I love these books because they are easy to read and they are "written at walking pace". What I mean by that is, the pace of life when these books were being written was much more gently, and you can feel this rythm in the writing. It instantly transports you this other time. Sometimes it's nice to slow down , and take in the minutae of your surroundings. Also Miss Austen was an unsupressable romantinc and optimist, with a wonderful grounding of common sense. Many a young woman could learn a lot by reading Jane Austen at a young age.

Jane Austen has completed seven novels during her lifetime. I read her six big novels from November 2016 to June 2017, so it's been a hot minute (and I'm not opposed to rereading them), but I thought it'd be fun to rank them all, now that I've read Lady Susan as well:

1. n  n    Lady Susann  n (5 stars)
Well, what can I say? I'm more surprised than you are but this novella is now my favorite piece of writing that Jane ever put to paper. This epistolary novel is straight to the point, hilarious, petty, and jaw-dropping. Lady Susan is unlike any of Austen's other heroines – she's actually more of a villain/ anti-heroine, and I was absolutely here for her shenanigans. Who knew Austen writing about a homewracker who gave zero shits would be so much fun?

2. n  n    Mansfield Parkn  n (4.5 stars, initally 5 stars)
An unlikely fave, since most people would put this book at the bottom of their lists, but it has always been a favorite of mine. Fanny Price will always have a special place in my heart. In my opinion, she is one of the few introverted (not shy!) characters that have ever been authentically written. I could see a lot of myself in her and her need to not be around people. I also loved that it is more of a bildungsroman as opposed to a proper love story.

3. n  n    Northanger Abbeyn  n (4 stars)
Can you tell that I prefer Austen's sillier novels to her romances? Good. Because I sure do. Northanger Abbey was SO MUCH FUN! It was the first Austen I ever read and it got me immediately hooked to read her other books. Unpopular opinion incoming but Henry Tilney might be my favorite love interest that Jane has ever written. He was so damn charming, and hilarious. Also loved how fast-paced this story was!

4. n  n    Emman  n (4 stars)
This is the Austen that I love to hate. Like, for real, this book is an utter trashfest and probably the worst exhibit of Austen's writing (literally 80% of this book is dialogue and/or Austen using dashes and hyphens ... it was INSUFFERABLE) but for some fucking reason I ate this book up. I'm not particularly fond of Emma Woodhouse – may she be handsome, clever, and rich – nor of Mr Knightley, but I really enjoyed this book??? I'm still confused about it.

5. n  n    Pride and Prejudicen  n (3 stars)
Let's face it, folks, the Lizzie Bennett Diaries are better than its source material. There, I said it. So much has been written and said about this book, I have nothing to add to the conversation. For me, it was just okay. I didn't fan over Mr. Darcy, nor did I find Elizabeth to be particularly engaging. I feel like Austen was almost too fond of her as a character, and therefore sacrificed much of her other characters and possible plot points in favor of Lizzie. Also, Lydia deserved a redemption arc!

6. n  n    Persuasionn  n (2.5 stars)
This is the one Austen novel I am most curious to reread. I feel like I should've liked it a lot more the first time around, but I somehow didn't. The love letter was great ("I am half agony, half hope...") – I can still quote it from memory, so that's something. I may have been too young when I first read it, or simply running out of juice, since at that point I'd been reading ±an Austen a month, and Persuasion was last in line. We'll see how my opinion changes upon a reread.

7. n  n    Sense and Sensibilityn  n (2 stars)
By far, my last favorite Austen. And I don't think that this will ever change. This novel was the most dull and uninspired of the bunch. Both couples (Edward & Elinor and Marianne & Colonel Brandon) did nothing for me. I don't remember any of the plot, just that I was bored to death.

Overall, I am really happy that I dove so deep into Austen's oeuvre. I usually don't read much romance, and hers aren't even raunchy (lmao), but I somehow grew fond of her writing and stories. She's definitely a classic writer for all ages. Can't wait to revisit her work in the future, now that I am done with her complete works. :)

I purchased this in 2007 and finally got around to starting it, and you know what I realised about Jane Austen? She's boring! Ok, I know she's much beloved and Mr Darcy is some kind of heartthrob (at least when played by Colin Firth), but I just couldn't get into the regency game-playing and match making Ms Austen's writing relies on.

I couldn't complete Sense & Sensibility and gave up partway through Pride & Prejudice (which I started thinking I might enjoy it more given its popularity and the fact I've enjoyed a film version). Apologies to those who adore her, but Ms Austen is not to my taste.

