Milestone reached.. I present to you my personal top 5:

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Persuasion
3. Northanger Abbey
4. Emma
5. Mansfield Park

No me arrepiento para nada de haber comprado este libro. Le dediqué medio año de mi vida y no podría estar más satisfecha. Pasé de que me guste Jane Austen a sentirme fan de Jane Austen.
Ahora me arrepiento de no haber hecho una reseña libro por libro, para anotar cosas sobre cada novela. Sin embargo, puedo decir que agregué Northanger Abbey y Persuasion a mis novelas favoritas. Creo que en estas dos Austen lleva su uso de la ironía los niveles más divertidos y agradables para mí.
Jane Austen es feminista, si no te diste cuenta, mejor volvé a nacer.

New impressions of P&P upon rereading while Old: Mr Bennet is a tool! The leads are tiny babies! I hope Darcy's conversation skills improve in private! <3 Now to rewatch the Only Adaptation Of Importance.

I have been very much enjoying reading Jane Austen lately. Classics. Great insight into human nature, interesting look at past culture, and GREAT romance without having to deal with "throbbing" whatevers. Women are treated respectfully,and not as just skin. Good suspense, and a little challenge following the language of the time.

I've spent a semester getting through this massive volume (for a class, I should say), and I figure I'll do mini-reviews for each novel rather than anything similarly massive. So let's give it a whirl.

Sense and Sensibility: This is actually the only Austen novel I've read on multiple occasions, so I have a bit more familiarity with it than any of the other five. This is, in my humble opinion, a fairly dark novel for Austen. Marianne's melodrama is of course frequently mocked, but Elinor's resignation and the story of the Elizas present really bleak insights into Austen's imagination. S&S is perhaps the least laught-out-loud funny of Austen's oeuvre, but the relationship between Elinor and Marianne is one of the most fascinating (and eroticized) female-female interactions among all of her novels. Willoughby, despite his profligate nature, is really hot--especially in Emma Thompson's film adaptation, so that alone should make you want to read/see this! No, but seriously, S&S is strangely close to my heart, perhaps because of that strong sisterly bond, and the female-centered communities of the novel.

Pride and Prejudice: What can I say about P&P that hasn't been said before? It's my favorite Austen novel, with my favorite heroine (Elizabeth) and hero (Darcy), along with a wonderful supporting cast (the Bennets, Mr. Bingley, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Collins, Charlotte Lucas). The humor is all there, the emotion rings true, the characters are all complex and imaginable while you're reading. Quite simply one of the very best novels of English literary history.

Mansfield Park: I won't belabor this part, because "MP" is really truly my least favorite among the novels. The writing is good, the plot is complex, but Fanny Price is absolutely insufferable. If this book had been about Mary Crawford, I might have enjoyed it. The Crawfords are fabulous characters, and there are fascinating questions of subversion in the novel--but this is also the most evident text in which Austen deliberately upholds the status quo, even after suggesting alternatives to it (through the Crawfords, Mr. Yates, even Fanny's brief challenge to the slave trade). Sir Thomas Bertram is Patriarch Supreme, and he ensures that conservatism wins in the end. This is a bit of an unpopular opinion, but for a legitimately good adaptation of this novel, see Patricia Rozema's 1999 film version--it's absolutely wonderful. A real feminist update, and it even features Miss Honey from "Matilda" as Mary Crawford!

Emma: After P&P, this is my second-favorite Austen novel. Emma may be self-centered and manipulative, but she's one of Austen's only flawed characters that we genuinely sympathize with. And I think she's a quite welcome change between the passive, troubled heroines (Catherine, Fanny, Anne, Elinor) and the more vivacious ones (Elizabeth, Marianne)--she's a joy to read. This is also one of the very funniest of Austen's works--I found myself chuckling or openly guffawing almost constantly while reading. Great cast of characters--Emma herself, of course, along with Mr. Woodhouse, Jane Fairfax, the Bates (ha!), and arguably the gayest character--Frank Churchill-in her body of work. Furthermore, I think the resolutions presented here are the most developed and mature of her career--because she actually takes the time to allow them to develop, rather than simply tying everything up neatly in the final pages. Emma is a really lovely novel, and of course, if you didn't know that Clueless is a modernized adaptation of it, now's your chance to rewatch it with that in mind.

Northanger Abbey: Features much of Austen's always-wonderful wit, but I think it's pretty self-evident that this is a first novel, and if you've read the juvenilia, I think you'll recognize much of that exuberant naivete bleeding over into "Northanger." While the humor was all there, my issue with the novel was that I had little sympathy for any of the characters. Catherine, as the opening line suggests, is not much of a heroine--she's bumbling, easily manipulated, excitable, and simply not complex enough for me to truly identify with her. Henry Tilney is, well, kind of a douchebag. A classic example of the "Educating Jane" theme that frequently runs through her novels, because Henry (perhaps like many Austen heroes) becomes a father figure for Catherine. I found that pretty infuriating. Strangely enough, though, I think "Northanger" is possibly Austen's most (I use this term loosely) 'postmodern' texts, because of the novel's challenge to so-termed master narratives, particularly of the Gothic. So I found that pretty fascinating. On the whole, though, this is right with "Mansfield Park" as my least favorite Austen novel.

