Mansfield Park

Summary

“The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's.”

When Fanny Price is very young, she is sent away to live with her aunt and uncle at Mansfield Park, a large estate filled with all of Fanny’s insufferable cousins and family members. Her life is full of people mistreating her and acting unpleasant, and generally giving her a difficult time. She grows older in the midst of her mistreatment, and learns to adjust to the harsh environment at Mansfield Park.

As Fanny grows older, she faces awkward situations as her cousins begin to fall in love and pair off, and what ensues is a twisting tale of love triangles, mistaken affection, playful seductions, and the pain of young love scorned. Fanny continues to age and work through all of the drama and theatrics of her family and the men wooing her, with one of them eventually following her as she returns to her original home in Portsmouth to be with her sister.

Mansfield Park was Jane Austen’s third novel and is often stated to be her most mature. The complex love entanglements, mature situations, and familial drama are common in Austen’s literature, but Mansfield Park is one of the most complex of her novels. The book has been lauded for its challenging of the conservative values of the age, and for its masterful artistry which cleverly disguises the social commentary within.