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ezulc's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
kberry513's review against another edition
4.0
Thoughts on Sense & Sensibility:
I first started reading this at night before bed, but it turns out that Austen requires more concentration than that, at least for me.
I feel that I should state that while I very much enjoy the antics of the Austen heroines, sometimes I find it irritating how quickly the heroes change their minds and how quickly the heroines forgive them. For example, Edward was literally engaged to Lucy the entire book and yet lead Elinor on with no intention of telling her about Lucy. And when it all comes out, he doesn't go to Elinor and apologize or come clean to Lucy about how he feels about her - instead, he plans to marry Lucy anyway. It's only once Lucy chucks him over for his brother that he immediately goes to propose to Elinor. Really? Come on Edward!
And then, there's Colonel Brandon who falls in love with Marianne because she is very much like the girl he once loved, who was raised in his house like a sister, and who ended up marrying his brother, leaving his brother, becoming a prostitute, and then dying with him at her bedside, bequeathing her bastard child to him to "raise". Although his raising of Eliza is extremely hands off, to the point where she falls in love/lust with Willoughby and ends up pregnant/ruined herself all without Brandon knowing of it. And yet, Colonel Brandon does not warn Marianne, whom he himself loves, away from Willoughby until after he's broken her heart, if I remember correctly. Why???? In fact, Brandon doesn't even seem like he particularly likes Marianne, apart from semi-stalking her. For most of the time he is supposed to be in love with her, he just watches her from afar....although I suppose that, in the end, it does take two more years for them to get together, so that's actually not that bad.
All that being said, my complaints are only valid from today's point of view, and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.
**Thoughts on Pride and Prejudice**
I know that loving Pride and Prejudice is a cliche, but I just can't help it. I think my level of enjoyment increases every time I read it. When I read it for school, I merely liked it. When I read it a second time in college (for fun, not for class), I really liked it. And last night, despite having gotten up for work before dawn, I was up until after 1 am without realizing it, just so that Jane and Bingley and Elizabeth and Darcy would be happy before I went to sleep. That is the mark of a great book.
Also, I've been looking forward to reading Death Comes to Pemberly, but wanted to reread P&P first, as I had forgotten big chunks of the story and conflated others with the plot of Sense and Sensibility. My recollection was that I saw too much similarity between the characters in S&S - briefly, it seemed like a retelling of that story with a few details changed. However having just finished S&S earlier in the week allowed me to revise my opinion. Yes, there are some similarities that could be done without, the most obvious example being that one of the heroines prefers a man whose name begins with a W over the hero, who has a shadowy past with the gentleman W that includes a secret revolving around said gentleman and a young girl in their care who has succumbed to the seduction of the gentleman W, but the hero keeps this secret from society until such time as the gentleman W's true nature must be revealed to the heroine alone and then later to others. However, while the bones of that story line are similar, there are enough differences that upon rereading both novels, I did not find myself dwelling on it.
I think one of the reasons I love this book so much is that both Darcy and Lizzy get over themselves before they actually get together. Everyone in the story has their own foibles that they either move past or succumb to and I find that this is what allows Pride and Prejudice to appeal to current readers on a level that transcends the "Oh what a charming story of 19th century love" level of other similar classics (including some of Austen's other work). To be sure, there are many plot lines which only make sense in the setting of Victorian England - nowadays going off alone with your boyfriend the way Lydia does will not ruin your sisters' chances of ever marrying - but the underlying themes are absolutely applicable. Even the characters themselves - from Charlotte Lucas marries a man she doesn't love because she'd rather be married than be alone to George Wickham the charming playboy - would fit in just as easily in a present day setting as they do in the past. It's not surprising that there have been so many adaptations of this story.
**Thoughts on Mansfield Park**
First of all, I just want to slap everyone in this entire book, except maybe Susan and William Price (neither of whom get much page time).
I just find the central characters to be unlikable. Lady Bertram and Julia are useless, Mrs. Norris and Maria are both horrible harpies, Tom is a cad, Sir Thomas is kind of an a-hole, Mr. Crawford is a player and his sister is probably the most likable character.