Copy/pasting my post from Reddit because I am lazy:

7.Emma - the protagonist is so vapid, and the novel so empty, I just can't appreciate it. I know that's the point, that it's about the emptiness of lives of upper middle class women, and I do really like Mr. Knightley, but I just can't make myself like Emma. And I've seen Clueless a bunch of times, too, and the movie, I think, is an upgrade.

6: Sense and Sensibility - Not bad, just not particularly great, either. It's a good way to start reading Austen as the plot is easy to follow and the characters are relatively few, but having read it once I have no real desire to read it again. Also I think Colonel Brandon would have been a better partner for Elinor, but that's just me.

5: Mansfield Park - here is your Jane Eyre/Cinderella story (which I'm a total sucker for), and though Fanny isn't strong in an extroverted sense, like Elizabeth Bennet, she is still able to keep to her morals, which says something amid many of the other horrid characters, refusing a marriage that almost any other female character in that novel would have taken without a second thought.

4: Persuasion - being honest, this was the last of the novels I read, and at this point it was super easy to predict the plot, so it didn't hold my attention very long. I'll need to reread it at some point to give it its due.

3: Northanger Abbey: A very strong start—actually laughed out loud, and the time that actually takes place AT the Abbey is fantastic, but the rest has some awkward pacing issues (they spend more time at Bath) and the ending feels forced. I kind of wish the Admiral had done a Rochester with his wife, but then I guess Jane Eyre wouldn't have been as successful...Earliest known reference to baseball, however, which is cool as a baseball fan/writer.

2: Lady Susan - As a diehard Game of Thrones/aSoIaF fan, you might imagine I loooove the complexity that a multiple P.O.V narration brings to a story, and I love the way the story unfolds unexpectedly. The only question here is whether LS actually counts as a novel, or if it's a novella.

1: Pride and Prejudice - The pacing is fantastic, the plot has twists that DON'T feel forced, as though the author needed something to happen to move events along, and while Elizabeth Bennet is an awesome heroine if ever there was one and Darcy epitomizes the brooding hero, some of the other supporting characters - Mr. Bennet, Jane Bennet, Mr. Bingley - are extremely likable as well. I finished P&P wishing I could go visit Regency England.

I LOVE Jane Austen- I try to read her once a year. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are true classics, and Emma and Persuasion are also wonderful. I cannot personally stand Fanny Price from Mansfield Park, but even a so-so Jane Austen is better than your average bestseller today.

Austen's ability to expose the foibles of her characters without actually holding them in disdain is what makes her books so enjoyable. Can you eviscerate someone with a fluffy knife? Not a good image, but in probing the psyches of her characters she shows a true understanding of human nature that is as valid today as it was then. There are so many Mrs Norrises in the world, and yet Lizzies and Darcys and Elinors seem to be in short supply. Nevertheless, there's enough wit and comedy and family and sisterhood and loyalty and friendship to keep you happy, if you go for that sort of stuff.

I have the old Modern Library edition of this book. Along with lots of other literary interests, I just love Jane Austen...can't say why really...she was definitely pushing the boudaries of the forms of the classical-era novel, and she reprsents an important feminist voice for her time. Mansfield Park is also an indictment against colonialism - she is one of the early (literary) critics of that phenomena.

Beyond the reasons why she might be important, the stories are just wonderful. Beyond rationality, I just feel good when I read her.

I can't express with complete fullness my delight in rereading these novels.

Having read all of these several times before, I cannot say there is any surprise...but by heaven there is joy...in them. No one paints her time with so much style and realism as Austen. She is the rarest of storytellers, whose language alone delights.

My favorite is Pride and Prejudice. It makes me smile. Great characters and well developed story line. A romance that won't make you blush.

Jane Austen. Her name is practically synonymous with classic, understated romance, as well as comedies of manners with a subtle, sly sense of humor.

And "The Complete Novels of Jane Austen" brings together the full complement of her finished novels, from the little-known "Lady Susan" to the classic bestseller "Pride and Prejudice" (and everything in between). This collection is flled with lovably flawed heroines, beautiful formal prose, and some rather unconventional love stories.

"Pride and Prejudice" become a problem when Elizabeth Bennett takes a dislike to the handsome, aloof Mr. Darcy, helped by his own aloofness and the devious Mr. Wickham's stories about him. But Mr. Darcy isn't quite the villain -- he's the hero. And "Sense and Sensibility" clash when the two very different Dashwood sisters, smart Elinor and romantic Marianne, both fall in love -- one with a man she can't have, and the other with a guy who may be horribly unsuitable.

