Classics > Jane Austen Classics

Advantages: Witty, brilliant characters
Disadvantages: Quite lengthy, as predictable as any other love story

Emma makes for superb reading, better in my opinion than Austen's rather more popular Pride and Prejudice. Austen writes, as always, with great wit and puts forward a rather tongue-in-cheek insight into the life of a young woman, very conscious of social order and hierarchy, whose failed attempts at match-making and trying to understand the relationships between the people around her lead her to realise that she cannot ever comprehend the ways of ...
...Emma contains some excellent characters, my favourites being the talkative Miss Bates, who, although irritating is depicted as very worthy, humble and grateful to those of better social standing than herself and is overall a truly endearing character, and the repulsive Mrs Elton whose puffed up view of herself makes her perfectly detestable. I would always recommend Jane Austen as an excellent example of period romance writing, and Emma is the favourite ... Read review

Advantages: for a true austin fan you need completeness!
Disadvantages: a fragment and a juvenillia

...of the back Lady Susan is a 'juvenillia' - a minor work by the immature Austin. It is written in the form of letters between the major charactors, a popular device at the time and I believe how PnP was originally conceived. However as Austin seems to have realised this does place a certain amount of constraint on the possibilities of plot as it relies on at least 2 charactors at all times being only able to communicate by letter, but not prevented ...
...and in the character of Lady Susan you can see, perhaps a forrunner of Emma. The plot itself is fairly conventional but what makes it stand out is that most of the letters, and hence view point, are written by Lady Susan the 'villan' of the piece. The Whartons is merely a fragment a couple of chapters long, incomplete at the time of Austin's death. It certainly seems to have had the potential to rival the rest of her work, but because of this it ... Read review

Advantages: interesting social history,
Disadvantages: long winded in places

I'm particularly fond of Jane Austen novels and this is another fantastic example. The sympathy evoked for poor Fanny Price is little in comparison to the anger against her aunts and cousins for their lack of value for her. Fanny is the poor cousin taken away from her large family to be brought up with her rich aunt and uncle with the 'help' of her other aunt. Undervalued without realising it and uncertain of her own opinions she struggles through ...
...up, moral young lady who all can be proud of. As she faces her problems the reader is made aware of the social problems of early 19th century England and the disparity of wealth as illustrated by the social situations of the 3 sisters- Fanny's mother and aunts. Although tedious in places there is no doubting the excellently written plot of this novel. Happy Reading ... Read review

Advantages: Enjoyable use of language, and interesting changes in central character
Disadvantages: May be less appealing to people wanting faster pace

Driving fom Norfolk to the Midlands on a dull Sunday afternoon, with the car radio fixed on BBC Radio 4 and unable to switch over in case it woke my (sleeping) partner in the passenger seat, I was mesmerised by the first instalment of their production of this book. So much so that I had to rush out and buy a copy, reading it avidly and recalling the embarrassment of my own callow youth - mistakes made, divided loyalties, unconscious growth of personality ...
...intricacies of growing up are truly timeless, as is the author's perception of character, and I certainly enjoyed this novel. Maybe not for everyone, some of the language/situations being a little outdated, but that need not get in the way of the story. "Plain Jane" Catherine grows up unspoilt, given an opportunity to mix in appropriate society (= marriage market), makes first "real" friend, meets "TDH" Henry, friend's family overplay Catherine's ... Read review

Advantages: Character developement on the level of Anne is compelling
Disadvantages: Character and story developement elsewhere is lacking

Persuasion is indeed a fantastic book, but as one of her later novels it lacks the emotions and detail to the story that earlier novels such as Pride and Prejudice have had. Anne, the stories heroine is developed thoroughly throughout the novel and the other charaters are seen as important depending on their situation and effect on Anne. Anne is, as Jane Austen herself perfect "A heroine too perfect even for me." Unlike in other novels Anne does ...
...as has her hero, she continues to maintain that she was in the right over the situation with Captain Wentworth when he first asked her to marry him. Compelling and Romantic as this book is, i think it lacks the story that other books of hers have, The situation with the evil cousin Mr Elliot and Mrs Clay is never described in as much depth as it should be, it is simply passed by, when both of them seem to be very much in the wrong. The character ... Read review