Jane Austen

Mansfield Park Illustrated Jane Austen

The novel tells the story of Fanny Price starting when her overburdened family sends her at age ten to live in the household of her wealthy aunt and uncle and following her development into early adulthood. From early on critical interpretation has been diverse, differing particularly over the character of the heroine, Austen's views about theatrical performance and the centrality or otherwise of ordination and religion, and on the question of slavery. Some of these problems have been highlighted in the several later adaptations of the story for stage and screen. Fanny Price, at age ten, is sent from her impoverished home in Portsmouth to live as one of the families at Mansfield Park, the Northampton shire country estate of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram. There she is mistreated by all but her elder cousin Edmund. Her aunt Norris, the wife of the clergyman at the Mansfield parsonage, makes herself particularly unpleasant. On a visit to Mr. Rush worth's estate, Henry flirts with both Maria and Julia. Maria believes Henry is in love with her and so treats Mr. Rush worth dismissively, provoking his jealousy, while Julia struggles with jealousy and resentment towards her sister. Mary is disappointed to learn that Edmund will be a clergyman and tries to undermine his vocation. Fanny fears that Mary's charms are blinding Edmund to her flaws.