Description
Book SynopsisIn recent years, Mansfield Park has come to be regarded as Austen's most controversial novel. It was published in two editions in her lifetime and here the 1814 and 1816 texts are fully collated for the first time. All the variants are included on the page, allowing readers to see the differences between the first edition and the second, which include some important amendments made by Jane Austen herself. Also included, with a brief note on Elizabeth Inchbald, is the text of Lovers' Vows, the play around which much of the plot of Mansfield Park revolves. The volume, first published in 2005, provides comprehensive explanatory notes, an extensive critical introduction covering the context and publication history of the work, a chronology of Austen's life and an authoritative textual apparatus.
Trade Review''Well! This is brilliant indeed! - This is admirable! - Excellently contrived, upon my word. Nothing wanting. Could not have imagined it.' Miss Bates at the ball at the Crown Inn might have been welcoming The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen. … aims are achieved in an apparently seamless and readable manner. … The authors have largely achieved an admirable impartiality, but delightfully not always. … judgements can be made … novels themselves are printed in large type and a pleasure to read. The copytext adopted is the one that in each case was nearest to Jane Austen. … notes are copious and informative. The Cambridge Edition justifies its claim to be 'the first ever scholarly edition of the works of Jane Austen', and is a fine tribute to her for the twenty-first century.' Jane Austen Society
Table of ContentsGeneral Editor's preface; Acknowledgments; Chronology; Introduction; Note on the text; Mansfield Park; Introductory Note on Lovers' Vows; Lovers' Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald; Corrections and emendations; Appendix. commentary on the text; Abbreviations; Explanatory notes.
