When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, s[...]

At 27, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again i[...]

With the same sensitivity and artfulness that are the trademarks of her award-winning novels, Carol Shields explores the life of a writer whose own novels have engaged and delighted readers for the past two hundred years. In Jane Austen, Shields follows this superb and beloved novelist from her earl[...]

A definitive compilation of the author's seven great novels--Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Lady Susan--offers a vivid portrait of English middle-class life, its mores, institutions, and society around the turn of the nineteenth ce[...]

Written during Jane Austen's race against failing health, "Persuasion" tells the story of Anne Elliot, a woman who - at twenty-seven - is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years ago, she was persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, [...]

An eloquent memoir of a young man's life transformed by literature.
In "A Jane Austen Education," Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author's novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate th[...]

'Pride and Prejudice' is one of the best loved and most intimately known of Jane Austen's novels. Her sense of comedy and satire makes this an enduring classic of English literature.[...]

This complete set of the novels of Jane Austen is now reissued as a shrink-wrapped set with handsome new jackets. Using the definitive text established by R.W. Chapman, with later revisions by distinguished scholars, the set presents the most authoritative and comprehensive edition available - inval[...]

At nineteen Anne Elliot refuses an offer of marriage from Frederick Wentworth, persuaded to do so by Lady Russell, a friend of her dead mother. Wentworth is a sailor, with no money and an uncertain future, says Lady Russell - just a nobody, certainly not worthy of a baronet's daughter. Eight years [...]

Although Jane Austen famously referred to Emma as a heroine "whom no one but myself will much like," the irony of her remark has been obvious since the first appearance of her novel in December 1815. The central character may have attracted diverse reactions, but there can be no doubt about the endl[...]

'I wonder what will become of her!' So speculate the friends and neighbours of Emma Woodhouse, the lovely, lively, wilful,and fallible heroine of Jane Austen's fourth published novel. Confident that she knows best, Emma schemes to find a suitable husband for her pliant friend Harriet, only to disco[...]

Having been persuaded to view the match as imprudent, Anne Elliot broke off her engagement to a naval officer with no prospects. Seven years later, when they meet again, Anne has the chance to recover the happiness she had forgone. This new edition examines Persuasion against the background of th[...]

"Pray, pray be composed," cried Elinor, "and do not betray what you feel to every body present. Perhaps he has not observed you yet." For Elinor Dashwood, sensible and sensitive, and her romantic, impetuous younger sister Marianne, the prospect of marrying the men they love appears remote. In a wo[...]