Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
1 Rating(s)
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Mansfield Park

Author: Jane Austen

Narrator: Johanna Ward

Unabridged: 16 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/28/2008

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

Fanny Price, a poor relation of the rich Bertrams, is reluctantly adopted into the family to be brought up at Mansfield Park, where she is condescendingly treated. Only her cousin Edmund, a young clergyman, appreciates her fine qualities. Fanny soon falls in love with him, but Edmund is, unfortunately, drawn to the shallow and worldly Mary Crawford. Fannys quiet humility, steadfast loyalty, and natural goodness are matched against the wit and brilliance of her lovely rival. The tension is heightened when Henry Crawford, Marys equally sophisticated and flirtatious brother, takes an interest in Fanny. Jane Austens subtle, satiric novel skillfully uses her characters emotional relationships to explore the social and moral values by which they attempt to order their lives.

About Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, to the Reverend George Austen and his wife, Cassandra Leigh Austen, in the village of Steventon in Hampshire, England. Though her mother was from a family of gentry, Jane's father was not well off, and the large family had to take in school boarders to make ends meet. The second youngest of the Austens' eight children, Jane was very close to her elder, and only, sister, Cassandra, and neither sister ever married. Both girls were educated at home, as many were at that time.

From a young age Jane wrote satires and read them aloud to her appreciative family. Though she completed the manuscripts of two full-length novels while living at Steventon, these were not published. Later, these novels were revised into the form under which they were published, as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, respectively.

In 1801, George Austen retired from the clergy, and Jane, Cassandra, and their parents took up residence in Bath, a fashionable town Jane liked far less than her native village. Jane seems to have written little during this period. When Mr. Austen died in 1805, the three women, Mrs. Austen and her daughters, moved first to Southampton and then, partly subsidized by Jane's brothers, occupied a house in Chawton, a village not unlike Jane's first home. There she began to work on writing and pursued publishing once more, leading to the anonymous publication of Sense and Sensibility in 1811 and Pride and Prejudice in 1813, to modestly good reviews.

Known for her cheerful, modest, and witty character, Jane Austen had a busy family and social life but very little direct romantic experience. Her last years were quiet and devoted to family, friends, and writing her final novels. In 1817 she had to interrupt work on her last and unfinished novel, Sanditon, because she fell ill. She died on July 18, 1817, in Winchester, where she had been taken for medical treatment. After her death, her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published, together with a biographical notice, due to the efforts of her brother Henry. Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Greyeyedminerva on August 12, 2007

I was astounded to find that many of the reviews on this site criticize this book for the main character, Fanny Price, & her timidity and morality. It is very different from Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, whose smart, sensible heroines make the novels, but I actually enjoyed this boo......more

Goodreads review by Tharindu on July 04, 2021

"I am of a cautious temper, and unwilling to risk my happiness in a hurry." This has to be the only Austen book I felt apprehensive of reading: there is a lot of controversy around this book, to make one re-think if diving in to this would be a good idea. It turns out, at least for me, the forebo......more

Goodreads review by emma on December 21, 2023

I apologize if you were in any way affected by the recent tilting of the world off its axis. For the first time ever, I was disappointed by something by Jane Austen, and it threatened to destroy the basic functioning of the universe. Mansfield Park is just...not very good. There’s that whole romance-w......more

Goodreads review by Emily on May 13, 2023

I liked Fanny but Edmund is a poopoohead.......more

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on April 03, 2020

Upping my rating from 3 stars to 4 on reread. Mansfield Park isn't as easy to love as most of Jane Austen's other novels, but it has a lot of insights to offer into the personalities, strengths and weaknesses of not just Fanny, but all of the other characters who live in and around Mansfield Park, a......more