Aiken's diverting tale gives the reader interesting speculation on how the Crawfords, whose winning personalities were marred by an amoral upbringing, might have turned out, and Jane Austen's morality tale takes new directions with an unexpected and somewhat controversial ending.
"A lovely read—and you don't have to have read Mansfield Park to enjoy it."—Woman's Own
"Her sense of time and place is impeccable."—Publishers Weekly
"An excellent sequel...remarkably effective and very funny."
—Evening Standard
The late Joan Aiken was a scholar and a prolific author of children's books and Jane Austen sequels and continuations. She is the author of Emma Watson which completes Jane Austen's posthumously published fragment The Watsons, and of Eliza's Daughter, a sequel to Sense and Sensibility.