Mansfield Park

One of Jane Austen's most profound works, Mansfield Park is a subtle, moving examination of the contrast between superficial charm and true integrity.

It tells the story of shy, vulnerable Fanny Price, brought up by rich relations at Mansfield Park with only her cousin Edmund as an ally. When a glamorous couple, Mary Crawford and her brother Henry, arrive from London, their charisma and reckless taste for flirtation dazzle everyone except Fanny, putting her strength of character to its greatest test.

Review by John Purcell

The best thing about Mansfield Park is the Crawfords. They are the disrupters in this novel and they are wonderfully wicked. More wicked than any other characters in Austen. Normally, the people who cause trouble do so because of ignorance or bad breeding. In Mansfield Park, Mary and Henry Crawford are wicked because it pleases them to be so.

Jane Austen admired the works of Samuel Richardson. And the Crawfords closest literary cousin is Robert Lovelace, the breathtakingly heinous yet irresistible villain from Clarissa. Though neither Mary nor Henry are so contemptible, each express ideas which seem utterly shocking in a novel by Jane Austen.

And Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park, is the perfect foil for these two outrageous baddies. She is innocent of many things, but knows danger when it appears. Her struggles to convince the rest of her family and friends of the unscrupulous nature of their new friends make for great reading. Her dalliance with the handsome Henry had me yelling at the book, like it was a pantomime - ‘he’s behind you!’

Don’t let anyone tell you Mansfield Park isn’t worth reading, as I was told by some dolt! It isn’t the best of Jane Austen’s works, but it is still a work by Jane Austen, and this is something to be cherished.

About the Author

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of English literature's greatest and most widely-read writers - one of the four 'great English novelists' according to F. R. Leavis (along with George Eliot, Henry James and Joseph Conrad). Her novels, both romantic fiction and acerbic social commentary, include Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. The third of Austen's novels to be published, Mansfield Park is a subtle examination of social position and moral integrity. All six titles are published in the Penguin English Library.