Reading Austen

[meganbmoore]

As yet, Emma remains the only Austen that I've actually read (despite being familiar with all of them), but I have all of them, which means it's poll time. Note: The sooner I read one, the sooner you can get me to do something like read a book about Fanny vs. Mummies.

Poll

Comments

[starlady38]

I just realized that Northanger Abbey is the only Austen I haven't read. You know what that means!

[bzoppa]

I tried reading Mansfield Park in college and couldn't get through it, despite having written numerous papers on Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. I think your #2 might have pushed me to actually read it!

[bookblather]

Oh my god me too (re: girlcrush). Mary is AWESOME! I took a class on Austen once and found myself arguing with most of the class about that. MP is my least favorite book for a lot of reasons, but Mary is not one of them.

[bzoppa]

Save Persuasion until you have a couple under your belt. Persuasion is a lot tighter than her other ones, and I'd suggest you hold off and save the best for mid-way to last.

I was really lucky that I read Pride and Prejudice with utterly no knowledge of the story before I went in. (Have you remained unspoiled so far? I know there are a lot of movies and *shudder* Mary Sue fanfic/adaptation, so you might already know what happens...)

[animeshon]

Pride and Prejudice and Emma remain the two Jane Austen novels that I read again and again. I particularly didn't like Sense and Sensibility though. The characters annoyed me and it just felt too dragged out.

[pseudo_tsuga]

Persuasion is the Austen of my heart, so I recommend that one. I love the more explicit feminism and how it treats class seems to opposite of Emma.

[meganbmoore]

My understanding is that Emma was written when Austen was first encountering Wollstonecraft, and Persuasion after she'd had more time to think on things.