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Mansfield Park

By Austen, Jane

Book Id: WPLBN0000699675
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 1.13 MB.
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Mansfield Park
Author:	Austen, Jane
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Literature & drama
Collections:	DjVu Editions Classic Literature
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	DjVu Editions Classic Literature


Citation APA MLA Chicago Austen, J. (n.d.). Mansfield Park. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Excerpt
Excerpt: Chapter I; ABOUT thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet?s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward?s match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible, Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield, and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a Lieutenant of Marines, without education, fortune, or connections, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride, from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram?s sister; but her husband?s profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces. To save herself from useless ...

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: I, 1 -- I, 3 -- II, 10 -- III, 18 -- IV, 26 -- V, 33 -- VI, 39 -- VII, 47 -- VIII, 56 -- IX, 62 -- X, 72 -- XI, 79 -- XII, 85 -- XIII, 90 -- XIV, 97 -- XV, 103