Mansfield Park (Tantor Unabridged Classics) [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Jane Austen (Author), Wanda McCaddon (Narrator)

Book Description

Series: Tantor Unabridged Classics | Publication Date: September 1, 2008

From its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate "poor relation." Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park.Written several years after the early manuscripts that eventually became Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park retains Jane Austen's familiar compassion and humor but offers a far more complex exploration of moral choices and their emotional consequences.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, to the Reverend George Austen and his wife, Cassandra Leigh Austen, in the village of Steventon in Hampshire, England. Though her mother was from a family of gentry, Jane's father was not well off, and the large family had to take in school boarders to make ends meet. The second youngest of the Austens' eight children, Jane was very close to her elder, and only, sister, Cassandra, and neither sister ever married. Both girls were educated at home, as many were at that time.From a young age Jane wrote satires and read them aloud to her appreciative family. Though she completed the manuscripts of two full-length novels while living at Steventon, these were not published. Later, these novels were revised into the form under which they were published, as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, respectively.In 1801, George Austen retired from the clergy, and Jane, Cassandra, and their parents took up residence in Bath, a fashionable town Jane liked far less than her native village. Jane seems to have written little during this period. When Mr. Austen died in 1805, the three women, Mrs. Austen and her daughters, moved first to Southampton and then, partly subsidized by Jane's brothers, occupied a house in Chawton, a village not unlike Jane's first home. There she began to work on writing and pursued publishing once more, leading to the anonymous publication of Sense and Sensibility in 1811 and Pride and Prejudice in 1813, to modestly good reviews.Known for her cheerful, modest, and witty character, Jane Austen had a busy family and social life but very little direct romantic experience. Her last years were quiet and devoted to family, friends, and writing her final novels. In 1817 she had to interrupt work on her last and unfinished novel, Sanditon, because she fell ill. She died on July 18, 1817, in Winchester, where she had been taken for medical treatment. After her death, her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published, together with a biographical notice, due to the efforts of her brother Henry. Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral. Wanda McCaddon began recording books for the fledgling audiobook industry in the early 1980s and has since narrated well over six hundred titles for major audio publishers, as well as abridging, narrating, and coproducing classic titles for her own company, Big Ben. Audiobook listeners may be familiar with her voice under one of her two "nom de mikes," Donada Peters and Nadia May. The recipient of an Audie nomination and twenty-five Earphones Awards, AudioFile magazine has named her one of recording's Golden Voices. Wanda also appears regularly on the professional stage in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,MP3 - Unabridged CD edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400156912
• ISBN-13: 978-1400156917
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,781,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( A ) > Austen, Jane

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars you should know before buying, September 14, 2010

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fran43 "fran" (usa) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mansfield Park (Tantor Unabridged Classics) (Audio CD)

The audio is great if you can play it. Before buying the CD I tried to find out if it came in CD version so that I could play it in my car on my 35 minute commute to wk. I had bought Jane Austin compact disc collection and was able to play it in my car; so I compared it's notes with this version and they both said CD. I wished they had included the notation from the back of the CD. It would have saved me lots of time in research. on the back of the audio case it says "Please note that this MP3-CD will play only on CD and DVD players or computers that have the ability to play MP3-formatted discs. For more information about MP3 format and MP3-CDs, please visit our website at : [...]," as I was not able to play the CD in my car and visiting the website gave no info on MP3 format and MP3-CDs,needless to say I was a bit disappointed; as I had ordered Northhanger Abbey,Sense and Sensibilitiy and Mansfield Park all with the same format.