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[...]
'Vanity, not love, has been my folly'. 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 later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his [...]
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, [...]
With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, "Emma" is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work. This "Penguin Threads" edition includes cover art by Jillian Tamaki and deluxe French flaps. Commissioned by award-winning Penguin art director Pau[...]
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[...]
An authoritative account of everyday life in Regency England, the backdrop of Austen's beloved novels
Nearly two centuries after her death, Jane Austen remains the most cherished of all novelists in the English language, incomparable in the wit, warmth, and insight with which she depicts her ch[...]
'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.[...]
What has Emma Woodhouse, "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and very little to distress or vex her" to say to a discipline like philosophy? How is a novel like Emma, inaccurately but not infrequently caricatured as a high-toned version of a pedestrian romance, to supply material fo[...]
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[...]
If you love a good story, then look no further. Oxford Children's Classics bring together the most unforgettable stories ever told. They're books to treasure and return to again and again. When Elizabeth Bennet first meets Mr Darcy she finds him to be most arrogant. He, in turn, is determined not[...]
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 [...]
'The moment I first met you, I noticed your pride, your sense of superiority, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry,' said Elizabeth Bennet. And so Elizabeth rejects the proud Mr Darcy. Can nothing overcome her [...]
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[...]
Jane Austen's letters afford a unique insight into the daily life of the novelist: intimate and gossipy, observant and informative, they bring alive her family and friends, her surroundings and contemporary events with a freshness unparalleled in biography. Above all we recognize the unmistakable vo[...]
'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[...]
'...in suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting up his wife, she had scarcely sinned against his character, or magnified his cruelty.' Northanger Abbey is about the misadventures of Catherine Morland, young, ingenuous, and mettlesome, and an indefatigable reader of gothic novels. T[...]
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[...]
his perfect indifference, and your pointed dislike, make it so delightfully absurd!' Pride and Prejudice has delighted generations of readers with its unforgettable cast of characters, carefully choreographed plot, and a hugely entertaining view of the world and its absurdities. With the arrival of[...]
"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[...]
Jane Austen began writing in her early teens, and filled three notebooks with her fiction. Her earliest work reflects her interest in the novel as a genre; in brilliant short pieces she plays with plots, stock characters, diction, and style, developing a sense of form at a remarkably early age. The [...]
'Little Matters they are to be sure, but highly important.' Letter-writing was something of an addiction for young women of Jane Austen's time and social position, and Austen's letters have a freedom and familiarity that only intimate writing can convey. Wiser than her critics, who were disappointe[...]
How well do you really know your favourite author? Ace literary detective turned quizmaster John Sutherland and Austen buff Deirdre Le Faye challenge the reader to find out. Starting with easy, factual questions that test how well you remember a novel and its characters, the quiz progresses to a [...]
'I doubt whether it would be possible to mention any author of note, whose personal obscurity was so complete.' James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir of his aunt Jane Austen was published in 1870, over fifty years after her death. Together with the shorter recollections of James Edward's two sisters, [...]
Kathryn Sutherland presents an edition of the fiction manuscripts of Jane Austen (1775-1817) in this five-volume set. Scholars have pored over this much-loved novelist for decades, yet there are still more riches to be uncovered by the careful presentation of the texts in this fully annotated new ed[...]