Persuasion: Wonderful novel. Austen's most mature work, and one of the most heartfelt, particularly because you can feel Austen's own regrets coming through Anne Elliot. Not only that, but there's a sense of the past here, a sense of the characters having histories and interiorities--which doesn't necessarily ring true for her other novels. Of course, I do find myself wondering what it might have been had she survived to continue working on it (it's finished, but not heavily revised), because there are moments where it feels slightly unpolished. Anne Elliot is almost like a much more grown up, and far more fascinating, Fanny Price--quiet, with regrets and a lot of sensitivity, but Anne is genuinely a memorable character. This is a tale, first, of unrequited love and the pain that comes with it--but, as with any Austen novel, there's a happy ending. It's the journey to that end that makes this such a worthwhile novel.

Lady Susan: Oops! Haven't read this one. But I need this compendium off of my currently reading shelf! I promise I'll read Lady Susan at some point!

Austen is just a great writer that everyone should read.

After spending a month rereading all of these novels for the nth time, I present my official (somewhat controversial?) ranking:
7. Mansfield Park
6. Lady Susan
5. Sense and Sensibility
4. Northanger Abbey
3. Persuasion
2. Pride and Prejudice
1. Emma

The difference between 1-3 is so razor thin that it’s basically a tie. But to the surprise of exactly no one, Mansfield Park remains gloriously last. Go cry over that, Fanny Price.

Loving Jane Austen as I do I was thrilled when my daughter surprised me with a copy of her complete novels. If you enjoy the weight of a book in your hands, and you love Jane Austen, this is the book for you.

I must admit that I skipped Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice because I had only recently re-read them. So I skipped to Mansfield Park, read straight through that, and followed with Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Lady Susan. I loved them all, and I believe I have a new favorite JA novel.

I was always a fan of Pride and Prejudice, but I believe I like Northanger Abbey best now. As with many Austen stories, misunderstandings and totally unfounded assumptions create tension, and story builds and feeds upon that tension. Jane's descriptive ability is on display in her word picture of Northanger Abbey, when we finally get there. The novel is more than half over before our heroine, Catherine Morland, first sets eyes on the abbey. I could see what Catherine saw, and as she explored the home of the Tilney family, my mind's eye could follow her explorations. This was something I hadn't really noticed in other Austen novels.

Re-read an Austen novel! They never get old. I seem to discover something new with each reading.

omg it took me 6 months to read all 7 of these books....even managed to turn me off reading for a good 3 weeks. Dont get me wrong, I usually enjoy these classicly written novels however reading all of them in one straight hit was a bit much. my favourite story other than pride and prejudice of course was northanger abbey....which surprised me. I think this is mainly due to the style of writing and even the plot was a bit more modern and not quite as predictable as the others.

Love that this book got all of Jane Austen's work. My favorite will always be Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensability.

When it comes to classics, Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors for reasons too long to share here. Although, on the contrary to the popular opinions, Pride and Prejudice is not my most favourite among all of the seven novels of hers.

Since this is a review of The Complete Novels of Jane Austen with all of her seven books in it, instead of writing my reviews for each of those novels, I'm doing so for my review of the condition of this book as a whole. I'll review each book separately in the future.




First, let me start with the ratings I gave to each novel in this collection as well as my ranks from my most to least favourite one:
1. Sense and Sensibility with ★★★★★
2. Mansfield Park with ★★★★★
3. Pride and Prejudice with ★★★★☆
4. Persuasion with ★★★½
5. Emma with ★★★☆☆
6. Lady Susan with ★★★☆☆
7. Northanger Abbey with ★★☆☆☆


n  What do I think about this book as a whole?n

Size
At the risk of stating the obvious, considering how some people complained about the size of this book upon receiving it, a collection of seven novels is not meant to be the kind of book to carry around. As a book to enjoy within the comfort of one's home? It's perfect!





Leather-bound
It's nice to have seven novels all together in a leather-bound edition. However, the binding is not that strong so if you're not careful, chances are big that you'll break it.





The structure
The biggest flaw to me is the absence of table of content for the chapters of each novel in this book which makes it rather difficult to navigate. There might come a time when one runs out of Post-It notes in the middle of a winter night.





All in all, story wise, it's a collection of Jane Austen's works so of course it's a gem! I highly recommend it!






Picture credit: unsplash.com

This is my review of all of Jane Austen’s novels. I’m sure it will earn me the wrath and enmity of Austen fans and fanatics everywhere.

In my opinion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, and Mansfield Park are essentially the same book with different characters and settings to protect the innocent and the not so innocent. Northanger Abbey differs from the other five only in the introduction of the main character’s obsession with Gothic novels.

Lady Susan, on the other hand, is Austen at her snarky, sarcastic best and one of the best examples of an epistolary novel I’ve read. It’s like the proper, British version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.