Mansfield Park is an ambitious and difficult novel, the first composed and published exclusively in Jane Austen's adulthood. She was proud of it. Inclined to consider Pride and Prejudice, which she had just published, "rather too light & bright & sparkling," Austen wrote a novel with all the "shade" her earlier comic masterpiece lacked. Of course,she knew full well that Mansfield Park was different from her previous work--"not half so entertaining," as she put it--but she was confident it would "sell well" and contribute to the modest but growing commercial success of her previous novels, a success which, as she confided to her brother Frank, "only made [her] long for more. She had reason to suppose herself right. Within six months of its publication by Thomas Egerton in May 1813, Austen wrote her niece, "You will be glad to hear that the first Edit: of M.P. is all sold. Naturally Austen supposed that Egerton would agree to a second edition. But Egerton declined.
This Norton Critical Edition of Jane Austen's most ambitious and controversial novel is based on a new authoritative text, which closely follows the one Austen oversaw when the novel was revised and reprinted in 1816. Sutmorting materiais include an introduction, textual annotations, and a contemporary map of England.
"Contexts" provides readers with a rich selection of contemporary materials on such issues as the slave trade, religion, the conduct of women, and landscape design that illuminate Austen's dark and often disturbing novel. Elizabeth Inchbald's adaptation of Lovers' Vows (the play staged by the characters in Mansfield Park) is included, as are writings by Humphry Repton, Thomas Gisborne,Hannah More, and Mary Wollstonecraft, among others.
"Criticism" includes essays on the novel by Jan Fergus, Lionel Trilling, Alistair Duckworth, Nina Auerbach, Claudia L. Johnson,Joseph Litvak, Edward Said, Brian Southam, and Joseph Lew.
A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Jane Austen and Mansfield Park
A Note on Money in Austen's Novels
A Note on Austen and the Text of Mansfield Park
The Text of Mansfield Park
Map of England
Facsimile title page
Mansfield Park
Textual Notes
Contexts
Elizabeth Inchbald · Lovers' Vows (1798)
Jane Austen · Opinions of Mansfield Park (1814, 1815)
· Evening Prayer No. I
A Companion to the Altar
On Family Prayer
Humphry Repton · Sketches and Hints on Landscape
Gardening (1795)
From Chapter III. Proper Situations for a House
· Observations on the Theory and Practice of
_ Landscape Gardening (1803)
From Chapter VII. Farm and Park Distinct Objects
William Cowper · The Task (1785)
From Book I. The Sofa
From Book III. The Garden
John Gregory · A Father's Legacy to His Daughter (1774)
From Conduct and Behaviour
From Amusements
Mary Wollstonecraft · A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman (1792)
From Chapter II. The Prevailing Opinion of
a Sexual Character Discussed
From Chapter III. The Same Subject Continued
Thomas Gisborne · An Enquiry into the Duties
of Men in the Higher and Middle Classes of
Society in Great Britain (1794)
From Chapter XI. On the Duties of the
Clerical Profession
· An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex (1797)
From Chapter IX. On Amusements in General
From Chapter X. On the Employment of Time
Hannah More · Strictures on the Modern System
of Female Education (1799)
From Chapter VI. Filial Obedience Not the
Character of the Age
Parliamentary Debates (1806)
From Abolition of the Slave Trade
Thomas Clarkson · From History of the . . .
Abolition of the African Slave Trade . . . (1808)
Elizabeth Inchbald · Remarks on Shakespeare's
King Henry VIII (,1806-09)
Criticism
Jan Fergus · Power and Mansfield Park
Lionel Trilling · Mansfield Park
Mistair Duckworth · Mansfield Park: Jane Austen's
Grounds of Being
Nina Auerbach · Jane Austen's Dangerous Charm:
Feeling as One Ought about Fanny Price
Claudia L. Johnson · Mansfield Park:
Confusions of Guilt and Revolutions of Mind
Joseph Litvak · The Infection of Acting:
Theatricals and Theatricality in Mansfield Park
Edward Said · Jane Austen and Empire
Brian Southam · The Silence of the Bertrams
Joseph Lew · "That Abominable Traffic":
Mansfield Park and the Dynamics of Slavery
Jane Austen: A Chronology
Selected Bibliography