Mansfield Park

In all things, Jane Austen was a lady of faith. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Mansfield Park, her most neglected, abused, and misunderstood novel. Like Austen's other novels, it can only be fully appreciated when illuminated by the virtuous life and Christian beliefs of the author herself. Mansfield Park is a novel about ordination, and about the family, that delves into questions of the education and upbringing of children, of conservative values, of parental authority, of the propriety and place of romantic love, of the tension between propriety and sophistication, and of the dangers of undue familiarity outside the family circle. It unerringly displays the depth of Austen's wisdom, especially in her understanding of the spiritual, psychological, and cultural complexities of morality. As well as the full text of one of the richest and most intricately woven novels in the English language, this new critical edition contains many insightful critical essays by today's leading Austen experts. Book jacket.