Mansfield Park

Introduction by Margaret Drabble
Afterword by Julia Quinn
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Mass Market Paperback
$6.95 US
4.2"W x 6.67"H x 0.91"D  
On sale Dec 02, 2008 | 416 Pages | 9780451531117
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
In a novel filled with drama, greed, vanity, passion, and vulnerability, Jane Austen turns her unerring eye on the concerns of English society in this historical romance classic.

“Every moment had its pleasure and its hope.”


Fanny Price has grown up acutely conscious of her inferior status as a “poor relation” living with her wealthy cousins, the Bertram family. Yet as she enters womanhood, she dares to love their youngest son, Edmund—from afar. Secret longings aside, there is peace at the Bertrams’ idyllic estate, until the handsome and charming Crawford siblings arrive. Soon, Fanny finds herself unwillingly competing with the dazzling, witty Mary for Edmund’s affections—and is shocked to acquire a determined new suitor of her own. With five marriageable young people embroiled in courtships, entanglements, and intrigues, it’s only a matter of time before scandal reveals the true feelings of all the residents at Mansfield Park.

Unique in its moral design and its brilliant interplay of the forces of tradition and change, Mansfield Park is one of Austen’s most complex and controversial works.

Includes an Introduction by Margaret Drabble
and an Afterword by Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton series
Though the domain of Jane Austen’s novels was as circumscribed as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family’s entertainment. As a clergyman’s daughter from a well-connected family, she had ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At 21, she began a novel called “The First Impressions,” an early version of Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her father’s retirement, the family moved to the fashionable resort of Bath. Two years later she sold the first version of Northanger Abby to a London publisher, but the first of her novels to appear in print was Sense and Sensibility, published at her own expense in 1811. It was followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). After her father died in 1805, the family first moved to Southampton then to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Despite this relative retirement, Jane Austen was still in touch with a wider world, mainly through her brothers; one had become a very rich country gentleman, another a London banker, and two were naval officers. Though her many novels were published anonymously, she had many early and devoted readers, among them the Prince Regent and Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, in declining health, Austen wrote Persuasion and revised Northanger Abby. Her last work, Sandition, was left unfinished at her death on July 18, 1817. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen’s identity as an author was announced to the world posthumously by her brother Henry, who supervised the publication of Northanger Abby and Persuasion in 1818. View titles by Jane Austen
“Never did any novelist make more use of an impeccable sense of human values.”—Virginia Woolf

About

In a novel filled with drama, greed, vanity, passion, and vulnerability, Jane Austen turns her unerring eye on the concerns of English society in this historical romance classic.

“Every moment had its pleasure and its hope.”


Fanny Price has grown up acutely conscious of her inferior status as a “poor relation” living with her wealthy cousins, the Bertram family. Yet as she enters womanhood, she dares to love their youngest son, Edmund—from afar. Secret longings aside, there is peace at the Bertrams’ idyllic estate, until the handsome and charming Crawford siblings arrive. Soon, Fanny finds herself unwillingly competing with the dazzling, witty Mary for Edmund’s affections—and is shocked to acquire a determined new suitor of her own. With five marriageable young people embroiled in courtships, entanglements, and intrigues, it’s only a matter of time before scandal reveals the true feelings of all the residents at Mansfield Park.

Unique in its moral design and its brilliant interplay of the forces of tradition and change, Mansfield Park is one of Austen’s most complex and controversial works.

Includes an Introduction by Margaret Drabble
and an Afterword by Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton series

Author

Though the domain of Jane Austen’s novels was as circumscribed as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family’s entertainment. As a clergyman’s daughter from a well-connected family, she had ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At 21, she began a novel called “The First Impressions,” an early version of Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her father’s retirement, the family moved to the fashionable resort of Bath. Two years later she sold the first version of Northanger Abby to a London publisher, but the first of her novels to appear in print was Sense and Sensibility, published at her own expense in 1811. It was followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). After her father died in 1805, the family first moved to Southampton then to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Despite this relative retirement, Jane Austen was still in touch with a wider world, mainly through her brothers; one had become a very rich country gentleman, another a London banker, and two were naval officers. Though her many novels were published anonymously, she had many early and devoted readers, among them the Prince Regent and Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, in declining health, Austen wrote Persuasion and revised Northanger Abby. Her last work, Sandition, was left unfinished at her death on July 18, 1817. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen’s identity as an author was announced to the world posthumously by her brother Henry, who supervised the publication of Northanger Abby and Persuasion in 1818. View titles by Jane Austen

Praise

“Never did any novelist make more use of an impeccable sense of human values.”—Virginia Woolf

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