Mansfield Park (MCL)

Aged ten, Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthier relations, the Bertrams, at Mansfield Park. However, life there is not as she imagined. Treated with disdain by three of her cousins, she finds her only comfort in the kindness of the fourth, Edmund. As they grow, their friendship develops into romantic love – until the arrival of Henry Crawford and his charming sister Mary causes an emotional upheaval that no one in the family expects. With psychological insight and sparkling wit, Jane Austen paints an irresistibly lifelike portrait of shifting values and split loyalties. Delightfully illustrated by the celebrated Hugh Thomson and including an afterword by historian and author Nigel Cliff.