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 love how Jane Austen effortlessly writes dialogue. Some of my friends had trouble reading Pride & Prejudice when it was chosen for our book club, but in the course of my life I have read it more times than any other book and appreciate the mind she had for dialogue and how all of her books contain such meaningful dialogue, with so much conveyed between the lines.

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.

Sense and sensibility : 3/5
Pride and prejudice : 4/5
Mansfield Park : 2/5
Emma : 3/5
Northanger Abbey : 3/5
Persuasion : 3/5
Lady Susan : 2/5