Sex, Self and Society in 'Mansfield Park'

Sexuality is not a topic which springs immediately to mind on considering Jane Austen's novel, Mansfield Park, but, in fact, much of the energy of the novel derives from the powerful machinations of sexual politics and much of the novel's interest comes from the usually suppressed-though all the more fervid for that-love of Fanny for Edmund. Sexuality in Mansfield Park is, as I hope to show, central to Jane Austen's treatment of personality and to her most profound concerns about society