Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park is Jane Austen's third novel. The story centres around three sisters: Lady Bertram, who had married a wealthy baronet, Mrs. Norris, who married the local parson, a position he was able to take up thanks to Sir Thomas Bertram, Lady Bertram's husband. This meant that they could live well, but to a standard significantly below that of Lady Bertram. The third was Mrs. Price, who married a naval Lieutenant, he becomes wounded in battle and is pensioned off on half pay.

The Prices have nine children, which puts a marked strain on their finances. In an effort to ease their predicament she proposes that her eldest daughter, Fanny Price, who was ten years old, should live with her wealthier sister, Lady Bertram, at Mansfield Park. Fanny finds that her life at Mansfield Park is not what she or her mother had expected. Her aunt, Mrs Norris, comes to resent her, constantly reminding her what a bother she is.

Jane Austen wrote Mansfield Park between February 1811 and 1813, while living at Chawton Cottage. The book was first published in May 1814 by Thomas Egerton, who had also published her two previous novels, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.