Mansfield Park and Persuasion are notoriously problematic works which have stimulated diverse and often polarised critical readings. This collection illustrates these oppositions and recreates the current lively debate about the novels' interpretation. Examining the texts in the light of key developments in cultural, historicist and feminist theory, the volume both provides a view of Austen as a traditionalist and simultaneously argues for Mansfield Park and Persuasion as radical works which address contemporary politics of culture and of gender in exciting collocations.