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Have you read all of Jane Austen? Which are your faves?


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I am embarrassed to say I have never read any Jane Austen. I was challenged by a friend to read her books this summer and picked up a nifty version of Emma at Costco. I'm about a quarter of the way through.

 

Which should I read next? Which are the must-reads? All those spin-off books -- when can I read those? As in, how many of her real books do I need to read before I can appreciate the references, etc., in the others?

 

Thanks!

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I've read all her novels. In order, I would say Pride & Prejudice is my favorite, followed by Sense & Sensibility, then Emma. Of the remaining three, it's a toss-up between Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. I liked all of them, really. I've never read any spin-off books. I think they might leave a bad taste in my mouth. I read them all when my husband was deployed. He's getting ready to deploy again, and I'm wondering what author I should conquer while he's away this time. :D

 

Conquer! Funny. My friend just finished all the Austens, and is not thinking about Middlemarch next. Perhaps you might want to take on George Eliot?

 

I found this astonishing quote about her:

 

She had a low forehead, a dull grey eye, a vast pendulous nose, a huge mouth full of uneven teeth and a chin and jawbone 'qui n'en finissent pas'... Now in this vast ugliness resides a most powerful beauty which, in a very few minutes, steals forth and charms the mind, so that you end, as I ended, in falling in love with her. Yes, behold me in love with this great horse-faced bluestocking. Henry James, in a letter to his father, published in Edel, Leon (ed.) Henry James: Selected Letters (1990)

 

I wonder if I should read the other Austens in chronological order?

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I've read all her novels. In order, I would say Pride & Prejudice is my favorite, followed by Sense & Sensibility, then Emma. Of the remaining three, it's a toss-up between Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. I liked all of them, really. I've never read any spin-off books. I think they might leave a bad taste in my mouth. I read them all when my husband was deployed. He's getting ready to deploy again, and I'm wondering what author I should conquer while he's away this time. :D

 

What about reading Dickens, or Wilkie Collins? Or maybe reading all the Bronte novels.

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I've read them all. P&P, Northanger and Emma are written intentionally with more humor. S&S, Persuasian and Mansfield Park are a bit more serious in ton. The weakest work is Northanger Abbey, her first written.

 

If your interested in her evolving thoughts about goodness vs. charm (real goodness vs. the appearance of goodness and what constitues "goodness"), read P&P and then read Mansfield Park. They contrast quite nicely.

 

I actually think the best written work is Persuasain.

 

Have fun. I wish I were in your shoes, never to have read them. What a joy it would be to read them for the first time.

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I love them all. I don't think I could pick a favorite, but Northanger Abbey is my least favorite, if I had to pick one.

 

If you like Jane Austen, I think you'd like these:

George Eliot:

Middlemarch

Silas Marner

Adam Bede

(NOT Mill on the Floss)

 

Wilkie Collins:

The Woman in White

No Name

(I didn't like the Moonstone as much)

 

Of course, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is a must.

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I wouldn't waste any time reading spinoffs (with one exception). Most of them use only the characters but not Jane Austen's "voice". And some of them are quite explicit about married relations.

 

I do, however, enjoy the mystery series by Stephanie Barron. She writes using Jane as a character and her novels follow Jane's real life chronology. She has a voice similar to Austen's and you get a lot of facts (factoids/tidbits) about Jane's life. And I really like mysteries, so there you go.

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I do, however, enjoy the mystery series by Stephanie Barron.

 

I enjoyed the first several books in that series as well--surprisingly good, in fact. :001_smile:

 

My favorite Austens are, in order:

 

Pride and Prejudice

Persuasion

Emma

Mansfield Park

Northanger Abbey

Sense and Sensibility

 

I've read several Austen pastiches, all of them forgettable. Don't waste your time. The very best of that genre, IMHO, is actually a pastiche of Conan Doyle: Laurie King's Holmes-and-Russell mysteries, starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice, are first-rate.

 

I like Dickens, but I love Hardy, the Brontes, and Anthony Trollope even more. But definitely Dickens has a much more reliably happy ending than the others, and that's one of the things I love the MOST about Jane. ;)

 

Happy reading, Nicole! :001_smile:

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I've read all of J.A. including her juvenilia. Emma is considered her best work by many academics. Pride & Prejudice would be next. I really don't think it matters what order you read them.

 

Most of the Austenesque inspired books are not that good (think the novel Scarlet the 'sequel' to Gone with the Wind'). But they can be fun it you aren't too fussy. There are some very funny modern versions like Bridget Jone's Diary is Pride and Prejudice and Clueless is Emma.

 

What references in her work don't you understand? While the novels take place during the Pennisular Wars, there is hardly any reference to the world at large (except all those dashing military men in their red coats). It was customs and manners of the times that are the focus of her books.

 

Elizabeth Gaskell would also be another novelist to read if you like Austen.

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What references in her work don't you understand? While the novels take place during the Pennisular Wars, there is hardly any reference to the world at large (except all those dashing military men in their red coats). It was customs and manners of the times that are the focus of her books.

 

 

Oh, I get her references. I thought there were funny books that referenced her work (Jane Austen's Book Club?), and since I hadn't read them, I wouldn't understand those references.

 

I haven't heard of Elizabeth Gaskell. I'll check it out. Thank you.

