The unlikely heroine of this novel is the bashful and unadventurous Fanny Price, who occupies a Cinderella-like position in the residence of her wealthy cousins, the Bertrams, at Mansfield Park. Fanny is the butt of ridicule for the young Bertram sisters (Maria and Julia), and is relentlessly bullied by her manipulative and penny-pinching aunt, the widowed Mrs Norris. Maria, Julia, and their brother Tom are symbols of social irresponsibility, while their brother Edmund, is earnest and upright. Although Sir Thomas Bertram’s wealth is derived largely from a sugar plantation in the West Indies, Austen largely avoids discussion of slavery and other evils of colonialism.
The young Bertrams form a close friendship with the dashing and unscrupulous Henry Crawford, and his glamorous sister Mary. Henry decides to pursue Fanny with a view to marriage, but she, discerning his devious nature, resists all his advances.
After a visit to her family in Portsmouth, Fanny returns to Mansfield Park and finds herself attracted to the worthy Edmund, who is recovering after being rejected by Mary Crawford.
Interestingly, Mansfield Park features the abortive amateur production of a popular sentimental drama, Lovers’ Vows, planned by members and friends of the Bertram family while Sir Thomas is absent in the West Indies. His unexpected return brings these plans to an abrupt halt.
This audiobook recording also includes a multicast presentation of Lovers’ Vows.
In Lovers’ Vows, the widowed Baron Wildenheim, by a twist of circumstances, comes into contact with a poor woman whom he had abandoned while a young man. The Baron has since married a wealthy woman and they have a daughter, Amelia. Unbeknownst to the Baron, his first relationship resulted in the birth of a son. He now has to decide how he is to acknowledge his new-found son and the young man’s mother.
At the time of its publication, the plot was considered controversial because it centered on the issue of illegitimate children.
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“Mansfield Park, one of Jane Austen’s later tales, is also one of her best…So completely did Jane Austen realize all the softness and sweetness, and yet the staunchness—all the fragrant, white-violet-like charm of Fanny Price—so well did the author describe the pangs of wounded love in the tenderest of hearts…that Archbishop Whately went near to asserting the conviction that only a woman who had been herself crossed in love could thus fully interpret her heroine.”
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Sarah Tytler, author of Jane Austen and her works