Approaches to Teaching Austen’s Mansfield Park, edited by Marcia McClintock Folsom and John Wiltshire. “Fanny Price and the Contemplative Life,” Chapter Five in my book Jane Austen’s Philosophy of the Virtues . You can read a discussion of this chapter at Frigate to Utopia .

“‘My idea of a chapel’ in Jane Austen’s World” – this essay on the Sotherton Chapel scene in Chapter 9 of Mansfield Park was published in Persuasions 24 (2002) and was based on the talk I gave at the JASNA 2002 AGM in Toronto. My thirteen-year-old friend Rose wrote about Gill Tavner’s adaptation of Mansfield Park: The Real Reads Mansfield Park — a review. Here are the posts I’ve written about the 2014 JASNA AGM, “Mansfield Park in Montreal: Contexts, Conventions & Controversies”: “Mansfield Park: 200 Years: 1814-2014,” on the JASNA website: “Jane Austen’s contemporaries were just as divided in their views of the novel and Fanny Price as modern readers are ….

Mansfield Park has sparked debate for 200 years, and we expect it to do so for at least 200 more!” Links to articles on Mansfield Park elsewhere on the web: “Ambiguous Cousinship: Mansfield Park and the Mansfield Family,” by Christine Kenyon Jones (Persuasions On-Line 31.1 [2010]): “This article traces the possible links between a portrait of two members of the family of the famous eighteenth-century Judge, Lord Mansfield, and Austen’s Mansfield Park. It suggests that this portrayal of unequal cousinhood, within the context of the slave trade, may have influenced Austen’s treatment of these subjects in her novel.” “This is your brain on Jane Austen, and Stanford researchers are taking notes,” by Corrie Goldman (Stanford Report [September 2012]): “Participants read a full chapter from Mansfield Park, which is projected onto a mirror inside an MRI scanner. Together with a verbal cue, color-coding on the text signals participants to move between two styles of attention: reading for pleasure or reading with a heightened attention to literary form.

The use of the fMRI allows for a dynamic picture of blood flow in the brain, ‘basically, where neurons are firing, and when,’ said Phillips. Eye-tracking compatible with fMRI shows how people’s eyes move as they read. As Phillips explained, the micro-jumps of the eyes ‘can be aligned with the temporal blood flow to different regions in the brain.’” “Lena Dunham’s Inviolable Self: Contrasting the Moral Worlds of Jane Austen and Girls,” by Alan Jacobs (First Things [May 2013]): “In light of my recent reading about Girls, as I read Mansfield Park I found my attention drawn particularly to Henry Crawford, a young man who falls in love with Fanny, and to his sister Mary, with whom Fanny’s favorite cousin Edmund is enamored. They are elegant, charming, witty, accomplished—the right kind of people in every way, except that they are bad. Not conventionally villainous, but morally untethered, and therefore (yes) dangerous both to themselves and others.” “Jane Austen, Feminist Icon,” by Devoney Looser (Los Angeles Review of Books [January 20, 2014]): “Poor Mansfield Park!

What are its chances at capturing the limelight, cast as it is in the shadows and on the heels of Pride and Prejudice? No 12-foot fiberglass statue of Jonny Lee Miller as Edmund Bertram will be installed in a London lake.” “Love in a Time of Adultery: The Moral Vision of Jane Austen and Dorothy Sayers,” by Christine Fletcher (ABC Religion and Ethics [February 11, 2014): “I want to discuss Jane Austen and Dorothy Sayers – and, in particular, Mansfield Park and Clouds of Witness – not as a literary critic, but as a moral philosopher.” … “They reject the autonomous individual of modernity who has no history, like Russell, and who defines freedom as freedom from restraint. Sayers and Austen, like all virtue ethicists, define freedom as freedom for pursuing the good.

This is a crucial, life-giving distinction.” Goodnestone Park “Jane Austen on Her Mansfield Park,” by Deborah Barnum (Jane Austen in Vermont, February 15, 2014): The first in a series celebrating Mansfield Park at Jane Austen in Vermont, this post lists all the references to the novel in Austen’s letters. “Dear Mary…, ” by Maggie Lane (Mansfield Park Musings, Jane Austen Society Nederland): “Dear Mary Crawford, As one of your warmest admirers, I am always so sorry when you find yourself shut out from Mansfield at the end of the book. Every time I reread I hope it might just turn out differently, but it never does. Two hundred years have now passed and you are still denied a happy ending. I wonder why you should be punished, not rewarded, for your delightful personality?” “A Creepmouse with a Nasty Bite,” by Hazel Jones (Mansfield Park Musings, Jane Austen Society Nederland): “Every year I re-read Mansfield Park and appreciate the sheer brilliance of its interior design, the complexity and narrative skill that make it one of the most satisfying novels to study with adult groups.

Every year I try my best to summon up some affection for Fanny Price, but the process invariably follows the same pattern. I begin by feeling sorry for her and understanding why she is as she is, quickly become impatient with her inability to act in any sense of the word and end with the certainty that I would not choose to spend much time in her uncomfortable company.” “Falling in Love with Mansfield Park,” by Susannah Fullerton (Mansfield Park Musings, Jane Austen Society Nederland): “I will never love [Fanny Price] the way I love Emma or Elizabeth, but I am extremely fond of her.