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I enjoyed the first several books in that series as well--surprisingly good, in fact. :001_smile:

 

My favorite Austens are, in order:

 

Pride and Prejudice

Persuasion

Emma

Mansfield Park

Northanger Abbey

Sense and Sensibility

 

I've read several Austen pastiches, all of them forgettable. Don't waste your time. The very best of that genre, IMHO, is actually a pastiche of Conan Doyle: Laurie King's Holmes-and-Russell mysteries, starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice, are first-rate.

 

I like Dickens, but I love Hardy, the Brontes, and Anthony Trollope even more. But definitely Dickens has a much more reliably happy ending than the others, and that's one of the things I love the MOST about Jane. ;)

 

Happy reading, Nicole! :001_smile:

 

You know, I never did like reading Thomas Hardy. And then I listened to The Mayor of Casterbridge and was blown away. I love the Bronte's too, and Dickens.

 

I'll check out The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Thanks.

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This is how I order them -

 

Persuasion - just her best book! Mature in a way the others are not - every time I read it I suffer with Anne and Captain Wentworth and am soooo relieved and thrilled at the end!.

Pride and Prejudice - very good - what can I say that hasn't been said a hundred times before! Her most famous book for good reason.

Sense and Sensibility - also very good, but I do get a little impatient with Marianne and I disapprove of her eventual marriage. Yet I adore Colonel Brandon!

Northanger Abbey - maybe not as good as her others, but so terribly funny!

Mansfield Park - Fanny's goodness can get a little tiresome.

Emma - don't care for Emma and really can't stand her relationship with Mr. Knightly. This is the only one I only read once...maybe I should give it another try??

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This is how I order them -

 

Persuasion - just her best book! Mature in a way the others are not - every time I read it I suffer with Anne and Captain Wentworth and am soooo relieved and thrilled at the end!.

Pride and Prejudice - very good - what can I say that hasn't been said a hundred times before! Her most famous book for good reason.

Sense and Sensibility - also very good, but I do get a little impatient with Marianne and I disapprove of her eventual marriage. Yet I adore Colonel Brandon!

Northanger Abbey - maybe not as good as her others, but so terribly funny!

Mansfield Park - Fanny's goodness can get a little tiresome.

Emma - don't care for Emma and really can't stand her relationship with Mr. Knightly. This is the only one I only read once...maybe I should give it another try??

 

Well, I'm only about a third of the way through Emma and I agree. I had a difficult time liking any of the characters at first, but stuck with it because of its reputation as being her finest -- I was curious as to why it should be ranked as one of the great novels in the English cannon (as one of the essays at the beginning of the book said it was). But it's growing on me.

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I've read all of Austen's works so often that I very nearly am tired to death of them from over-familiarity. What a strange feeling !

 

My least favorite remains Emma. The protagonist is naught but a royal pain-in-the-anywhere.

 

Someone enquired about reading George Eliot's works. YES ! ! ! How I love her work ! From there, I added on Elizabeth Gaskell (more exclamation points), then Trollope. (Dickens already occupied much of one shelf.) Hardy I find mixed-bag. Love Mayor of Casterbridge and Far From the Madding Crowd. Can do without the rest, save occasional rereading of Return of the Native and Under the Greenwood Tree.

 

Most of the Austen knock-offs which I have glanced into leave me cold. They tend toward the salacious soap-operatic content. Notable exception is Joan Aiken (with exception to the good quality among her "sequels" being one about Eliza Williams' daughter). The one about Jane Fairfax does not resemble Jane Austen's writing style, but is, I feel, an excellent stand-alone novel. Very "clean", and very interesting. . . . Oh, yes. Somebody wrote a completion to Sanditon, which I enjoy.

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Mansfield Park is my favourite because in it, Jane Austin shows that just because one is shy and bidable doesn't necessarily mean one is weak. I love Lady Susan for its cleverness. I love Emma nextmost because of its picture of family life and Emma's devotion to her father. The others strike me as more soap-opera-y, but I still, of course, love them. Next comes Sense and Sensability. Then Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Nothing else is quite like them, but I also like Trollop, Heyer, Angela Thirkell, and Ferrier's Marriage.

-Nan

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Coming in late, and want to give my uninfluenced answer before reading the other posts.

 

Pride and Prejudice is my all time favourite of Jane Austen's. Honestly, I don't care for any of the others nearly as much. This is probably due to the fact that the only reason I read it is because of the PBS playing of a miniseries of this book back in the early 1980s (not that one with Colin Firth, which, IMO, is not as good, despite it's good points). I've read it several times. I found Emma rather boring, and am not technically a Jane Austen fan, even though Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourite novels.

 

ETA I read one Pride and Prejudice "sequel" and loathed it. I'm a purist there, and would want a spinoff to remain true, not have explicit description of conjugal relationships, and other things that just don't fit with Austen.

Edited by Karin
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I love them all and have read them many times, so usually say my favorite is the one I've just read. :) If had to pick only one it would be Persuasion. Northanger Abbey, my least favorite when I first read Austen, appeals to my sense of humor in a way I couldn't appreciate when I was younger. I agree with Nan about Mansfield Park. Fanny Price isn't the typical heroine and that's what I find most interesting about her.

 

I haven't read any of the J.A. spinoffs. You might try Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters if you enjoy Jane Austen's work.

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