Someone tell me which Jane Austen to read

[Flamesparrow]

The woman has never appealed. I have started P&P several times but never gotten very far (although a lot of that could be down to it being one of those budget books that just feel horrible ).

I am tempted to just say sod it and go for the Zombie version

(Tis for book group)

Persuasion literally aches with love and longing.

Pride and Prejudice is amusing.

Captain Wenworth over Darcy any time.

Colonel Brandon over any of 'em - any time! Oh and the one who reads poetry in Persuasion and marries the one who falls down and bangs her head - have forgotten his flippin' name.

Grrr damned library. All the ones I actually wanted are either out or in a different location and won't be available for me to read in time, so I have got sodding Mansfield Park.

I wanted persuasion.

Oops. Do you want me to send you Persuasion?

Captain Benwick.

And Sanditon is the unfinished one.

I'd go for Northanger Abbey Flame.

Duh - need to read your actual post...

Benwick! Thank you!

Ooooooooooooooooooh that would be nice

Oh I reserved Max Tivoli too

Okies - think I've still got your address. Will want it back at some point though so I can reacquaint myself with Captain Benwick!

Hopes desperately that Flame likes Max Tivoli, so I can talk about it with someone.

Persuasion or Emma to start. I love all of them and have read them to bits except for Mansfield Park mainly because Fanny is such an insufferable drip BUT am having another go at the moment.

The thing about JA is it helps if you have a bit of background knowledge, eg all this stuff about marriage settlements and entailed estates takes a bit of getting to grips with.

Tis now packaged and ready to post - will go to PO tomorrow (first day of the holiday - yay!).

Thank you! I hope I like Max too - have gone to so much trouble to find it

Sorry Flame - I went to the PO today but they were queueing out of the door, so I didn't wait. Will try a different one tomorrow.

I had that yesterday - how many people seem to need to post parcels this week?!?!?

yes - you'd think they'd have the decency to stay at home until AFTER we'd posted ours, wouldn't you?

Have you started Max yet?

Precisely! I mean - they had BAGS of parcels (we'll ignore the fact that I had 3).

Max is on order. Not entirely sure how I know when it has arrived though...

Bleugh, hate Emma. Is the only one I've never finished, I just can't stand her.

Love Northanger Abbey, def my favourite - very gothic.

Mansfield Park is fun because you don't know whether to love or hate the heroine.

Persuasion I did't read til my 20s having been a bit 'nervous' of it... had been told it was the grown up one. Absolutely loved it.

Heresy, I know, but go and watch the TV version of Persuasion with Rupert Penry Jones as Captain Wentworth and then read it.

And don't think of JA as "literature" as taught on A level English lit. It's chick lit - all the characters are there - annoying siblings, embarrassing parents, mad relations, skinnier (in that time, richer) girls on the make...

Emma is very very funny too.

ANother vote for Emma here (sorry whippet!)

Apart from the fact I have always been a little in love with Mr Knightley, who is the most swoonsome of all Austen heroes, I like the fact she's a very flawed heroine, and sometimes she's really unlikeable.

Did I mention Mr Knightley?

Persuasion's my fave.

I've read the Zombie P&P which is OK but not that funny unless you know the original.

You could always try The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde which is brill, but not Austen, I realise.

emma

Pride and Prejudice if youre in your 20's. Persuasion if you are older. Recon you'll identify better with the heroine better that way. So jealous that you haven;t read them, would love to read them for the first time again.

as for Persuasion not being finished, it is, but perhaps not edited/redrafted like her others, due to her death. Some of the plotting doen't feel as "tight" as some of the others. But I love Anne Elliot and so fancy Captain Wentworth!

RedLentil, I don't know the period in-joke. What is it?

Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?!
Just wanted to say that I am loving this thread. Not heard discussion of Austen like this since A Level English/quoting bits from books with friends! (My now sadly demised book club refused Austen and it was not a choice - P&P or nothing).
Seem to recall discussing Mansfield Park and Jane Austen liking Fanny the best of all her heroines as she as good and pious, rather than outspoken like Lizzie & Emma but still utimately ended up happy (well if you can be happy to be your hubbys second choice)?!
Did Austen feel the same about Anne in Persuasion?
Hmm, am also thinking of all the characters I have been in love with over the years, Darcy/Knightley/Wentworth/Brandon....am going to have to read them again soon....
Never got on with Northanger Abbey though. Catherine was just too silly!