I think she is Jane Austen’s strongest heroine – the way she stands up to Sir Thomas when he tries to bully her into marrying Henry Crawford shows enormous integrity and courage.” “Judging Mansfield Park by its Cover,” by Jeanine Barchas (Mansfield Park Musings, Jane Austen Society Nederland): “Because publishers have had to work a bit harder to sell their copies of this particular Austen novel, Mansfield Park has been repackaged and refashioned with gusto and flair.” “How I Came to See Fanny Price’s Light,” by John Gould (JASNA Massachusetts, March 14, 2010): Gould compares Fanny Price to Elizabeth Bennet and finds her similarly “clever, witty, spirited, really good looking, observant, and principled.” “A Visit to the Sotherton Estate in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park,” by Tony Grant (Jane Austen in Vermont, April 18, 2014): “Jane Austen, by introducing the idea that her characters in Mansfield Park should visit Sotherton and provide suggestions for the ‘improvement’ of the landscape, was creating a situation where individuals would be able to express their ‘taste

,’ and so reveal their inner characters.” “Jane Austen in Austin: A Regency display on view,” at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin: “This year marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mansfield Park, Jane Austen’s most ambitious and controversial novel.

To celebrate both the author and the cultural history behind this complex work, students in English Professor Janine Barchas’s fall 2013 graduate seminar curated two display cases relating to Austen and her culture.” An introduction to Mansfield Park, plus summaries of chapters, by Laurel Ann Nattress (Austenprose.com). “Happy Birthday Will Shakespeare!” by Deborah Barnum (Jane Austen in Vermont, April 23, 2014): “His celebrated passages are quoted by every body; they are in half the books we open, and we all talk Shakespeare, use his similes, and describe with his descriptions…,” says Edmund Bertram to Henry Crawford in Volume 3, Chapter 3 of Mansfield Park. “Mansfield Park – An Outsider’s View,” by Louise West (Mansfield Park Musings, Jane Austen Society Nederland): “One particular circumstance which features more largely perhaps in Mansfield Park than in her other novels, is that of the poor relation.

Fanny is, by birth at least, the poorest of Austen’s heroines, and not until the end of the novel is she permitted to forget it, or to rise above her humble origins.” “Move over Lizzie Bennet — let’s hear it for the unsung heroine,” by John Mullan (on Fanny Price) and other writers (The Guardian, May 10, 2014): “in creating a heroine condemned to suffer in secret and powerlessly to watch the follies of others, Austen managed something as audacious as the invention of Elizabeth Bennet.” “Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: A Little Bit About Tom Bertram,” by Deborah Barnum (Austen in Vermont, May 12, 2014): “Who knew MP was so funny??” “Insipid and unlikeable: Fanny and Emma as Austen’s Moral Mirrors,” by Amy Patterson (Mansfield Park Musings, Jane Austen Society Nederland): “Emma’s suffering is not lessened by her strength of will, and Fanny’s is not soothed by her pious submission.

Both suffer, both learn the content of their own hearts, and both resign themselves to future suffering before it is finally relieved by a return to their comfortable family scene.” “Mansfield Park: First Impressions, Shifting Loyalties,” by Laurie Viera Rigler (Mansfield Park Musings, Jane Austen Society Nederland): “Here is a woman who has been told since childhood that she is the lowest of the low, and yet she has the backbone to stand up to the biggest and most formidable male authority figure in her life, the person under whose very roof she lives, and say No to what he and everyone around her wants her to do—simply because she follows her inner guide.” “In Defense of Fanny Price,” by Tara Isabella Burton (Paris Review, July 10, 2014): “In wanting Fanny to be cleverer, bolder, sexier than she is—in wanting her to be more like Mary—we become complicit in the world of Mansfield Park, and in the politics of exclusion through which Mansfield thrives.” “Mansfield Park shows the dark side of Jane Austen,” by Paula Byrne (Telegraph, July 26, 2014): “Why

 not write a novel undoing the heroine-centred courtship romance?” “Simple Girl: The Improbable Solace of Mansfield Park,” by Anna Keesey (Los Angeles Review of Books, August 17, 2014): “In her stillness, [Fanny Price] embodies civil disobedience, peaceful protest.

She is the power of the nonviolent no. No, I won’t speak that way. No, I won’t cop that temporary attitude. No, I won’t marry that man. No, I won’t support that lie. She does not give in, and her resistance is ultimately irresistible. Mansfield reforms — re-forms — itself around the steel surveyor’s pin of her single determined soul.” “Why boys love Jane Austen,” by Jonathan McAloon (The Spectator, September 2, 2014): “Rereading Mansfield Park today (exactly 200 years since its publication), I think I’ve cracked why boys love Austen. For all the solidity and uprightness, her technique is all about slyness. Austen has it both ways. The prose – yes it’s very good and funny and all that – but it also does what boys of a literary bent are trained out of (in school, uni and life), but forever want to do. Austen says a lot with the most words possible. Her long, necessary sentences heap up meaning.

She’s rich and economical.” “Reading Jane Austen with Vladimir Nabokov,” by Janine Barchas (Johns Hopkins University Press Blog, October 3, 2014): “In 2014, many Jane Austen fans have been rereading what is arguably her darkest and most difficult novel in celebration of Mansfield Park’s bicentenary. One unique copy of that novel, formerly owned by Russian-born American novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977), enables the rereading of one great novelist over the shoulder of another.” “Gough’s watercolors for the Jane Austen novels have a tendency toward ‘Pretty in Pink.'” How are you celebrating 200 years of Mansfield Park? Please share. Thank you!

Question: Who wrote the novel "Mansfield Park"?
Answer: JANE AUSTEN