“Mansfield Park” was written by Jane Austen between 1811 and 1813, although it did not appear in print until 1814. It is possible to call it the most socially-aware of Jane Austen’s novels, as it is focusing on the slave trade and reveal the roots of the British upper-crust’s wealth being based in corruption and exploitation. Simultaneously, it is probably the least romantic and most pragmatic of her novels, as its abrupt and rather matter-of-fact ending shows.
As a novel “Mansfield Park” is very complex even by the standards of Jane Austen, who creates complex characters and situations in all her novels. Like other Austen novels, this one is concerned with a young woman trying to find her place in the social order. Fanny, the protagonist, comes from a poor family, her father is drunkard, but she is being raised by her rich aunt and uncle, and, like other Austen heroines, Fanny, in part, determines her status by marrying.
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