Anne Elliott has a problem with "Persuasion," since she was once briefly engaged to the impoverished sailor Frederick Wentworth. Now he's returned from war as a wealthy hero... and Anne still loves him. "Mansfield Park" is the backdrop for shy Fanny's life with her rich relatives, who usually treat her as a servant -- except for her kindly cousin, Edmund. But when the flirtatious, fashionable Crawfords arrive in the neighborhood, it unbalances the lives of everyone at Mansfield Park.

And "Northanger Abbey" is a fitting location for Austen's spoof on gothic romances, in which the hyperimaginative Catherine Moreland has to learn a lesson about the difference between fantasy and reality. "Emma" is a frothy romantic comedy about a rich, somewhat spoiled young lady who tries to arrange the lives of people around her so that everyone is happy. And there's "Lady Susan," who is sort of the evil sociopathic twin of Emma: a brilliant and manipulative widow who seduces, plots and schemes.

The collection displays the range and depth of Austen's writing skill beautifully; though each story is very unique they're laced together by common themes. Except for "Lady Susan," each story is a love story, tempered with some clever commentary on the society of Austen's day (example: entailment, which plays a part in several plots), and a biting, sharp-edged wit (the mockery of the toadying Mr. Collins and the obnoxious Elliott family).

And despite the formal stuffiness of the time, Austen painted her stories vividly -- there's a bit of roughness in "Lady Susan" and "Persuasion," but nothing too dramatic. Each one has powerful emotions and vivid splashes of prose ("The wind roared round the house, and the rain beat against the windows"), as well as deliciously witty dialogue ("I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine"). But she also weaves in some intensely romantic moments as well ("Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you").

Austen also had an interesting range of heroines -- quiet ones, melodramatic ones, intelligent ones, naive ones, and mildly spoiled ones who think they know best. But each one has a major character flaw that must be overcome before she can find true love and happiness. And she has an equally fascinating range of love interests: the quiet shy Colonel Brandon, the sexy and clever Henry Tilney, the blunt Mr. Knightley, the generous and honest Edmund, and especially the smart, sexy Mr. Darcy (who has a flaw of his own to overcome alongside Lizzie).

Jane Austen's "Complete Novels" draws together all her finished novels, and let readers explore the mannered society and obstacle-filled love lives of her heroines.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

--"Pride and Prejudice"

This famous opening may not hold true in this day and age, but I would definitely acknowledge the truth that Jane Austen is, hands down, a genius! I could now honestly say, that I have never encountered an "Austen" I didn't like (and since I've read all of them... NEVER!). All the novels accurately portray the realities of their day, the plotting and scheming for social or monetary advancement, the love triangles, and how true love can overcome all adversities even though life will always remain imperfect.

Austen was gifted with a keen observation of human nature and possessed a refined sense of the satirical, a master at setting off events with the clash of weak versus strong characters, and how all things will settle themselves for better or worse, depending on the choices each person makes. More so, Austen wasn't a radical, she wasn't suggesting that women burn their corsets and hold out for a better deal. She was just describing life as she saw it, with frankness and humor that can be rare in the genre nowadays. She knew that relations between men and women could be complicated, messy, and frustrating-- and that's just the way she liked it.

Her books are modest and witty, courageous and beautiful and who can resist the charm and simple sincerity of characters like Mr. Darcy? I believe the books are still relevant in today’s society. We can still very much relate to her stories. To say that I am a fan of Jane Austen is an understatement, I am over the moon for her!

The complete set is one of my favourites read, I love me some Jane Austen.

I am drawn to her writing became of the way she merges her story with excellent scenery writing. She writes her scenes so well, I can feel and see the atmosphere at Lyme in Persuasion, I can see the beauty of the surroundings of the cottage when the Dashwoods moves in Sense and Sensibility. The landscape was so beautiful when Catherine and the Thorpes went sightseeing and the oh so lovely scene where Henry Tilney and Catherine Morland were exchanging words on novel writing in Northanger Abbey.

The age of the writing also draws me to Austen's world. I love reading about people in a different time period from the 20 and 21th century. The older the setting the better, 18th and 19th century is just a interesting period where society etiquettes were so class structured. It is one aspect that shows up in all her novels. The Bertrams took Fanny into the family but she was kept on a class beneath Edmund, Julia, Tom and Maria in Mansfield Park. The Elliots with the exception of Anne accepted Captain W into their circles in Bath only when he amassed a fortune on the sea in Persuasion.