As for the two main characters, Fanny is just so blah. She's got no personality apart from "timid" and "sweet". How sickly is Fanny that she can't walk about for 15 minutes without needing to rest? Also, while I guess I can understand how she would have feelings for Edmund as he is the only one in the family who thinks she is worth while, that's the kind of crush a child has; she could (and should) have moved beyond it. She's mooning after a guy who is not worth it and she is pretty judgmental, all things considered. Fanny is remarkably apathetic about her whole family aside from William. She goes back for a visit for the first time in 8 years and meets her five year old sister Betsey who "reminds her of another sister she left behind that she preferred to Susan" who died after she left and "when the news of her death had at last reached Mansfield, had for a short time been quite afflicted." Really?! Your little sister dies and you're "quite afflicted" for a short time and then you move on and never think about it again *even though* she has the same first name as the girl who Edmund is in love with? Harsh. She's almost as sanctimonious and condescending towards her own family as Edmund is to her and it's no wonder, since he's the one who taught her to be. Plus, she's always going off sobbing her eyes out instead of communicating like a person.
The hero of the story, Edmund, is kind of a sanctimonious, condescending jerk (I am censoring myself a bit here). In the beginning, when Fanny first arrives, he's the first one to be nice to her at all and the only one who remains nice, but in the way that he molds all of her opinions and is extremely condescending. Later in the story, he doesn't really improve. He continues to pine for Miss Crawford and uses Mr. Crawford's attachment to Fanny to his benefit, even though Fanny has explicitly told him that she's not interested. He continues to try to hook her up with Crawford anyway. His opinion of the rest of Fanny's family is extremely suspect, and when he hears about how William wants to show Fanny his officer's uniform, he says that by the time Fanny sees it, "all its own freshness and all the freshness of the wearer's feelings must be worn away. It would be sunk into a badge of disgrace..." because William will get passed over for promotion. What an awful thing to say!
In fact all the men hear Fanny say "No, I'm not into it" and they kind of pat her on the head and chuckle "Oh well eventually you'll have to be". To be fair, Crawford is a more likable character than Edmund is. He actually goes out of his way to do things for Fanny's family because he knows it will make her happy. He visits Fanny in Portsmouth, he is nice to her sister, he hooks Will up with a promotion. While he needs to learn that "no means no", he had completely turned around once he fell for Fanny and he wasn't pushy so much as hopeful that she would eventually change her mind. Leading up to that he was a bit of a Casanova who liked to play with people's feelings, but he seemed to move past that. And then out of nowhere, he runs off with Edmund's married sister? What?! This at least is feasible, albeit disappointing.
I'd actually have liked this better if that's how it ended; with Edmund heartbroken over Mary (although all his complaints about her character are lame; he's so superior about her "inferior" character and he and Fanny talk about it all the time, as though she's ridiculously beneath him and he needs to raise her up) and Fanny back at Mansfield. But instead, the way Edmund and Fanny get together is almost a post script. The entire book, Edmund loves her as his sister (and she was raised as a sister) until his heart is broken and then it's as if he thinks, well she's here. I suppose I could marry her instead.
Over all, this novel doesn't hold up the way Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice do and I don't know if it's because of the time period it's set in (the play incident is a "big deal" then, but doesn't really translate to today) or if it's just not as good as the others.
**Thoughts on Emma**
In medias res: she's kind of a snot bag about who should be allowed to be acquainted, and I'm thinking that Knightley, though arrogant, is at least a little bit right. Both of them lack self awareness a bit, her moreso. and I am pretty sure Elton is into her and not Harriet.
Okay, it took me FOREVER to struggle my way through this one. I'm not sure if it's because I found most of the characters annoying or if it felt like it was waaaay too long or if I was just Austened out at the time. But I have FINALLY succeeded and can move on. I just didn't feel like I cared enough about Emma. At first I thought a heroine who eschewed the idea of ever marrying was going to be fun - I even had high hopes for some fun match-making, since that's what every blurb I've ever read about this book promised me. But after her initial success for "poor Miss Taylor", the only person she even attempts to matchmake for is Harriet, who she treats like a pet. Someone she can raise up and perhaps make worthy of higher connections. Never mind that Harriet ends up with the man who Emma told her to refuse at the beginning - and not really because Emma changes her mind about Robert Martin's station in life, but more because she finally agrees that Robert Martin's station is good enough for Harriet - especially once she discovers Harriet to be illegitimate (the horror!). Plus, there's the whole "Harriet confesses to be in love with Knightley and that's when Emma decides she is actually in love with Knightley, despite showing no previous hint of this" plot line. And Knightley confesses to Emma he started falling in love with her when she was 13 - creepy considering the vast age difference.
