Henry and Fanny: An Alternate Ending to Mansfield Park

One of the longest-running debates about Jane Austen’s work has been the problematical ending of MANSFIELD PARK. Sherwood Smith feels that part of the problem is that the narrative stops abruptly in Book Three, Chapter XVII. Here the narrator takes the stage to issue a long summary of what happened, after all those brilliant pages of immersing readers in the minds of the characters and their world. When she read James Austen-Leigh’s memoir about his famous aunt in which he reported sister Cassandra begging Jane for a different ending, Smith gained the courage to join the host of other authors who love to play in Jane Austen’s world, and take up the story from that point and offer a new ending.