Jane Austen Recommended Reading List
Jane Austen’s Canon
Sense and Sensibility (1811) Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two starkly different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. While Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm, her younger sister is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for a husband, but neither Elinor’s reason nor Marianne’s passion can lead them to perfect happiness-as Marianne falls for an unscrupulous rascal and Elinor becomes attached to a man who’s already engaged. Barnes & Noble Classic Edition: ISBN 9781593083366
Pride and Prejudice (1813) ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ Thus memorably begins Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, one of the world’s most popular novels. Pride and Prejudice – Austen’s own ‘darling child’ – tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old. Barnes & Noble Classics: ISBN 9781593083243
Mansfield Park (1814) From its sharply satiric opening sentence, Mansfield Park deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile Fanny Price is the consummate ‘poor relation.’ Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas Bertram, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners, whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative country ways of Mansfield Park. Barnes & Noble Classics: ISBN 9781593083564
Emma (1816) Thinking herself impervious to romance of any kind, Emma tries to arrange a wealthy marriage for poor Harriet, but refuses to recognize her own feelings for the gallant Mr. Knightley. What ensues is a delightful series of scheming escapades in which every social machination and bit of “tittle-tattle” is steeped in Austen’s delicious irony. Ultimately, Emma discovers that “Perfect happiness, even in memory, is not common.” Barnes & Noble Classics: ISBN 9781593083342
Persuasion (1818) Persuasion follows the romance of Anne Elliot and naval officer Frederick Wentworth. They were happily engaged until Anne’s friend, Lady Russell, persuaded her that Frederick was “unworthy.” Now, eight years later, Frederick returns, a wealthy captain in the navy, while Anne’s family teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. They still love each other, but their past mistakes threaten to keep them apart. Barnes & Noble Classics: ISBN 9781593083588
Northanger Abbey (1818) The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old girl from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art. Banes & Noble Classics: ISBN 9781593083809
Jane Austen: Seven Novels (2007) In a publishing career that spanned less than a decade, Jane Austen revolutionized the literary romance, using it as a stage from which to address issues of gender politics and class-consciousness rarely expressed in her day. The novels included in this beautiful leatherbound collection — Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Lady Susan – represent all of Austen’s mature work as a novelist, and provide the reader with an introduction to the world she and her memorable characters inhabited.
Jane Austen: Seven Novels is part of Barnes & Noble’s series of quality leatherbound volumes. Each title in the series presents a classic work in an attractively designed edition bound in genuine bonded leather. These books make elegant additions to any home library. Barnes & Noble Classics: ISBN 9781435103191
Austenesque Fiction
Austenland, by Shannon Hale (2007) In 32-year-old singleton Jane Hayes’s mind, no man in the world can measure up to Fitzwilliam Darcy-specifically the Fitzwilliam played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Jane is forced to confront her Austen obsession when her wealthy great-aunt Carolyn dies and leaves her an all-expenses-paid vacation to Pembrook Park, a British resort where guests live like the characters in Jane’s beloved Austen novels. Jane sees the trip as an opportunity for one last indulgence of her obsession before she puts it “all behind her. ISBN 9781596912854
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler (2007) After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy? Try as she might to control her mind and find a way home, Courtney cannot deny that she is becoming this other woman-and being this other woman is not without its advantages: Especially in a looking-glass Austen world. Especially with a suitor who may not turn out to be a familiar species of philanderer after all. ISBN 9780525950400
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, by Stephanie Baron (1996) First in the Series of Jane Austen mysteries. For everyone who loves Jane Austen…a marvelously entertaining new series that turns the incomparable author into an extraordinary sleuth! On a visit to the estate of her friend, the young and beautiful Isobel Payne, Countess of Scargrave, Jane bears witness to a tragedy. Isobel’s husband-a gentleman of mature years–is felled by a mysterious and agonizing ailment. The Earl’s death seems a cruel blow of fate for the newly married Isobel. Yet the bereaved widow soon finds that it’s only the beginning of her misfortune. ISBN 9780553575934
Letters From Pemberley: The First Year, by Jane Dawkins (2007) In this continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, one of the best-loved novels in the English language, Elizabeth Bennet, now Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy and mistress of Pemberley, finds herself in a very different league of wealth and privilege. Writing to her sister, Jane, she confides her uncertainty and anxieties, and describes the everyday of her new life. Her first year at Pemberley is sometimes bewildering, but Lizzy’s spirited sense of humour and satirical eye never desert her. ISBN 9781402209062