Add that to the fact that the second set of lovers, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, are also the worst. Jane is just irritating - she literally makes herself ill over Frank. And Frank spends most of the book pretending to be into Emma to throw suspicion off the fact that he and Jane are secretly engaged already. Even though he apologizes for it and is instantly forgiven, it was a douchey move.
Not to mention the characters who are SUPPOSED to be annoying - Miss Bates, the Eltons, etc. All in all, this is definitely not my favorite and I don't think it stands the test of time as well. There are too many instances where they discuss their own superiority to others for that.
**Thoughts on Northanger Abbey**
I LOVED this one. I may need to find a copy of Udolpho and reread this so that I have more of an idea where Catherine is coming from. I think that I identify with Catherine moreso than with most of the other Austen heroines - I would love to be Lizzy Bennet, but I don't have the sort of personality she does (and for the most part I have grown to accept that we can't all be Lizzy Bennets). While I am not quite so naive now as Catherine is, I definitely was at her age. And I can admit to giving in to my wild imagination at times - although not quite so much as Catherine does. Still, to this day, some nights I lie awake having finished a particularly harrowing novel or tv show, jumping every time the wind blows a branch against a tree. I can see why she became entirely convinced that the General was hiding his wife away. For someone who has longed to be a part of one of her novels, to find herself in a similar setting, having been wound up by the boy she likes - imaginations can run rampant over one's good sense. I also appreciate that each time her flight of fancy has been proven wrong, she agrees that she has been crazy to think it true. Although her opinion of the General's character was not at all unfounded - what a tyrant!
I think I also enjoyed that this one wraps up nicely - and quickly. The narrator essentially addresses the fact that once the protagonists agree that they are in love and want to be married, while this did not proceed entirely smoothly (as the general would definitely not have agreed), the explanation of how it all goes down is a fast one.
I also like the way the author calls out the hypocrisy novelists who have their heroines disdain reading novels and then uses this feeling from John Thorpe to turn the reader immediately against him.
One of my favorite quotes was Catherine discussing reading history books: "I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all--it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invented. The speeches that are put into the heroes' moths, their thoughts and designs--the chief of all this must be invention, and invention is what delights me in other books." I feel similarly on the subject.
*Thoughts on Persuasion*
I canNOT believe I've never read this one - I think it may be my new favorite Austen. Anne Elliot is a long suffering twenty eight year old single woman who was in love when she was much younger, gave up her love for duty, and never got over it. The plot and feelings of the main characters are both more complex here than in the others, as Anne and Frederick have a past prior to the start of the novel. Anne is overlooked and underappreciated by her family, but finds her own place. As a currently twenty eight year old woman, I can identify with Anne more than the teenage heroines in other novels. Plus I like that she never let her family persuade her into marrying someone she doesn't love after she was forced to give up someone she did. And I adore the declaration of love she got from Frederick - it makes me yearn for a time when people wrote love letters. Is there anything more romantic than the line "You pierce my soul"?
*Thoughts on Lady Susan*
This must be one of the first novels to do the "Correspondence only" thing, which many other authors do now - like Meg Cabot and her Boy/Girl series which include emails and memos. I've always enjoyed those and this is no exception. It's also much shorter, but manages to convey so much of what occurred prior to the story start so it doesn't feel as short. I found it interesting, too, that this novel focused on the villain of the piece, instead of focusing on a heroine. Obviously, you're rooting for Frederica, but you only get a sense of her from others, each of whom have vastly different interpretations of her character. I think it was a nice change of pace. Regarding Reginald, he is kind of an idiot for so easily being swayed by Lady Susan sooo msny times, but it's also a testament to her ability to manipulate people. Even Mrs. Vernon acknowledges that she is almost swayed, despite her prior knowledge of the lady's behavior. I liked this one a lot.
