Mansfield Park is the third novel by Jane Austen. The first edition was published in 1814 by Thomas Edgerton, and the second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray, who also founded The Quarterly Review. Austen published the novel in three volumes, and it is considered the most serious of her novels. This novel never received critical reception until 1821. She wrote Mansfield Park while living in Chawton, and the announcement that the writer of Sence and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice would be publishing another novel caused the readers to buy out Austen’s third novel in six months. The controversy over the novel’s themes and main characters, particularly Fanny Price, left audiences feeling that Pride and Prejudice remained superior and most favored the brilliance of her second novel. Austen herself stated the novel would not be half as great as the success of her second. Although the novel has sparked debate over its plot and characters for two hundred years, it remains to be a heartwarming narrative delivered by one of the most significant literary geniuses of the 19th century. 

Austen, Jane, and June Sturrock. “Jane Austen: A Brief Chronology” Mansfield Park, Broadview Press, Peterborough, Ontario, 2003, p. 30.

“Mansfield Park.” Jane Austen Society of North America, Jane Austen Society of North America, https://jasna.org/austen/works/mansfield-park/.