Mansfield Park (Collins Classics) - Softcover

Austen, Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007420293 ISBN 13: 9780007420292

Publisher: William Collins, 2011

Synopsis

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.`I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.'Humble and lowly, a young Fanny Price goes to live with her wealthy Aunt and Uncle at their grand house, Mansfield Park. Growing up with her privileged and spoilt cousins, the Bertrams, she lives in the shadows of their glamorous lives, but manages to find an ally in her cousin, Edmund.When Henry and Mary Crawford come to visit, the house is thrown into disarray as romance flourishes between the young people, leading Fanny to finally confront the extent of her true feelings for Edmund.

About this title

Review:

The Mansfield Park of the title, a magnificent, idyllic estate which is home to the wealthy Bertram family, stands as a bastion of English tradition and stability. The novel's heroine, Fanny Price, is a "poor relation" living with the Bertrams, acutely conscious of her inferior status and yet daring to love their son Edmund--but from afar. However, with five marriageable young people on the premises, the peace at Mansfield cannot last. Courtships, entertainments and intrigues throw the place into turmoil, and Fanny finds herself unwillingly competing with a dazzlingly witty and lovely rival. As critic Margaret Drabble has pointed out, the house becomes "full of the energies of discord--sibling rivalry, greed, ambition, illicit sexual passion, and vanity," and the novel becomes ever more engrossing as it builds to Mansfield's final scandal and, finally, a satisfying conclusion. Unique in its moral design and brilliant interplay of the forces of tradition and change, Mansfield Park was the first novel of Jane Austen's maturity, and the first in which the author turned her unerring eye on the concerns of English society at a time of great upheaval.

Review:

"Full of the energies of discord - sibling rivalry, greed, ambition, illicit sexual passion, and vanity" (Margaret Drabble)

"Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire" (J.K. Rowling)

"Jane Austen at her most genteelly ascerbic" (The Times)

"Austen looks at her world with a cool, undressing gaze...she is a formidable opponent of hypocrisy and sentimentality" (Observer)

"Who needs eReaders when book publishers are repackaging classic tales in beautiful covers like these? ... Perfect for fans of the author" (Bella)

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0007420293
• ISBN 13: 9780007420292
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528