Mansfield Park is a novel by English Jane Austen, author of other famous books Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma.
Fanny Price, niece of Lady Bertram, is brought to live at Mansfield Park, owned by her aunt, Lady Bertram and
Sir Thomas Bertram. The Bertrams have two daughters, Maria and Julia, and two sons, Tom and Edmund. Of her cousins, Edmund is the only one who Fanny finds friendly.
Sir Thomas has always impressed on his children the need for manners and social accomplishments. When Sir Thomas leaves home for the West Indies on a business venture, the children plan to stage a play, "Lovers' Vows" by Elizabeth Inchbald. In this play they engage in self-indulgent flirtations. Fanny is not a willing participant. Maria, who is attracted to Henry Crawford, is already engaged to Mr Rushworth. Edmund Bertram likes Mary, Henry's sister. Maria decides to marry Rushworth.
Henry turns his attention to Fanny and proposes but she refuses the proposal. Sir Thomas, now back at Mansfield, is displeased by Fanny's decision.
Fanny visits her own family in Portsmouth. Annoyed by the noise and disorder in her father's house, she misses Mansfield Park. Meanwhile, Tom gets very ill from carefree partying.
Maria, now Mrs Rushworth, runs off with Henry Crawford. Julia, on the other hand, elopes with Mr Yates, Tom's friend.
Fanny returns to Mansfield bringing along Susan, her younger sister. Edmund, who has taken orders to be a clergyman, is rejected by Mary Crawford, who has no desire whatsoever to become a minister's wife. Along with Susan, Fanny nurses her sick aunt back to health and also helps Tom.
Edmund calls it off with Mary when he realizes that she has supported Henry and Maria, hoped for Tom to die so that he could be heir; he also bears ill-will on Fanny. Edmund realises it has always been the qualities of Fanny he wants. He and Fanny eventually marries.
Maria and Henry separates. Along with her infant daughter with Henry, she settles in Scotland. Julia and Yates are reconciled to the family. Susan is taken to live with the Bertrams like their own daughter.
As in any Jane Austen novels, the heroine lives happily ever after. What is exciting with Austen's novels is her dry humour yet her style has elegance.