And, which Austen is your favourite and why?

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

I could go on and on.

Persuasion wins, no question. Anne is likeable and I swoon for Captain Wentworth. The letter scene is the single most romantic thing I have ever read. I love it. Thoroughly disapointed that the Penry-Jones adaptation omitted it.

P&P comes second with the scene at the parsonage, Darcy gives with one hand and takes with the other.

I have a penchant for arrogant heroes.

I still love P&P. It's my comfort read - if no other book to read, or feeling a bit urgh, I will read P&P :)

But I reread Austen a lot anyway. Currently rereading Persuasion again. Louisa has just had her fall.

p and p for me, i love the way the story flows, love the fact that you get to feel how elizabeth feels when she realises that she is wrong about mr darcey and obviously love mr darcey!!!

When I am at the uni library and get bored with my history books I always go and pick Persuasion off the shelf and reread the letter part. Austen is so engaging and really lifts my mood.

I re-read them all at least once a year (for the past 25 or so) and STILL don't know the answer to this question.

I think it generally comes down to being between, 'Persuasion' and, 'Sense And Sensibility' as they are both a bit more subtle than P&P. Don't get me wrong, I love P&P too but even the 'good' (ie non caricature characters) can get a bit wearing - Jane's 'goodness' for example and Bingley's easy-goingness - it makes them a bit 'flat' whereas even Louisa in Persuasion and Lucy in S&S are a bit more multi-dimensional.

But if we're choosing by hero - mine is Brandon all the way.

Love Persuasion but I think I'll always be a P&P girl at heart.

Like Northanger Abbey but can't abide Mansfield Park; one of the most hideous, boring, non-entities of a heroin ever written!

I don't think I've ever read persuasion.

I love pride and prejudice.

Oh and completely agree about the letter scene. Just makes me swoon! :)

RemusLopin - by hero, what a good idea. Still Wentworth for me.

P&P for the bit when Lizzie realises she love's Mr Darcy.

I think Persuasion though.

P&P and Persuasion, closely followed by Mansfield Park. My least favourite is S&S, then Emma, then Northanger Abbey. Just re-read P&P and Persuasion - hadn't read them for a couple of years and enjoyed them so much.

Persuasion wins, followed by P&P, then Emma. I think Emma deserves several readings as I get more out of it every time. There's a lot of not-so-subtle anger from Austen about women's dependence on men to have a life outside the home, and the scene where Mr Elton proposes in the carriage on Christmas Eve shows a really nasty side of some men's opinion about women. I aso think I am a bit like Emma .

To add, I love Captain Wentworth, Mr Knightly and Mr Tilney from Northanger Abbey. The latter is refreshingly light hearted and amusing compared with brooding Mr Darcy.

Can't beat a bit of Darcy though! :)

And I also love the BBC dramatisation of it too

Persuasion I think, closely followed by P&P. Not reread for a few years, maybe I should make use of the free kindle downloads!

Jane!

But seriously, Pride and Prejudice wins it hands down for me. Every line is a classic.

I've said this before on MN and will doubtless say it again (and get moaned at by everybody again) but I do not like the BBC P&P at all. Tis pants.

Then again, the Billie Piper abomination (Billy Piper as Fanny Price ffs) makes the BBC thing look like a work of genius in comparison. And the ITV S&S was revolting too.

This is nice and this is great - the Harriet is lovely in it.

Remus couldn't agree more about Billie Piper. Didn't think I'd be able to dislike Fanny Price anymore tbh then along comes Billy!

But I'm that you didn't like P&P!

Persuasion.

I love P&P, but Persuasion is the work of someone who has lost that hope and optimism of youth and has had some real disappointment in their life - she was much older when she wrote it and Anne's wistfulness and yearning is heartbreaking.

There is so much in there that you can relate to her life - her mother's hypochondria and selfishness, when her own daughter was dying, she insisting on the sofa in the cottage, just like Mary and her imagined illnesses and lack of consideration for Anne. Anne's real talent for music, with literally no-one of any taste and discernment to realise how good she is - there's a suggestion that Jane felt that way since the death of her father, with regards to her writing. That resignation to having a life unfulfilled... so much there that's so sad and yet so subtly written that you don't really know why it's so sad...every time I read it, I notice something I didn't before.

I think it's easier to relate to Anne too in a way, because she's older. The story ages better than the others.

Remus, I also love that Northanger Abbey and just adore JJ Feild as mr Tilney. Does anyone remember the 1980 s version with Peter Firth (aka Harry Pierce in Spooks) as Mr Tilney. Not that fanciable except at the end when he comes for Catherine on a horse... Sigh... I would say Northanger and Persuasion have the most romantic endings cos you don't see them coming.

Sorry have just ruined Northanger Abbey for anyone who hasn't read it

Mansfield Park, no question at all. I must have read it 100 times, & still love it. Hard to put my finger on why, but I think its because there are so many characters that ring true for me, and really none that are without any redeeming features (even Mrs Norris is clearly the way she is for good reason).

Joint 2nd has to be Sense & Sensibility & Pride & Prejudice, also like Persuasion but for some reason it doesn't quite tick the boxes for me in the same way.

Emma annoys me too much (Emma the character rather than the book as a whole, and Catherine from N. Abbey annoys me to the point that I find the book almost unreadable.

I have to say that the main way that I enjoy Austen adaptations is watching them with my Mum and pulling them apart

Takver - I never ever meet up with my cousin where we don't discuss Austen book/adaptation in some way shape or form and I see her often. If we are in company they just roll their eyes and say "here they go again".

We have been planning for a few years now to go to Bath for the Jane Austen festival but havent yet got around to it.

I think I may be slightly obsessed. I also did a one day course on "Austen and Romanticism" - basically a glorified Austen book club, we all turned up with our pile of books and talked Austen all day. Such fun.

Persuasion for me, too. Most likeable heroine - Anne's not silly (Catherine) or self-centred (Emma) or wilful (Lizzie) or wimpy (Fanny).