*Overall thoughts*
Jane Austen was a genius and quite ahead of her time in a lot of ways, and I think that if she lived in a different time, the few things that rankle a modern reader (mostly the superiority/inferiority of birth thing) wouldn't exist, although then we wouldn't have Jane Austen novels. I have a soft spot for stories that turn out well in the end for the heroine and these are some of the best. As detailed above, I didn't love Mansfield Park or Emma, but the other five are great. I would give those two 3 stars, Lady Susan 4, and the rest 5, so I would prefer to give the collection 4.5, but as I can't, I went with 4.
I first started reading this at night before bed, but it turns out that Austen requires more concentration than that, at least for me.
I feel that I should state that while I very much enjoy the antics of the Austen heroines, sometimes I find it irritating how quickly the heroes change their minds and how quickly the heroines forgive them. For example, Edward was literally engaged to Lucy the entire book and yet lead Elinor on with no intention of telling her about Lucy. And when it all comes out, he doesn't go to Elinor and apologize or come clean to Lucy about how he feels about her - instead, he plans to marry Lucy anyway. It's only once Lucy chucks him over for his brother that he immediately goes to propose to Elinor. Really? Come on Edward!
And then, there's Colonel Brandon who falls in love with Marianne because she is very much like the girl he once loved, who was raised in his house like a sister, and who ended up marrying his brother, leaving his brother, becoming a prostitute, and then dying with him at her bedside, bequeathing her bastard child to him to "raise". Although his raising of Eliza is extremely hands off, to the point where she falls in love/lust with Willoughby and ends up pregnant/ruined herself all without Brandon knowing of it. And yet, Colonel Brandon does not warn Marianne, whom he himself loves, away from Willoughby until after he's broken her heart, if I remember correctly. Why???? In fact, Brandon doesn't even seem like he particularly likes Marianne, apart from semi-stalking her. For most of the time he is supposed to be in love with her, he just watches her from afar....although I suppose that, in the end, it does take two more years for them to get together, so that's actually not that bad.
All that being said, my complaints are only valid from today's point of view, and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.
**Thoughts on Pride and Prejudice**
I know that loving Pride and Prejudice is a cliche, but I just can't help it. I think my level of enjoyment increases every time I read it. When I read it for school, I merely liked it. When I read it a second time in college (for fun, not for class), I really liked it. And last night, despite having gotten up for work before dawn, I was up until after 1 am without realizing it, just so that Jane and Bingley and Elizabeth and Darcy would be happy before I went to sleep. That is the mark of a great book.
Also, I've been looking forward to reading Death Comes to Pemberly, but wanted to reread P&P first, as I had forgotten big chunks of the story and conflated others with the plot of Sense and Sensibility. My recollection was that I saw too much similarity between the characters in S&S - briefly, it seemed like a retelling of that story with a few details changed. However having just finished S&S earlier in the week allowed me to revise my opinion. Yes, there are some similarities that could be done without, the most obvious example being that one of the heroines prefers a man whose name begins with a W over the hero, who has a shadowy past with the gentleman W that includes a secret revolving around said gentleman and a young girl in their care who has succumbed to the seduction of the gentleman W, but the hero keeps this secret from society until such time as the gentleman W's true nature must be revealed to the heroine alone and then later to others. However, while the bones of that story line are similar, there are enough differences that upon rereading both novels, I did not find myself dwelling on it.
I think one of the reasons I love this book so much is that both Darcy and Lizzy get over themselves before they actually get together. Everyone in the story has their own foibles that they either move past or succumb to and I find that this is what allows Pride and Prejudice to appeal to current readers on a level that transcends the "Oh what a charming story of 19th century love" level of other similar classics (including some of Austen's other work). To be sure, there are many plot lines which only make sense in the setting of Victorian England - nowadays going off alone with your boyfriend the way Lydia does will not ruin your sisters' chances of ever marrying - but the underlying themes are absolutely applicable. Even the characters themselves - from Charlotte Lucas marries a man she doesn't love because she'd rather be married than be alone to George Wickham the charming playboy - would fit in just as easily in a present day setting as they do in the past. It's not surprising that there have been so many adaptations of this story.
