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Where to start with Jane Austen

Y'all may have watched a dozen Boob tube and movie adaptations but have you read the books? We asked Austen super-fan, Anna James to share her guide to which novel to start with first.

As I imagine is quite typical for British readers of a certain age, my offset encounter with Jane Austen was via the iconic BBC television version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. When I turned to its source cloth I was delighted to detect the book merely equally witty, clever, and engaging – if not more. Austen is adored for her precipitous social commentary, and her brilliant, complex characters and all of her work, from the satirical to the romantic, has something to entertain and enchant.

Of form, the guild you should read Austen in hugely depends on what you lot are looking to get from her, or what you enjoy reading. Although this list is one pathway, in that location's no correct or wrong way to discover an author. I've tried to highlight the particular joys of each championship and then that you can choose to get your own style and start with the volume that most speaks to you lot.

I've divided this listing, roughly, into Austen's three more lite-hearted and overtly funny books as the best place to start, followed by her three more melancholy reads one time you're fully in the Austen rhythm.

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that when most people call up of Jane Austen they think of this charming and likeable story of love, difficult families, and Darcy emerging in a moisture shirt (adjust your expectations now, I'm agape the lake scene is not in the novel). This is a adept place to first as information technology'due south likely you'll have some familiarity with the story; whether yous've seen the TV bear witness, the moving picture, the spider web serial, or just soaked upward some awareness via its perennial popular civilisation presence. This means that rather than having to worry too much about keeping runway of the plot, y'all can instead revel in Austen'due south bitter sense of humour and wonderfully brought to life bandage of characters from the obsequious Mr Collins to heroine Lizzy Bennett, Austen's personal favourite of all her heroines.

Emma (1815)

Emma is a comedy of errors full of misunderstandings, misguided plans and a heroine who Austen merrily pokes fun at. Information technology has a fair amount in common with Pride and Prejudice, but Emma is a less obviously likeable heroine than Lizzy, who is somewhat deluded in her matchmaking schemes. But this makes for the novel's real joy; enjoying the incredibly clever style Austen contrasts what we know to exist truthful about Emma with how she herself perceives her own story.

Northanger Abbey (1817)

At its heart Northanger Abbey is a gothic satire, and while it'south enjoyable for any reader, the greater your knowledge of the gothic tradition, the more you'll gain with Austen'south sly digs and parodying of gothic novels, popular when she was writing. 1 of ii novels only published after her expiry (forth with Persuasion), it's arguably the most fun of Austen'southward piece of work, potentially considering information technology'due south besides the one where she nigh openly laughs at her characters. Her naive, young protagonist, Catherine, uses novels and fairy tales to try and make sense of the earth until she learns how to be the heroine of her own story.

Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Moving on to the slightly more melancholy of Austen'south books and starting with the most famous of those, and as well 1 that's a scrap of a span between her more witty work, and her more than unusual novels. Originally published anonymously, this may non be her funniest, or most romantic book simply it's beautifully well-rounded and has a little chip of all the reasons nosotros love Austen. The coming-of-age story of ii sisters, Marianne and Elinor, every bit they accept to move from a large estate to a small cottage, at that place's sisterly love, engaging love stories, gentle wit, and a lot of heart.

Mansfield Park (1814)

Mansfield Park is the Austen novel that about splits opinion; for some it's her masterpiece, for some it'south her odd one out, lacking in the centre and warmth of the others. Office of the difficulty lies with the heroine, Fanny Price, who is an anti-Lizzy – she's introverted and straightforward with a strict moral code that could exist interpreted as a lilliputian killjoy-esque – just she'southward revealed to be able to read people far more accurately than you'd remember. The novel explores ideas of what is valued; is it charm or actual goodness, is it money or what you do with information technology. A more serious, moral book, it's a slow burner that rewards re-reads.

Persuasion (1818)

My overwhelming urge was to put this first on the list, every bit information technology's my personal favourite, just I don't think I would honey it so much if I had come to it without having read and enjoyed others beginning. In my stance, Persuasion is the most romantic of Austen'southward novel which ends in an admittedly swoon-worthy letter of the alphabet, but it's also possibly the most sincere. Our heroine Anne is older than most of Austen's chief characters, and used to disappointment, only her development, and that of her beloved interest, Helm Wentworth, is, for almost, one of Austen's most satisfying.

Bonus Reading: While these are Austen'due south full, completed novels, she as well wrote a lot of marginalia and other vignettes, as well equally a short novel Austen never submitted for publication. Now available every bit Lady Susan, it's a darkly funny story of a beautiful widow in her 30s who enjoys toying with men for her own amusement, and what happens when she descends on her brother and sister in law with her teenage daughter in tow. Or there's Honey and Friendship, a novel Austen wrote when she was 14. Thought to have been written to entertain her family, information technology's a parody of romantic novels and it's fascinating to be able to come across the start of her sparkly wit and disdain for romantic cliches.

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Source: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2018/nov/where-to-start-with-jane-austen.html