Overall - 4 stars

Emma - 3.5 stars
Northanger Abbey - 3.5 stars
Persuasion - 3.5 stars
Lady Susan - 3.5 stars
Mansfield Park - 5 stars
Sense and Sensibility - 4.5 stars
Pride and Prejudice - 4.5 stars

Overall - 4 stars

Pride & Prejudice: Yes, yes, I went to an all girls high school and never read this. Never saw the movie either. Anyway, mom got this massive book on her trip to the Cotswolds and we left it at the cabin in Cornwall but while we were in Cornwall (http://picasaweb.google.com/jenn.lodi) I decided to finally read Pride & Prejudice. I must admit, I fully expected to be bored. I was so surprised when I loved it! Highly entertaining, scandal, great characters - sometimes classics really are classics for a good reason. I also have to say that it was the perfect book to read the week before getting married (http://picasaweb.google.com/7010lindsley)

I got this anthology for a class and I thought it might be easier to put this up rather than each Jane Austen novel. I really liked it, and it's portable being a normal sized paperback; just thicker. But since I love Jane Austen, this is perfect for me! I really like Sense and Sensability the best, of course, followed by Pride and Prejudice. Emma, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey were good as well, but this is a great way to read all of her works without a large hardback anthology that is suited more for a doorstop than actual reading.

My ratings and reviews for all of Austen's works based on preference-

Northanger Abbey- 5 stars
Pride and Prejudice- 5 stars
Sense and Sensibility- 4 stars
Lady Susan- 4 stars
Love and Friendship- 4 stars
The History of England- 4 stars
Persuasion- 3 stars
Emma- 3 stars
Jane Austen's Juvenilia
Mansfield Park- 1.5 stars

The first time I came into contact with Jane Austen's work was in December 2007 at age 16. It was shortly after Christmas and I was visiting my bffs - we basically had a big slumber party spanning several days. One of my friends had gotten the 2005 film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice for Christmas and we decided to watch it - not just once but at least twice, maybe even thrice. We couldn't get enough of it! When I got home, I wished for both the DVD and the book for my upcoming birthday in January, which I both got.

I read and enjoyed Pride & Prejudice - back then in German - which was quite unusual it not being the type of book I usually read. I decided to start collecting adaptations and got myself this ginormous book of all her novels. While I did enjoy watching the adaptations (though I mostly stuck to Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility because I wanted to read the others first) and reread my German copy of Pride & Prejudice, it would take me another five years before embarking on the journey of reading all her novels. I set out to tackle this project in September 2013. It would take me five years, until November 2018, to finish them all.

Sense & Sensibility: ★★★★☆
Previously read: no
Previously watched: yes
Adaptations watched: series 2008, film 1995

Sense & Sensibility is after Pride & Prejudice my most watched Jane Austen work. I like the 1995 film, but I adore the 2008 series. I did enjoy reading it a lot, especially finding out about the couple of things that were changed in the adaptation (though at the point of writing this, almost 6 years after reading, I don't remember the details). I really liked the sisters and their very different personalities and therefore approaches to love and the trials and tribulations they have to go through before finding happiness.

Pride & Prejudice: ★★★★★
Previously read: yes, at least twice in German and once in English
Previously watched: yes
Adaptations watched: series 1995, film 2005, Lost in Austen, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

What can I say, this one's my fave! I have a huge crush on Mr. Darcy and simply love all the characters, their stories, and especially the back and forth between Lizzie and Darcy. It's a wonderful love story and simply makes me oh so happy! I have watched the adaptations SO many times, and while the 1995 one is certainly a classic, my favourite - actually one of my all-time favourite films - is the 2005 adaptation. If you want an introduction to Jane Austen, I recommend starting there. It worked for me ...

Mansfield Park: ★☆☆☆☆
Previously read: no
Previously watched: no
Adaptations watched: film 1999, film 2007

I'm sorry, but Mansfield Park just wasn't for me. In the beginning, I thought I would come to like this one as well. I made rather quick progress and the characters were interesting. Then, however, it became rather tedious and boring. Fanny is a quiet person who suffers a lot of injustices at the hands of her family and bows down to their wishes. The topics addressed are all on the serious side of things; it's neither comedic nor romantic. Furthermore, I wasn't really feeling the ship (any of the possible ships that is). The adaptations also weren't able to help me get into it more.

