Sense and Sensibility-Jane Austen's first published adult novel tells the tale of a family who after there husband and father dies are left with very little. The mother Mrs. Dashwood moves with her girls the responsible eldest Elinor, the unbridled Marianne, and the young Margaret to a cottage on the estate of her cousin. The girls fall in love, out of love and all around love. Every possible combination of man is presented in this book in every possible situation. In the end the girls end up with there true loves and life is lived in some semblance of contentment. This is probably the most romantically romantic of books in my personal library.
Pride and Prejudice-Easily my favorite and probably most reread of Ms. Austen's books, at some point I will do a full post dealing only with this book, but until then here is the quick and dirty. The Bennet sisters are all in need of husbands according to there mother as their estate is entailed away from the female line. This book follows the parallel paths and perils of falling in love with someone against your better judgement with three of the five sisters finding a man of their own each in vastly different ways. Ms Elizabeth Bennet is probably one of the most recognized characters in literature and it makes me happy that this icon is a feisty, smart girl who is not the acknowledged beauty of the family. Seriously I could go on and on...but i would rather you go read it for your self.
Mansfield Park-This book is a bit of a Cinderella story, focusing more on the shy, quiet gentle heroine Fanny Price, instead of Ms. Austen's other heroines who tend to be a bit more fiery. This book is a great one for scandal's and multiple love triangles and not everybody gets there happy ending in this one (except of course our heroine and her love)
Emma-This is probably my second favorite, second most read book of my Austen's. This book is entirely contained in Highbury, without the heroine traveling to resolve or push issues to the forefront as in the authors other books. I love Emma because she means well, but she is really a bit of a self-righteous busy body. She is the heroine who has the most personal transformation instead of other people changing there minds about her, and accepting her, she must change how she views herself and work on improving herself and only then does she get her true love. This book is probably the funniest one as well as the most light hearted of the bunch.
Northanger Abby-This book is a play on the popular Gothic novels at the time (think Twilight for the 18th century) Our heroine and Gothic novel addict Catherine Morland goes to Bath and meets many interesting people, among them the Tilney siblings Henry and Eleanor. They eventually invite her back to Northanger Abby which supposedly harbors a dark secret, this coupled with Catherine's love of Gothic novels has her convinced of things that are not there. As with all Austen novels much confusion and adventure ensue, again ending with the prevalence of true love. This book is a bit tongue and cheek which makes me love Jane Austen all the more.
Persuasion-This is the last novel Ms. Austen completed before her death and along with Northanger Abby was published posthumous . This novel is a bit quieter then previous ones, showing a more mature and sensible heroine then in previous books. Anne Elliot is the middle daughter of a baronet who we find out had been talked out of marrying her true love because of his supposed unsuitability. The young man Wentworth left understandably upset at Anne's inability to stand up for them. Anne's father Sir Walter is forced to rent out there estate as it comes to light he has overspent for many years. With her altered station Anne does some traveling eventually running into Mr.Wentworth and after many mishaps and heartbreaks ends up as always and finally with her true love.
Ok so obviously there is a lot more to these books then my little blurbs, but I could write 100 page posts about each of these so this is what we get for today. Some of my thoughts on why I like Jane Austen so much. I was kind of surprised how much I did enjoy all of her books, since I am not usually the romantic type, but I think as far as fictional always happy in the end novels go, she tries to add a sense of feasibility to each situation. She gives reasons that might actually occur to why a person would marry below there station not just "true love" which was much less a consideration in her day. I also love the variety in her heroines, some are feisty, some are quiet and shy, some are silly, some are loud, some are sensible. Again to me it gives a sense of realism that not all her characters are cookie cutter icons. She usually has multiple story lines so you don't get to bored and her sense of humor is still funny even today. I love how she has become an icon for a different era, a way to fuse a femininity with being a strong woman. I think her novels show the idea that you don't have to choose one or the other that you can be just as strong in a frilly pink dress while sipping tea, as you can be utterly absurd while spouting non-realistic girl power nonsense. Another really cool thing is that they are all available for free on e-readers, so no excuses!What Jane Austen book is your favorite? Which character are you most like? Who really wants to go drink some tea and eat some crumpets while wearing a feathered hat?
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