MANSFIELD PARK

Mansfield Park is Jane Austen's version of a Cinderella story. Fanny Price is a poor relation living with her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, and their children. Edmund, the second son, is the only one who treats her with kindness and they develop a strong bond, until the dashing Henry Crawford and his lovely sister Mary come to visit. The Crawfords are outwardly charming, but their indifferent upbringing leaves them unable to distinguish right from wrong, and Fanny must watch her beloved Edmund almost fall into Mary’s trap.

Fanny Price is meek and mild, and unfailingly good. When the Crawfords introduce risky activities into her social set, she tries to prevent disaster, but the production of a play leads all the members of the family astray and Edmund almost falls irretrievably in love with the beautiful Mary. Fanny watches with trepidation and much pain, until Edmund’s own high sense of morality brings him to the right conclusions about which is the better woman, on the inside.