“Comedy in its Worst Form?” Seduced and Seductive Heroines in A Simple Story, Lover’s Vows, and Mansfield Park

The intertextual relationship between Mansfield Park and Lovers’ Vows has been the object of intense critical scrutiny. The role of the theatricals within the novel, the correspondence between themes and characters of the two texts, Austen’s attitude towards the theatre in general and this famously controversial play in particular have been discussed at length in a series of scholarly contributions. However, these issues have only occasionally been examined in the context of a possible more general relationship to the work of the author who translated and adapted Kotzebue’s play for the English stage: Elizabeth Inchbald. This paper will take precisely this approach focusing in particular on the links connecting Inchbald’s first novel (A Simple Story), Lover’s Vows and Mansfield Park. It will argue that many aspects of Austen’s novel recall A Simple Story, and it will show how bringing this novel into the picture would enhance our understanding of Austen’s intertextual practices and shed new light on the subtle dialectics she establishes with her sources by questioning and revising the thematic, ideological, and formal features of different genres. This “triangular” relationship moving across the boundary between novelistic and dramatic writing will allow a new understanding of the contrast between the ‘two heroines’ of Mansfield Park, and confirm recent critical interpretations suggesting that Austen’s attitude might be more ‘radical’ then envisaged by traditional readings of her work.