Jane Austen turns her unerring eye on the concerns of English society at a time of great upheaval in this historical romance classic.Mansfield Park is named for the magnificent, idyllic estate that is home to the wealthy Bertram family and that serves as a powerful symbol of English tradition and stability in contemporary society. The novel’s heroine, Fanny Price–a “poor relation” living with the Bertrams–is acutely conscious of her inferior status and yet she dares to love their son Edmund–from afar. With five marriageable young people on the premises, the peace at Mansfield cannot last. Courtship rites, entertainments, and intrigues throw the place into turmoil, and Fanny finds herself unwillingly competing with a dazzlingly witty and lovely rival. The house becomes full of the energies of discord–sibling rivalry, greed, creative ambition, illicit sexual passion, and vanity. The novel grows ever more engrossing right up to Mansfield’s final scandal and the satisfying romantic conclusion. Unique in its moral design and its brilliant interplay of the forces of tradition and change, Mansfield Park was the first novel of Jane Austen’s maturity.

At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her wealthy uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, in the chilly grandeur of Mansfield Park. She gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund, but when the dazzling and sophisticated Crawfords arrive, and amateur theatricals unleash rivalry and sexual jealousy, Fanny has to fight to retain her independence.