Emma: ★★★★☆
Previously read: no
Previously watched: no
Adaptations watched: series 2009, Clueless, parts of Emma Approved

Though I owned adaptations of Emma (I also own a film I still haven't watched), I actually managed to refrain from watching until I read the book. It was a book club read and I ended up being the only one who liked it. Emma is a really interesting character though she's not necessarily likable. Still, I loved how stuck in her own head she was, not realising what's actually going on around her. Her meddling was fun and I really was into the romance. I'm just a huge fan of anything slow burning and Jane Austen is rather good at the will-they-won't-they game.

Northanger Abbey: ★★★☆☆
Previously read: no
Previously watched: no
Adaptations watched: film 2007

This one also was a rather quick read and while I did enjoy it, it couldn't convince me. The protagonist and her love interest were alright but I didn't grow attached to them - and Catherine might be a tad annoying in her naïveté. The rest of the characters were rather unlikable and oh so manipulative. The story fell a little flat and the gothic horror elements and intertextuality didn't really do it for me. I must say I was a little disappointed in the end. I had hoped for a bit ... more.

Persuasion: ★★★★★
Previously read: no
Previously watched: yes
Adaptations watched: film 1995, film 2007

I tried to stay strong but at some point I caved and watched the 2007 film before reading the book. And what can I say, I loved it. This is just my kind of story! When I finally came to read this book, I therefore knew what was coming. What I didn't know was that I would love it this much. I breezed through it in just two days. After Pride &Prejudice, this one's my second favourite. It's a perfect case of a reasonable protagonist, her awfully annoying and demanding relatives and acquaintances, a love lost, a possibility, lots of tension, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations, and sparks flying. I'm totally in love with it!

Lady Susan: ★★★☆☆
Previously read: no
Previously watched: no
Adaptations watched: half of film 2016 (no idea why I stopped there, will finish it eventually)

This one was so very different from the rest. It's very short, it's an epistolary novel, and the protagonist is older (a widowed mother) than Jane Austen's usual protagonists. It was quite enjoyable but it is my second least favourite of her novels. The willy-nilly scheming often going awry and her escapades were quite fun to read, but she’s not a likable protagonist.

The novels of Jane Austen are among some of the most beloved, most read, and most adapted from the English language. Featuring memorable characters, locations, and narratives the “big four” Austen novels—Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma—all have similar narrative clichés, but all done in unique ways that makes each story fresh. The later three novels are a mixed back of youthful inexperience (Northanger Abbey), different tone (Persuasion), and unique literary style (Lady Susan) with mixed results. Overall, this is a great collection especially as it has all four of Austen’s major works together.

Sense and Sensibility (3.5/5)
Pride and Prejudice (4/5)
Mansfield Park (3.5/5)
Emma (2/5)
Northanger Abbey (1/5)
Persuasion (3/5)
Lady Susan (2.5)

OK so I admit it -- I am a Jane Austen fan - have been since I was a teenager. My favorites are Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice. Persuasion contains the consummate love letter and Pride and Prejudice is just a wonderful story. It helps to also have "can't watch them enough times" film adaptations of these stories.

Pride and Prejudice remains a favourite classic for a very good reason. It is a perfectly formed novel with a good story, but also has Jane Austen's delightful observation of human nature with humour. It never dates because human nature does not change.
Persuasion is my equal favourite, a study of mature love, though our heroine is only in her early thirties, we are on edge to know if she will break out from her ordained position as put upon maiden aunt.

This may not be a "mans" book, but it is a good read. There was a little too much chattiness for my liking at times, but the story resonates with me as it resembles (fondly) my courtship with my wife. I see myself in Mr. Darcy (prideful and not outgoing), and something of my wife in Lizzy (opinionated and strong (and strong headed).

I only discovered Jane Austen when I was in my forties and read Pride and Prejudice. I couldn't believe I'd missed out on such fantastic writing for so much of my life! Since then I have read and re-read all her books, although P&P, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey have to be my favorites. I love her humour and wit, and her brilliant characterisation. Elizabeth Bennet has the starring role, but I do have a soft spot for Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice (and he was wonderfully portrayed in teh BBC TV series.)

I cannot say I'm a Jane Austen fan, but her books are quite an education on life in certain circles of society during her lifetime that I'd not read about in the works of other autors like the Brontë sisters I am more partial to. That said, I had put off reading her interesting novels for far too long due to not enjoying whichever novel of hers I read many years ago and I have finally read them all (excepting the "unfinished" one which will follow soon enough.
I wish her heroines had been more gung-ho, more lapel-grabbinly assertive; collectively they'd have wasted less years waiting for the man to take the first step and avoided many an awkward misunderstanding.

Dang!!! These books are long. But they are so good!! It's hard to pick which on is my favorite. But if I had to narrow it down to two... It had to be Emma and pride and prejudice:)