Me and Mr. Darcy, by Alexandra Potter (2007) After a string of disastrous dates, Emily Albright decides she’s had it with modern-day love and would much rather curl up with Pride and Prejudice and spend her time with Mr. Darcy, the dashing, honorable, and passionate hero of Jane Austen’s classic. So when her best friend suggests a wild week of margaritas and men in Mexico with the girls, Emily abruptly flees to England on a guided tour of Jane Austen country instead. Far from inspiring romance, the company aboard the bus consists of a gaggle of little old ladies and one single man, Spike Hargreaves, a foul-tempered journalist writing an article on why the fictional Mr. Darcy has earned the title of Man Most Women Would Love to Date. ISBN 9780345502544
Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, by Linda Berdoll (2004) Inspired by the BBC/A&E production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the story begins the day after Darcy and Elizabeth’s wedding and follows the couple through the ups and downs of married life. Other major Austen characters also appear-Elizabeth’s sisters Jane and Lydia, as well as Bingley and the charmingly detestable Wickham. Berdoll has done a questionable but entertaining job of capturing the flavor of the original characters, who behave in ways that may have not met Austen’s approval. ISBN 9781402202735
Mr. Knightley’s Diary, by Amanda Grange (2007) Relive Jane Austen’s Emma - from Mr. Knightley’s point of view. Between managing his estate and visiting his brother in London, Mr. Knightley is both exasperated and amused by his irresistibly beautiful, outrageously mischievous neighbor, Emma Woodhouse, whose misguided attempts at matchmaking are wreaking havoc in the village of Highbury. But when a handsome newcomer arrives and catches Emma’s attention, Mr. Knightley is shocked by his reaction. Amusement gives way to another emotion entirely-for his unreasonable dislike of the handsome newcomer seems suspiciously like jealousy. ISBN 9780425217719
The Jane Austen Book Club, by Karen Joy Fowler (2004) In California’s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her eye for the frailties of human behaviour and her ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Karen Joy Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships. ISBN 9780452286535
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, by Syrie James (2007) What if, hidden in an old attic chest, Jane Austen’s memoirs were discovered after hundreds of years? What if those pages revealed the untold story of a life-changing love affair? That’s the premise behind this spellbinding novel, which delves into the secrets of Jane Austen’s life, giving us untold insights into her mind and heart. ISBN 9780061341427
Austenesque Non-fiction
Becoming Jane Austen, by Jon Spence (2007) Biography: Spence’s meticulous research has uncovered evidence that Austen and the charming young Irishman Tom Lefroy fell in love at the age of twenty and that the relationship inspired Pride and Prejudice, one of the most celebrated works of fiction. “Becoming Jane Austen” gives the fullest account we have of the romance, which was more serious and more enduring than previously believed. ISBN 9781567318944
Jane Austen: A Life, by Claire Tomalin (1999) Biography: Tomalin solves the problem of preparing yet another biography of Jane Austen (1775-1817), a “life of no event,” by a familiar formula. At every turn, one meets “may have,” “may be” and “might have.” A biographical boon is the large supporting cast. Tomalin is strikingly sensitive, however, to Austen’s life of social discomfort. In what is a very personal book, she often resorts to the first person, which fits the speculative approach. ISBN 9780679766766
A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love, and Faith, by Lori Smith (2007) At thirty-three, dealing with a difficult job and a creeping depression, Lori Smith embarked on a life-changing journey following the life and lore of Jane Austen through England.
With humor and spirit, Lori leads readers through landscapes Jane knew and loved-from Bath and Lyme, to London and the Hampshire countryside-and through emotional landscapes in which grace and hope take the place of stagnation and despair. Along the way, Lori explores the small things, both meanness and goodness in relationships, to discover what Austen herself knew: the worth of an ordinary life. ISBN 9781400073702
Jane Austen in Bath: Walking Tours of the Writer’s City, Katherine Reeve (2006) Beautifully illustrated and organized into four walking tours around the city of Bath-where Austen set both two novels that mirrored her own experience. This guidebook describes the places frequented by Austen and her characters. Bath is an exquisite, perfectly preserved Georgian town located in the stunning countryside just an hour and a half from London. Jane Austen in Bath is the perfect companion to discovering the vibrant and fashionable social scene of Bath during both Austen’s time and today. ISBN 9781892145321
The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World, by Margaret C. Sullivan (2007) For all those readers who dream about living in Regency England, The Jane Austen Handbook offers step-by-step instructions for proper comportment in the early nineteenth century. Full of practical directions for navigating the travails of Regency life, this charming illustrated book also serves as a companion for present-day readers, explaining the English class system, currency, dress, and the nuances of graceful living. ISBN 9781594741715
