So You Want to Read Jane Austen?

Photo by Olivia Gündüz-Willemin.

““It’s not a [book]. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a religion.””

— Gilmore Girls

Everybody remembers their first Austen. Whether it was a book or a period drama… or even a viewing of Clueless. It’s a rite of passage. A  first glimpse that, if you’re lucky, leads to a lifetime of enjoyment. There’s a reason after all that Jane Austen’s works have remained with us for so long, now more than two centuries after her death… one of the first – and for a long time, just about the only – women to break through the barriers of the traditional, male canon in English Literature. Her stories are timeless, her characters forever relatable, her prose charming and oh so witty. You run across her work in one form and you want to see more of it. 

So where to begin?? 

Jane Austen wrote six novels that were published or set to publish during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. This is generally considered to be her canonical body of work, but the truth is she wrote more than that: Sanditon was started shortly before her death and later posthumously published as an incomplete novel (you may know it from its recent ITV/PBS adaptation) and a body of juvenilia (including Lady Susan, which in 2016 led to the film Love & Friendship). 

Anyone who doesn’t know Austen may say that one of her works resembles all the others, but that just isn’t true. Part of what made Austen a fantastic writer was that while she had a definitive style, she understood the ins and outs of the various genres that were relevant to her time and she played with them in all of her works. So lucky for us all, there’s something for anyone who wants to read her books…  

For the Fun Dramatic: 

Austen’s first completed novel that was later published, Northanger Abbey is a satire of the gothic novel. Her shortest novel, Northanger Abbey is the story of Catherine Morland, a 17 year old girl who would never have been expected to be a heroine, who travels to Bath with a wealthy family friend, and takes her obsession with gothic novels with her (Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho is a major guest star) as she makes new friends, discovers dramatic settings, and even finds romance. The novel can be at times silly, romantic, dramatic, but always fun. 

For the Pining Romantic:

The final novel set to be published during her lifetime (but actually published posthumously in 1818), Persuasion is by far Austen’s most romantic piece of writing. If you love Byron and Shelley and staring out at stormy seascapes, dreaming of the most heart wrenchingly romantic (in both senses of the word) stories that you can bring yourself to imagine, then Persuasion is the Austen novel for you. The story picks up eight years after Anne Elliot has been pressured into breaking her engagement to her impoverished love Frederick Wentworth, when the Elliot family is forced to give up their home and Wentworth reappears on the scene as a now very successful and wealthy Captain. Pining ensues and brings us the most romantic (can I say that just one more time?) letter to be included in any 19th century novel. 

For the Homebody: 

Do you spend your time saving photos of charming little English cottages on Instagram? Thinking about how you’ll wear chunky sweaters over floral dresses and go for walks in meadows and maybe come across a couple of sheep? Then Sense and Sensibility is the Austen novel for you. The story of the Dashwood sisters, the novel begins as the girls lose their father and need to hand over their family estate to their older half-brother and his absolutely awful wife. They move to a cottage in the countryside and there find poetry, romance, and music. The book is a delight, but for once, I have to say that the film adaptation, released in 1995, written by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee, is an even better one. It’s one of the most cinematographically beautiful period dramas ever made, is wonderfully cast (ages aside), and it’s a favorite movie to watch over and over again. 

For the Social Commentary:

If you don’t need lots of action in your reads but you do like what little action there is to have lots of meaning, then Mansfield Park is the Austen for you. A rather slow story, Mansfield Park follows Fanny Price as she, the oldest girl of a large and impoverished family, is sent to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle. She is not well treated by her cousins but develops a strong mind and becomes quietly opinionated. Popularly a little loved Austen novel, it’s long and its characters are not immediately likeable, but it is philosophically and socially one of Austen’s strongest. It says the most on class, race, and gender, and deserves another adaptation or two that actually does it justice. 

For the Humor and the Snark: 

If you love to laugh and you love a romantic comedy, then you can’t go wrong with Emma. My favorite source for Austen one-liners, the novel is fun yet substantial. Emma Woodehouse loves to matchmake, until one day, her plans begin to go awry. It’s charming, it’s funny, and it does a little something for those of us who manage to be both super independent and family-oriented. Over the years, Emma has also led to many solid adaptations. Likelihood is that you’re here because of the new Autumn de Wilde film, but many good Emma adaptations have come before, including the 2009 miniseries and the 1995 cult classic Clueless. 

& If You Can Only Pick One:

Pride and Prejudice is possibly every bookish person’s “favorite book” for a reason. It’s near flawless, has fantastic characters, and endlessly stands the test of time. Lizzie Bennet walks through the countryside and speaks her mind. Fitzwilliam Darcy is socially anxious and romantically disposed. Misunderstandings abound. Enormous yet unspoken gestures occur, and gorgeous houses appear time and again. Sisterhood, social commentary, humor... it has it all, and it gives us one of the best romances you will ever read. 

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Olivia Gündüz-Willemin is Editor-in-Chief of The Attic on Eighth. She is dedicated to reading her way through the world and trying to stay as calm as possible.