Jane Austen

[BaconAndAvocado]

Currently listening to a Radio 4 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and loving it.
I’ve read and enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Emma.

What are the others like?

I love Persuasion. It's a bit different, because the heroine, Anne, is older and it's what's known as a second chance romance.

There was a wonderful tv version with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds.

Persuasion is my favourite

Currently trying not to think about war or climate collapse by reading pride and prejudice again

The sense and sensibility, Mansfield park Emma , northanger abbey in that order

Mansfield Park I did for A Level and have never wanted to re-read. We didn't like Fanny or Edmund. We thought Fanny was a drip and Edmund a prig.

Mansfield Park is my favourite.

I’d love to read a version of Mansfield Park from Miss Crawford‘s viewpoint. I wonder if anybody’s done one?

Another vote for Persuasion - it's actually my favourite. And as PPs have said, the 1995 film version with Amanda Root & Ciaran Hinds is just sublime. The whole thing is available on youtube, should anyone want to watch it. It's a masterpiece - I think it's the best period adaption ever.

They’re all my favourite in different ways. It’s worth listening to them unabridged as shortened versions miss so much.

The only TV adaptation of any them I have really enjoyed was the original Pride & Prejudice with David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvey written by Fay Wheldon.

You might enjoy Joan Aiken's Mansfield Revisited - a sequel which casts a new light on the Crawfords.

Thank you!

Jane Austen best books- this is an interesting article talking about the some of her books and what's good about them. But read them all.

Definitely check out the Joan Aiken ones. You might also enjoy Bitch in a Bonnet which is available on Kindle. An irreverent and very readable examination of Austen and her work.

The critics seem to think Persuasion is her masterpiece. (Harold Bloom thought so.) But I think most fans love Pride and Prejudice more. Lizzie Bennet is just so unbelievably vivid and real. I can’t think of any other character in literature who seems so alive. I remember an old literature professor at university who once said, “I’ve been in love with Lizzie Bennet all my life.” Bless him.

It’s funny, but the critics have a similar take on Dickens. Harold Bloom (and others) rate Bleak House as his masterpiece. But deep down most people love David Copperfield more.

I think Emma is generally held to be her most perfect novel. Persuasion is the most emotive but you can tell it’s written under the rush of failing health. It lacks the leisurely fullness of Emma.

I don’t really like David Copperfield, my favourites are Great Expectations and Oliver Twist & Bleak House.

P&P is usually everyone’s favourite though. “Had you behaved in a more gentlemen-like manner…”

For my money - the very best adaption of P&P is not the ghastly Colin Firth version, but the earlier version scripted by Fay Wheldon - with David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvey. Rintoul nails Darcy’s dignified frostiness and Garvey nails Lizzie’s combination of charm, humour and asperity.

I hate that Colin F thing. Hate him. Hate the Lizzie actress. Detest Alison Steadman. I like the Kiera K one.

Books in order of favourites for me:
Sense and Sensibility
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Emma
Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park

This thread has reminded me that I still haven't read Northanger Abbey.

I don't know if I can put down an order of favourites. I love Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion equally. I loathed Mansfield Park, it was a drag through to end, with no redeeming features. Sense and Sensibility was ok, not as enjoyable as the others imo, but I really couldn't stand the Emma Thompson film.

I really couldn't stand the Emma Thompson film.

I enjoyed it. Yes Emma T. was too old to play Elinor. She said so herself, but said the film probably wouldn't have been made if she hadn't taken the role. Her name attached to the project helped to raise the money.

And Alan Rickman was in it!

I hate that Colin F thing. Hate him. Hate the Lizzie actress. Detest Alison Steadman.

Yes.

Kiera K is better than Jennifer but Matthew has a potato face and absolutely not Mr D as well as being too old - so meh.

I didn’t mind Emma - yes a bit old but a good actress. It was Hugh Grant who ruined it for me. He just played the same character as 4 Weddings and was still in the phase of his career when he couldn’t act. It wasn’t until he swapped to playing cads that he became believable.

Northanger Abbey is really funny once you realise it's a parody. (It took me a while!) Sense and Sensibility is my favourite,though.

When I first read M Park Ioathed Fanny and Edmund. But on re-reading I realised the best things in the novel are the Bertrams, Mary and Henry Crawford and the depiction of Southampton poverty.

I love Jane Austen and Mansfield Park is one of my favourites, although not pleasing to modern sensibilities. The Crawfords are so charming and hard to resist. Could a good marriage have saved them both? I like both Edmund and Fanny, but I can’t imagine they would have made a very exciting couple…

I love Matthew M as Darcy.

Rickman and Winslet are gorgeous, though of course the ages are wrong. Hugh Grant is bad. Thompson should have stuck to the writing and left the acting to somebody younger.

I don’t think HG likes playing boring old heroes and heartthrobs. Villains and cads are more fun.