Mansfield Park (1814) is possibly the most profound and original of Jane Austen's novels, as Tony Tanner suggests in an introduction in which he unravels 'the figure in the carpet' of this strange and complex book. As its title suggests it is as much the story of a . house as of the people who carry on their intrigues and affairs in and around it. Some modern readers have felt little sympathy with the patient, watchful heroine, Fanny: few, however, have failed to detect an underlying atmosphere which is all the more powerful for being suppressed. And certainly the greatest scenes show Jane Austen working at the very height of her artistic powers.
The cover shows a portrait of the Fluyder children, 1806, by Sir Thomas Lawrence (photo Peter Sch-eier, São Paulo, Brazil)
The portrait of Jane Austen inside the front cover is from a drawing by her sister Cassandra in the National Portrait Gallery, London