Mansfield Park: A Novel.

AUSTEN, Jane.

Item Number: 95310

London: Richard Bentley, 1837.

First edition published as one volume and first illustrated edition of Austen’s third published novel. Small octavo, bound in three quarters period leather over marbled boards, engraved frontispiece and title vignette. In very good condition.

“The subject of Mansfield Park is education, or the discipline and training of the feelings… [It is] an intensely moving and intelligent comedy about modern England” (Honan, 338-48). The novel tells the story of Fanny Price, starting when her overburdened, impoverished family sends her at age ten to live in the household of her wealthy aunt and uncle; it follows her development and concludes in early adulthood. Critical reception of Mansfield Park has been diverse and it is now considered Austen's most controversial novel. In recent decades, historical context and allusions have featured prominently in criticism as has a growing awareness of Austen's sophisticated psychological characterizations.