Your favourite Austen?

[ThursdayLast]

By dreadful coincidence I've finished my library book and audio book on the same day

I'm visiting the library tomorrow, so to tide me over I'll probably pick out an ancient old Austen but I can't face the decision!

Which is your favourite?

[ArthurMcAffertyhastwocats]

Austen fans, glad to have found you. It's been years since I read any of her books (Mansfield Park was my favourite), but I've been wondering about reading one to/with my 10 year old DD. Any thoughts on which would be best/most accessible? I'm leaning towards Emma - thought we could follow it up by watching Clueless!

[ThursdayLast]

I'll always advocate anything that means watching Clueless

[claraschu]

My 10 year old oved P and P, and also Northanger Abbey. Emma was too inaccessible as a character.

[MarrogfromMars]

I would say Northanger Abbey is the most accessible for a 10 year old. My favourites are P&P and Persuasion, because the couples seem properly matched with a convincing relationship. I find the way Knightley goes from fatherly/avuncular to courtship a bit weird and unsatisfactory. But Clueless is fab!

[BertrandRussell]

When I'm world dictator, nobody will be allowed to read Jane Austen until they are at least 15.

[DandyDan]

Mansfield Park - profound and yes, I like Fanny Price.

And Northanger Abbey for more lighthearted entertainment and a picture of young romance.

[VashtaNerada]

Not sure I agree about Northanger Abbey for a 10yo - I think it's funniest after you've been a teenager and can look back on it!

[WellErrr]

I LOVE P&P and could probably give you recitation here and now
Can't stand most of the film versions (except the bbc one), and things like Death Comes to Pemberley. I think they're what put people off the book tbh.

But I love love love the book. All the characters - Mr Collins is fantastic, and Mr and Mrs Bennet. One of my favourite lines is when Sir William Lucas comes to tell them that Charlotte is engaged to Mr Collins, and Lydia bursts out with 'Lord, Sir William how can you tell such a story? Do not you know that he wants to marry Lizzie!?'
I could go on.....

Love Persuasion, Sir Walter's snobbery, and Anne is such a good character.

I enjoy Sense and Sensibility too, the manipulative stepmother at the beginning, and Marianne and Willoughby's story.

Mansfield Park I found very heavy going, and Edmund and Fanny were just so dull. Liked the other parts to the story though, particularly the affair which I thought must have been v scandalous at the time.

Emma's a good one, and Northanger. I like them all! If I were re-reading them again, my order would be -
PP
Persuasion
SS
Northanger
Emma
MP

and then I'd read Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

[Kampeki]

I love P&P and Persuasion. :)

[Mama1980]

My favourite is definitely persuasion.
But as a teenager I was at school when the bbc pride and prejudice version came out and everyone was watching it on a Sunday night. I read it then and loved it found it so funny and a lot of Elizabeth's character is both admirable and something I could relate to in some way. It opened up a whole world of reading for me.
As a adult I prefer persuasion and Anne Eliot but not as a teenager.
Mansfield park is another one I liked then.
Northanger abbey is funnier when older and you can look back and relate/laugh.
I've never liked Emma but that's just my preference.

[Bellebella]

Emma is probably my favourite

[DuchessofMalfi]

I was just going to add my thought that, as a teenager, I loved Pride and Prejudice but now I'm older I much prefer Persuasion. It is a much more mature and reflective novel. It's interesting that I am not alone in thinking that

[hackmum]

P&P for me. I've read it loads of times. Always find something new. Possibly my favourite book of all time.

But I also love Persuasion. Northanger Abbey has some good comic moments. Emma is brilliant but I wish she didn't end up with Mr Knightley. S&S is good but again I do wish Marianne didn't end up with Colonel Brandon. MP is my least favourite but still good in its way (i.e. 100 times better than most novels not by Austen.)

[BertrandRussell]

You do all know about Emma Thompson's film of Sense and Sensibility, don't you? Just checking!

That film is the nearest I'd let a 10 year old get to Jane Austen!

[florentina1]

Persuasion because I love Anne
sense and Sensibility for Sir John and his MiL. (imagine that as Mn AIBU)
Pride and Prejudice for all of the sisters, apart from Jane and Elizabeth. And everyone at Roding's who deserve a book all to them selves
Northanger Abbey for the absolute genius comedy of Bath.
Emma for the vicar and his wife.

[HoldYerWhist]

In order:

Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
Lady Susan (is it called that?!)

I enjoyed the story of Mansfield Park and it probably has more depth than the rest but I can't get passed my deep, deep hatred of Fanny and Edmund.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

florentina

Is there an Jane Austen characters AIBU thread?

I did read the Val MacDermaid Northanger Abbey book. It was OK, but just don't read the Joanna Trollope Sense and Sensibility one. That one is seriously unconvincing. But did anyone read Longbourne? Servants' view of Pride and Prejudice.

[undermythumb]

Persuasion...it's just so lovely and the 1995 film is my favourite adaptation. I do love Pride and Prejudice also and Emma.

I absolutely loathed Mansfield Park as a teenager and thought Fanny vile, I have never been tempted to reread it but now after reading all your comments feel I ought too.

[KittyBennett]

Persuasion. Then p&p.

[HoldYerWhist]

I tend not to read any of the spin off books, though I've heard good things about Longbourne.

I stupidly bought Death Comes To Pemberley. I got, maybe, five chapters in. Utter, utter shit.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Death Comes To Pemberley is one of the few books I gave away...

[StillFrankie]

Persuasion. It's so romantic.

Also love p&p

[DuchessofMalfi]

I struggled through to the end of Death Comes to Pemberley but didn't enjoy it. Oddly though I did quite like the TV adaptation - it wasn't all that bad. Keep putting off reading Longbourn. Not sure about it as a spin off.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Longbourne is more about the characters who are the servants, with the P&P characters mostly incidental (though not always but NO SPOILERS), if I remember correctly. Not a continuation of life after/before P&P, like bloody Death comes to Pemberly.

[MrsHenryCrawford]

Arthur - my favourite jane austens as a teenager were pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility.

Thursday -I also love Emma, the book is perfection and the proposal scene with Mr Elton is deliciously cringey but for some reason it's been pipped at the post by Mansfield park.