**Thoughts on Mansfield Park**
First of all, I just want to slap everyone in this entire book, except maybe Susan and William Price (neither of whom get much page time).
I just find the central characters to be unlikable. Lady Bertram and Julia are useless, Mrs. Norris and Maria are both horrible harpies, Tom is a cad, Sir Thomas is kind of an a-hole, Mr. Crawford is a player and his sister is probably the most likable character.
As for the two main characters, Fanny is just so blah. She's got no personality apart from "timid" and "sweet". How sickly is Fanny that she can't walk about for 15 minutes without needing to rest? Also, while I guess I can understand how she would have feelings for Edmund as he is the only one in the family who thinks she is worth while, that's the kind of crush a child has; she could (and should) have moved beyond it. She's mooning after a guy who is not worth it and she is pretty judgmental, all things considered. Fanny is remarkably apathetic about her whole family aside from William. She goes back for a visit for the first time in 8 years and meets her five year old sister Betsey who "reminds her of another sister she left behind that she preferred to Susan" who died after she left and "when the news of her death had at last reached Mansfield, had for a short time been quite afflicted." Really?! Your little sister dies and you're "quite afflicted" for a short time and then you move on and never think about it again *even though* she has the same first name as the girl who Edmund is in love with? Harsh. She's almost as sanctimonious and condescending towards her own family as Edmund is to her and it's no wonder, since he's the one who taught her to be. Plus, she's always going off sobbing her eyes out instead of communicating like a person.
The hero of the story, Edmund, is kind of a sanctimonious, condescending jerk (I am censoring myself a bit here). In the beginning, when Fanny first arrives, he's the first one to be nice to her at all and the only one who remains nice, but in the way that he molds all of her opinions and is extremely condescending. Later in the story, he doesn't really improve. He continues to pine for Miss Crawford and uses Mr. Crawford's attachment to Fanny to his benefit, even though Fanny has explicitly told him that she's not interested. He continues to try to hook her up with Crawford anyway. His opinion of the rest of Fanny's family is extremely suspect, and when he hears about how William wants to show Fanny his officer's uniform, he says that by the time Fanny sees it, "all its own freshness and all the freshness of the wearer's feelings must be worn away. It would be sunk into a badge of disgrace..." because William will get passed over for promotion. What an awful thing to say!
In fact all the men hear Fanny say "No, I'm not into it" and they kind of pat her on the head and chuckle "Oh well eventually you'll have to be". To be fair, Crawford is a more likable character than Edmund is. He actually goes out of his way to do things for Fanny's family because he knows it will make her happy. He visits Fanny in Portsmouth, he is nice to her sister, he hooks Will up with a promotion. While he needs to learn that "no means no", he had completely turned around once he fell for Fanny and he wasn't pushy so much as hopeful that she would eventually change her mind. Leading up to that he was a bit of a Casanova who liked to play with people's feelings, but he seemed to move past that. And then out of nowhere, he runs off with Edmund's married sister? What?! This at least is feasible, albeit disappointing.
I'd actually have liked this better if that's how it ended; with Edmund heartbroken over Mary (although all his complaints about her character are lame; he's so superior about her "inferior" character and he and Fanny talk about it all the time, as though she's ridiculously beneath him and he needs to raise her up) and Fanny back at Mansfield. But instead, the way Edmund and Fanny get together is almost a post script. The entire book, Edmund loves her as his sister (and she was raised as a sister) until his heart is broken and then it's as if he thinks, well she's here. I suppose I could marry her instead.
Over all, this novel doesn't hold up the way Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice do and I don't know if it's because of the time period it's set in (the play incident is a "big deal" then, but doesn't really translate to today) or if it's just not as good as the others.
**Thoughts on Emma**
In medias res: she's kind of a snot bag about who should be allowed to be acquainted, and I'm thinking that Knightley, though arrogant, is at least a little bit right. Both of them lack self awareness a bit, her moreso. and I am pretty sure Elton is into her and not Harriet.
