Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen’s 1814 novel, centers on Fanny Price, a poor young girl sent at age ten from her chaotic Portsmouth home to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle Bertram at their grand estate. Timid and principled, Fanny endures neglect from most relatives except her cousin Edmund, who becomes her steadfast supporter amid the family’s moral lapses and social ambitions. The arrival of charming but unscrupulous siblings Henry and Mary Crawford disrupts the household, sparking flirtations, a scandalous amateur theater production, and tests of virtue that culminate in Fanny’s quiet triumph through integrity, leading to her marriage to Edmund.