Lionel Trilling, “In Mansfield Park”
First published in two journals in 1954 and later appearing in a collection of his writings, Lionel Trilling’s essay on Mansfield Park strongly influenced literary interpretation of the novel for several decades. Trilling seeks to recuperate the frequently disliked novel, arguing that, while its valuation of “fixity,” “enclosure,” and “social stasis” offends modern sensibilities, Mansfield Park is a great work with the most “profound” irony of any of Austen’s novels.