Okay, it took me FOREVER to struggle my way through this one. I'm not sure if it's because I found most of the characters annoying or if it felt like it was waaaay too long or if I was just Austened out at the time. But I have FINALLY succeeded and can move on. I just didn't feel like I cared enough about Emma. At first I thought a heroine who eschewed the idea of ever marrying was going to be fun - I even had high hopes for some fun match-making, since that's what every blurb I've ever read about this book promised me. But after her initial success for "poor Miss Taylor", the only person she even attempts to matchmake for is Harriet, who she treats like a pet. Someone she can raise up and perhaps make worthy of higher connections. Never mind that Harriet ends up with the man who Emma told her to refuse at the beginning - and not really because Emma changes her mind about Robert Martin's station in life, but more because she finally agrees that Robert Martin's station is good enough for Harriet - especially once she discovers Harriet to be illegitimate (the horror!). Plus, there's the whole "Harriet confesses to be in love with Knightley and that's when Emma decides she is actually in love with Knightley, despite showing no previous hint of this" plot line. And Knightley confesses to Emma he started falling in love with her when she was 13 - creepy considering the vast age difference.
Add that to the fact that the second set of lovers, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, are also the worst. Jane is just irritating - she literally makes herself ill over Frank. And Frank spends most of the book pretending to be into Emma to throw suspicion off the fact that he and Jane are secretly engaged already. Even though he apologizes for it and is instantly forgiven, it was a douchey move.
Not to mention the characters who are SUPPOSED to be annoying - Miss Bates, the Eltons, etc. All in all, this is definitely not my favorite and I don't think it stands the test of time as well. There are too many instances where they discuss their own superiority to others for that.
**Thoughts on Northanger Abbey**
I LOVED this one. I may need to find a copy of Udolpho and reread this so that I have more of an idea where Catherine is coming from. I think that I identify with Catherine moreso than with most of the other Austen heroines - I would love to be Lizzy Bennet, but I don't have the sort of personality she does (and for the most part I have grown to accept that we can't all be Lizzy Bennets). While I am not quite so naive now as Catherine is, I definitely was at her age. And I can admit to giving in to my wild imagination at times - although not quite so much as Catherine does. Still, to this day, some nights I lie awake having finished a particularly harrowing novel or tv show, jumping every time the wind blows a branch against a tree. I can see why she became entirely convinced that the General was hiding his wife away. For someone who has longed to be a part of one of her novels, to find herself in a similar setting, having been wound up by the boy she likes - imaginations can run rampant over one's good sense. I also appreciate that each time her flight of fancy has been proven wrong, she agrees that she has been crazy to think it true. Although her opinion of the General's character was not at all unfounded - what a tyrant!
I think I also enjoyed that this one wraps up nicely - and quickly. The narrator essentially addresses the fact that once the protagonists agree that they are in love and want to be married, while this did not proceed entirely smoothly (as the general would definitely not have agreed), the explanation of how it all goes down is a fast one.
I also like the way the author calls out the hypocrisy novelists who have their heroines disdain reading novels and then uses this feeling from John Thorpe to turn the reader immediately against him.
One of my favorite quotes was Catherine discussing reading history books: "I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all--it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invented. The speeches that are put into the heroes' moths, their thoughts and designs--the chief of all this must be invention, and invention is what delights me in other books." I feel similarly on the subject.
*Thoughts on Persuasion*
I canNOT believe I've never read this one - I think it may be my new favorite Austen. Anne Elliot is a long suffering twenty eight year old single woman who was in love when she was much younger, gave up her love for duty, and never got over it. The plot and feelings of the main characters are both more complex here than in the others, as Anne and Frederick have a past prior to the start of the novel. Anne is overlooked and underappreciated by her family, but finds her own place. As a currently twenty eight year old woman, I can identify with Anne more than the teenage heroines in other novels. Plus I like that she never let her family persuade her into marrying someone she doesn't love after she was forced to give up someone she did. And I adore the declaration of love she got from Frederick - it makes me yearn for a time when people wrote love letters. Is there anything more romantic than the line "You pierce my soul"?
