Product Description

New chronology and further reading; Tony Tanner's original introduction reinstated

Edited with an introduction by Kathryn Sutherland.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13063 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-29
• Released on: 2003-04-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780141439808
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. She is also the author of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. Kathryn Sutherland is a reader in English at St Anne's College, Oxford. Tony Tanner was a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Cambridge.

Customer Reviews

Not Austen's best, but still wonderful
After having read (and loved) Jane Austen's more famous novels EMMA and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, I found MANSFIELD PARK a true delight. Fanny Price is taken in by her wealthy aunt and uncle as charity to her more lowly-married mother, and is raised with her cousins with the idea she needs refinement and education to become as good a woman as her lesser social standing will allow. Fanny is nervous and self-effacing, struggling with her new situation until her cousin Edmund makes her feel more at home. Gradually, she feels like a part of the family, although the nagging sense of unworthiness always asserts itself. As cousins marry and suitors appear, as scandals arise and emotions become known, Fanny finds herself in the equivalent of a Victorian soap opera.

Fanny is undoubtedly one of Austen's less assertive characters, although she does mature into a woman who knows what she wants and will accept no less. I loved Fanny and her honesty, the little girl who fears the stars in her eyes and still manages to grow up into a respectable - and respected - woman. Her complexities are subtle and understated, making the reader work at times to understand her motivation, although anyone who has felt like an outcast even once, or anyone who respects honesty, will identify with her. In true Austen fashion, the observations are witty, with pointed social analysis and cynicism dressed up in sly humor. Fanny's aunts in particular are skewered, but no one, not even Fanny, is spared.

Readers picking up this novel for the sheer delight of it will find it difficult to put down, as its language is accessible and free-flowing. Students and book club members who must pay closer attention to themes and other literary issues may want to consider the role social standing and money play; the evolution of Fanny's character (and whether she is sympathetic); the techniques Austen uses to evoke humor; and the courtship protocol for Victorian England and how the characters both work within, and violate, the social rules.

I highly recommend this book for teenagers and adults alike, especially those whose literary tastes run toward the classics.

"Never; He Never Will Succeed With Me..."
Out of all Jane Austen's wonderful novels "Mansfield Park" is perhaps her most widely-debated. With a heroine who triumphs through her utter passivity, uncomfortable themes of familial power and corruption, and sub-text on slavery, it is rightfully described as "Austen's most complex and profound *and* her least likeable novel." As well as this is Austen's own declaration that "Mansfield Park" was her favourite work. To say it is unique is an understatement.

Fanny Price is only a child when she is sent from her impoverished home to live with her aunt at the grand Mansfield Park. A quiet child, Fanny is overwhelmed by her wealthy and privileged family and is painfully homesick - a condition that the Bertrams cannot possibly understand. Hasn't she been removed from a life of near-squalor and no prospects? But the noble-yet-cold Sir Thomas Bertram, his child-like wife Lady Bertram, his self-centred eldest son Tom and his daughters Maria and Julia are not cruel to Fanny in the way that the evil step-family was cruel to Cinderella - simply misguided and so removed from her situation as to not understand the first thing about her. But from her second aunt, the loathsome Mrs Norris, Fanny receives only criticism and thinly-veiled scorn. Only the youngest son Edmund, with ambitions to become a quiet country clergyman, shows genuine compassion and sympathy to her, and soon the cousins are as close as siblings.

Fanny grows into a young woman, but keeps her timidity - which hides a bright mind and a clear sense of right and wrong. From London come the glamorous Crawford siblings - the rakish Henry Crawford who shamelessly flirts with Maria, even though she is engaged to one Mr Rushmore, and the witty Mary Crawford, who soon captivates Edmund. This is much to Fanny's heartbreak since she has been secretly in love with Edmund for years, and she cannot help but distrust the dazzling Crawfords.

It is not an understatement to say disaster strikes when Mr Crawford proposes to Fanny, as for her the attentions of such a man are utterly unwelcome. Unwelcome suitors are standard fare in Austen's previous novels, such as Mr Collins to Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Elton to Emma Woodhouse, but here the situation takes on a darker tone. Firstly, because Austen's previous uses of this plot-turn are usually played for laughs with the suitor as a comical buffoon, and second because her heroines are well able enough to reject such men. For Fanny however, the experience terrifies her and one can feel her distress and conflict as her family pressure her into marriage against the utter conviction of her heart. Like a bird in a cage, Fanny is completely helpless.

Austen is renowned for poking fun at contemporary issues with her ingenious wit, and "Mansfield Park" is concerned with the disillusions of the upper-class: the belief that superior educations, convenient marriages, good manners and breeding and sparkling wit automatically make a morally good person. As such, whilst the Bertram family live their lives with the complete assumption that they are decent people, Fanny's modesty and self-discipline ensures that her character is superior to each and every one of them. The saying "the moment you believe you are a worthy person is the moment you cease to be one" caters nicely to Austen's ideal, and her general themes of conservatism, modesty and quiet reflection.

All of Austen's heroines are diverse in a central, particular way. For instance, Emma of "Emma" is the only one removed from the pressure of making a financially secure marriage, whilst Anne of "Persuasion" is the only one who is at a more mature age than the others. In this way, all of Austen's novels have a unique individual young woman as its protagonist. And so what is Fanny Price's particular trait? You may think that it is her timidity, but more surprising is the fact that Fanny is completely infallible. Throughout the course of the story Fanny's judgement never falters, nor is she ever once proved incorrect. She is a positive angel, and as Edmund says at one point: "We have all been more or less to blame... every one of us, excepting Fanny."

As well as this, Austen turns her eye onto the topic of family and home-life, in a particularly bittersweet way. Fanny continually suffers from displacement - first at Mansfield Park, and later in the novel when she returns to her family home in Portsmouth to find it is not the idealistic family home she half-remembers. It is a poignant, but too-often true sensation that many contemporary readers may relate to: the return to your childhood home only to find that it isn't really "home" anymore.

In this Penguin Classics edition, Kathyrn Sutherland and Tony Tanner provide excellent Introductions/Appendixes to the work. Even if you usually skip over these sorts of things, I highly recommend taking the time to read them, as Tanner in particular sheds new light over several episodes in the novel: for example the metaphorical connotations in the family's walk through Rushmore's gardens, and the foreshadowing prevalent in what appears to be a simple game of cards.

Despite its controversy, "Mansfield Park" is perhaps my favourite Austen novel (I still haven't read "Northanger Abbey", so I can't truthfully make that claim yet) and though Fanny is not as spunky or spirited as many readers would like or are used to, it is actually quite refreshing to have a shy and introverted protagonist who wins the game of life; who advocates the real importance of morals and goodness. You don't need to be a strong feminine role-model to be a good person.

An Inspiring Heroine
While this isn't the greatest of Jane Austen's novels and is somewhat light on external action, it is certainly a fine example of characterization, by which I mean that the action takes place inside the heads of the main characters, especially Fanny Price, the heroine. Fanny is 10 years old when she comes to live with her mean-spirited relatives at Mansfield Park, and grows to womanhood in an environment full of condescension and personal challenge. Her story, and her resulting triumph over prejudice and emotional greed, was an inspiration to women when it was written, and continues to be so today.

If you are not familiar with Jane Austen's work, don't be put off by the comments of others. Start with one of her more well-known novels, such as Pride and Prejudice or Emma, and then work up to Mansfield Park after you've come to love Austen.

If you are one of those women who, like me, devoured Austen's more well-known novels and are now searching for the lesser known work, will enjoy Mansfield Park as well. I give it five stars just for the simple fact that it was written by Austen, arguably one of the greatest writers in the English language, male or female.