Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

By Bright Summaries

Unlock the more straightforward side of Mansfield Park with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, which follows the shy, unassuming Fanny Price as she grows up with her wealthy relatives the Bertrams. She is often overlooked in favour of her livelier cousins, particularly after the arrival of the ebullient, outgoing siblings Henry and Mary Crawford. In this atmosphere, she is drawn to her cousin Edmund Bertram, who shuns the frivolous pursuits of his siblings, although he is still far from immune to Mary’s charms… Mansfield Park is arguably Austen’s most serious work, exploring as it does the essential falseness of much social interaction and the slavery that made the lives of the Georgian middle and upper classes possible;

Find out everything you need to know about Mansfield Park in a fraction of the time!

This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:
• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
• Release date: Apr 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9782808016353

Book preview

ENGLISH NOVELIST

Born in Steventon in 1775.

Died in Winchester in 1817.

Notable works:

Pride and Prejudice (1813), novel

Northanger Abbey (1818), novel

Persuasion (1818), novel

Jane Austen was born in Hampshire in 1775, the daughter of an Anglican rector. Although the Austens had a modest income, Jane and her siblings were encouraged to read widely. She wrote her first spoof novella, Love and Freindship (1790) – misspelling deliberate – when she was just 14. Jane apparently read excerpts of the work aloud to her family, developing a writing style characterised by social observation and wit.

In 1801, Jane moved from Hampshire to Bath with her parents and sister Cassandra. Their life in the city was cut short, however, when her father died in 1805. Jane, her mother and Cassandra finally settled in the village of Chawton, where Jane wrote her most famous novels: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. In 1816, at the age of 41, she became ill and died the following year, possibly of Addison’s disease. She continued to write until the very end and is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

A STUDY OF FAMILIAL DUTY

Genre: novel

Reference edition: Austen, J. (2011) Mansfield Park. London: Penguin.

1stedition: 1814

Themes: class, family, marriage, propriety, slavery, acting, the home

Mansfield Park was written immediately after Pride and Prejudice. Considering the novels’ proximity, readers may wonder at the difference between the two: while Pride and Prejudice is an homage to wit, Mansfield Park reveals the dark side of charisma, using Fanny Price as a foil to the glamorous Crawfords,