Mansfield Park

Jane AustenFeb 2015

4.3

Word count: 187K words
Chapters: 49

Summary

"Mansfield Park"encompasses not only Jane Austen's great comedic gifts and her genius as a historian of the human animal,but her personal credo as well--her faith in a social order that combats chaos through civil grace, decency,and wit.At the novel's center is Fanny Price,the classic"poor cousin,"brought as a child to Mansfield Park by the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. Over time, Fanny comes to demonstrate forcibly those virtues Austen most admired: modesty, firm principles, and a loving heart. As Fanny watches her cousins Maria and Julia cast aside their scruples in dangerous flirtations (and worse),and as she herself resolutely resists the advantages of marriage to the fascinating but morally unsteady Henry Crawford,her seeming austerity grows in appeal and makes clear to us why she was Austen's own favorite among her heroines.

Editor's review

Of Austen's six novels, this is the one that least courts the reader and best rewards rereading. It moves the scene from drawing rooms full of witty repartee to a well-ordered estate and places at its center a quiet, dependent girl, watching how she holds on to her own judgment bit by bit in circumstances where she is undervalued. Austen writes more seriously here than before: her concern is not only marriage but how a person's taste, principles, and upbringing are tested amid the frivolity and indulgence of a group. The amateur theatricals are almost a moral experiment, and the Portsmouth visit lets the heroine see her own world afresh. The pace is indeed slow, and the opening dozens of pages are so restrained as to seem almost cold, but it is precisely this restraint that gives weight to every later refusal. Best read after Pride and Prejudice, when you will see another side of the same author—less playful, but more haunting.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have already read Pride and Prejudice and want to see another side of Austen.
Students of English and American literature and scholars of the nineteenth-century novel, who can use it as a text for close reading.
Patient readers who enjoy slow character portrayal and are willing to bear a long buildup.
Book-club members; the novel's moral questions lend themselves to disagreement and discussion.

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a light romantic comedy with dense, sparkling dialogue.
Readers who need strong plot momentum and dislike long passages of psychological description and commentary.
Beginners with weak English who want to use this book as an entry into reading in the original.

Reading tips

Read the first six chapters before deciding whether to continue; the relationships only truly unfold by that point.
Pay attention to seating, forms of address, and silences at every gathering; these details carry the judgments.
After finishing Volume III, look back at Volume I and reassess your first impressions of Fanny and Henry.
Draw your own character map and read the two spaces inside and outside the estate in counterpoint.

Copyright information
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHAPTER XXXIX
CHAPTER XL
CHAPTER XLI
CHAPTER XLII
CHAPTER XLIII
CHAPTER XLIV
CHAPTER XLV
CHAPTER XLVI
CHAPTER XLVII
CHAPTER XLVIII

FAQ

Can I read this directly without having read other Austen novels?

You can, but it is not the best place to start. The book's interest comes largely from the slow revelation of social hypocrisy, and it lacks the immediately gripping wit of Pride and Prejudice. Starting with the latter and then coming to this book makes it easier to appreciate the shift and ambition in the author's method.

Fanny is so passive—won't that make the reading dull?

Her passivity is itself part of the theme. The author gives the role of observer to someone with no voice, and the reader's judgment is thus repeatedly engaged. If you watch for her few refusals at key moments, you will find that this quietness is not weakness but a kind of persistence that exacts a cost.

Is the moral stance the book endorses outdated today?

Its emphasis on restraint, duty, and upbringing does stand at some distance from modern readers' instincts. But Austen does not present these virtues as a given; she lets them reveal their costs and limits through contrast. Reading with skepticism is more rewarding than either wholehearted agreement or wholesale rejection.

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About the author

Jane Austen Author · British · 1775–1817

Jane Austen (1775–1817) was a British novelist, born into the family of a clergyman in Steventon, Hampshire, and she remained unmarried throughout her life. She wrote six novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. With delicate irony she portrayed the marriages and daily life of the English gentry, and she is regarded as one of the most important writers in the history of the English novel. Her works are commonly classified under foreign literature, inspirational growth, and world classics, and they are widely read among Chinese readers; this library holds 88 editions of her works.