*Thoughts on Lady Susan*
This must be one of the first novels to do the "Correspondence only" thing, which many other authors do now - like Meg Cabot and her Boy/Girl series which include emails and memos. I've always enjoyed those and this is no exception. It's also much shorter, but manages to convey so much of what occurred prior to the story start so it doesn't feel as short. I found it interesting, too, that this novel focused on the villain of the piece, instead of focusing on a heroine. Obviously, you're rooting for Frederica, but you only get a sense of her from others, each of whom have vastly different interpretations of her character. I think it was a nice change of pace. Regarding Reginald, he is kind of an idiot for so easily being swayed by Lady Susan sooo msny times, but it's also a testament to her ability to manipulate people. Even Mrs. Vernon acknowledges that she is almost swayed, despite her prior knowledge of the lady's behavior. I liked this one a lot.
*Overall thoughts*
Jane Austen was a genius and quite ahead of her time in a lot of ways, and I think that if she lived in a different time, the few things that rankle a modern reader (mostly the superiority/inferiority of birth thing) wouldn't exist, although then we wouldn't have Jane Austen novels. I have a soft spot for stories that turn out well in the end for the heroine and these are some of the best. As detailed above, I didn't love Mansfield Park or Emma, but the other five are great. I would give those two 3 stars, Lady Susan 4, and the rest 5, so I would prefer to give the collection 4.5, but as I can't, I went with 4.
saintrouge's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
freckleduck's review against another edition
3.0
I liked some of the stories better than others. My favorites were Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion.
alexandrabree's review against another edition
4.0
I love all the books but Emma, I have never been able to get through that one.
whatsmacksaid's review against another edition
2.0
Do yourself a favor and go read "Pride and Prejudice." Seriously. It will sweep you away. People think the Stephanie Meyer books are good? Pfft. They obviously need to go read a real romance, not a YA romance masquerading as vampire lit.
After reading "Pride and Prejudice," though, do yourself another favor and don't bother with the rest of Jane Austen's novels. P&P is the pinnacle of her literary talent, and unfortunately most of her other novels have the same feel--girl meets boy, they go to Bath, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back, they get married and girl's life is miraculously perfect. Oh, and they live happily ever after, of course. With their annoying relatives.
Personally speaking, I rather liked "Persuasion," as well as parts of "Mansfield Park" and "Northanger Abbey," but nothing glows so brilliantly as "Pride and Prejudice."
After reading "Pride and Prejudice," though, do yourself another favor and don't bother with the rest of Jane Austen's novels. P&P is the pinnacle of her literary talent, and unfortunately most of her other novels have the same feel--girl meets boy, they go to Bath, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back, they get married and girl's life is miraculously perfect. Oh, and they live happily ever after, of course. With their annoying relatives.
Personally speaking, I rather liked "Persuasion," as well as parts of "Mansfield Park" and "Northanger Abbey," but nothing glows so brilliantly as "Pride and Prejudice."
emmadnl's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
beyondevak's review against another edition
5.0
Jane Austen: Seven Novels is my super must have. Are there any words to describe just how wonderful her stories are?!?! I borrowed a copy of this book from my local library, but I want my own copy. Oh dear...
jennywedde's review against another edition
4.0
1. Pride and Prejudice ***** Such wit (but I will admit the only reason it falls above Emma is the constant beautiful nostalgia I felt given my obsession with the film and the tv-series from the age of ten)
2. Emma ***** Such a heroine (I love her and all her faults endlessly)
3. Persuasion ***** Such social commentary (Mature and elegant, yet intriguing)
4. Sense and Sensibility **** Such drama (Lived for the plot twists)
5. Northanger Abbey **** Such a plot (Gothic satire is now a new fav genre of mine)
6. Mansfield Park * Such a bore (I know I'm not alone in saying that Fanny is the most annoying and sad "heroine" I have ever encountered)
2. Emma ***** Such a heroine (I love her and all her faults endlessly)
3. Persuasion ***** Such social commentary (Mature and elegant, yet intriguing)
4. Sense and Sensibility **** Such drama (Lived for the plot twists)
5. Northanger Abbey **** Such a plot (Gothic satire is now a new fav genre of mine)
6. Mansfield Park * Such a bore (I know I'm not alone in saying that Fanny is the most annoying and sad "heroine" I have ever encountered)