Austen's characters are some of the wackiest and best in English Literature. I am glad she did not shy away from characters who would make ladies blush behind their fans in their morning rooms. Maria Bertram and Henry Crawford from Mansfield park, Lady Susan Vernon from Lady Susan, Willoughby from Sense and Sensibility, Lydia Bennet and George Wickham from Pride and Prejudice. I am also appreciated of the men who were so devoted and loved their ladies: Captain W, Colonel Brandon, Mr. Darcy. The comical ones also added laughter and fits of vexation for me: Mr. Collins were just so ridiculous, I could not help but laugh at him in P&P but I just wish Mary in Persuasion would shut up and go away.


Sense and Sensibility

In my opinion it is the best written novel by Jane Austen. I see it as the novel to introduce anyone into the Jane Austen world. Issues of entailment, love triangles, class structure, annoying and dreaded in-laws. All of these are covered in the other novels but there is something about the way it is presented in Sense and Sensibility which makes it more special. It is the only novel where it feels like there are two heroes and heroines, it adds more spice to the plot


Pride and prejudice

I see it as the most overrated Jane Austen novel. I see many lovers of the story label Sense and Sensibility as dry but I see P&P has some of the same things as S&S. For example, the details of what entailment can do to a family. In P&P, Mrs. Bennet thirst to marry Mr. Collins to one of her daughters is comical and the soap opera continues when Mr. Collins pursues the best friend of the girl he once proposed marriage. It is just annoying how Lizzie spend so much time disliking Darcy but how the size of his property helped her realize that Darcy is a catch. I do think that the novel has one of the best opening paragraphs in the set, it pulls you. Jane and Bingley is also my favourite Austen couple.


Mansfield

I appreciate how this novel deviates from having the hero and heroine love story as the main focus, instead it is left for the ending. If one wants to understanding the workings of how different immediate families of various incomes interacted with each other in the extended field, this is the novel. It is home to my second favourite heroine- Fanny. At times I found she was a bit too obsessive with loving Edmund. She should realize that since she was raised almost as a sister to him, a blossoming romantic love would be awkward to comprehend for him and others. I understand that it was the norm of the day for marriages between cousins but it still felt awkward in my eyes. I guess this is me bringing 20th and 21st eyes into Austen 18th/19th world. This novels also sheds some light and interesting insights into marriage. Those who marry all for love with no money and those who married all for money and no love.


Emma

It is my least favourite Austen novel because of the heroine and her obnoxious ways. I really do not believe that she is half as contrite as Austen wants to sell me. I just seriously disliked how she treated Harriet as a project and I disappointed in Harriet for letting Emma influenced her to the extent, she cannot make her own decisions. The opening chapters were difficult to get my juices into and those long talks by Miss Bates does not help at all. Emma and Mr. Knightley as a couples just seem odd.



Persuasion

It is my favourite novel, out of the set. The scenery is just so beautifully written, I felt I was present in Lyme when Louisa fell, when Mrs Russell drove into Bath, when the small party of Musgroves, Captain W and Anne walked as far as Winthrop etc. I love how Austen changed scenes so effortlessly allowing the story to flow without difficulty. My favourite character is Anne and I am drawn to her sweet character in the face of family members who take advantage of her and excludes her from their inner circle. I am amazed how she is in such inner turmoil about her love for Captain W, yet she looks so fortified on the outside. Although I wanted to smack Captain W for adding extra pain to Anne on his return from the life at sea, his letter explains to a certain extent his actions and feels. That letter is very moving!



Northanger Abbey

I describe it as the cute novel with the hero with a nice mouth. It is not so dramatic as the other novels and I like the fun, relax tone. Although there is a touch of mystery because of Catherine over active imagination, the novel is a light cozy read. The hero and heroine is not so over the top smitten in love and I appreciate the difference, compared to the other novels. Catherine is all starry eye but Mr. Tilney is taking his cool time teasing her about books and other titbits.



Lady Susan

I really did enjoy reading in this epistle style form of story telling. I had to warm to the style at first and distinguish the characters but when I settled, it was just an enjoyable experience. Lady Susan is very scandalous and probably the worst mother in Austen world to a sweet hearted daughter Frederica. I was very surprised at the ending, I did not see that coming!