Jane Austen was an English novelist best known for her six main novels, which interpreted, criticised, and remarked on the British landed nobility towards the end of the 18th century. Austen’s works typically discuss women’s dependency on marriage to gain a better social status and financial stability. Her writings are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism, and they attack the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century. Her use of stinging irony, as well as her realism, humour, and social criticism, has gained her recognition from reviewers, academicians, and general audiences alike.
Jane Austen rose to prominence with the publication of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). (1816). She went on to write 2 additional books, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, both of which were published in 1818, and she started a 3rd, afterwards titled Sanditon, but her death prevented it from being completed. She also left three volumes of unpublished juvenile works, the brief epistolary book Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons.
Her six full-length works were published anonymously, bringing her little recognition and fortune during her lifetime, but they have been in print for a long time.
Here is a list of best Jane Austen Books you Must Read…
Mansfield Park
Mansfield Park was initially published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton, although the work received no public reviews during Austen’s lifetime. The story follows Fanny Price from the age of ten, when her family sends her to live in the household of her rich aunt and uncle, through her maturation into early adulthood. From the beginning, critical interpretations of Austen’s ideas on theatrical performance, the significance or otherwise of ordination and religion, and the issue of slavery have been numerous. Some of these issues have been underlined in subsequent stage and film interpretations of the narrative.
Pride & Prejudice
Jane Austen’s work Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813. Though it is commonly referred to be a love novel, it is also a satire. The story explores the character growth of Elizabeth Bennet, the book’s lively protagonist who learns about the consequences of quick judgements and grows to comprehend the distinction between surface and true virtue.
Mr. Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is burdened and can only be passed on to a male heir. His wife has no inheritance, so if he dies, his family will be poor. As a result, it is important that at least one of the girls marry successfully in order to support the others.
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Persuasion
Jane Austen finished her final work, Persuasion. It was released towards the end of 1817, six months after her death, alongside Northanger Abbey. On 20th december, 1817, the book was released. The plot revolves around Anne Elliot, a twenty-seven-year-old Englishwoman whose family decides to decrease their costs and debt by renting their property to an Admiral and his wife.
Captain Wentworth, the wife’s brother, proposed to Anne in 1806, but the engagement was broken when Anne was “persuaded” to quit their connection by her friends and family. Anne and Wentworth, both single and unattached, reunite after a seven-year gap, setting the stage for a series of amusing meetings.
Persuasion, Jane Austen’s final work, was completed. It was issued with Northanger Abbey at the end of 1817, six months after her death. The novel was published in 1817 December 20. The narrative centres around Anne Elliot, a twenty-seven-year-old Englishwoman whose family decides to save expenditures and debt by renting out their home to an Admiral and his wife.
Captain Wentworth, the wife’s brother, proposed to Anne in 1806, but the engagement was broken when Anne was “persuaded” by her friends and family to discontinue their relationship. After a seven-year hiatus, Anne and Wentworth rejoin, setting the stage for a series of funny encounters.
Emma
Jane Austen’s work Emma is about youthful arrogance and love misunderstandings. It takes place in the imaginary country village of Highbury, as well as the nearby estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey, and focuses on the affairs of a small number of families. The work was initially published in December 1815, but it was reissued in 1816, according to the title page.
Austen emphasises the problems and afflictions of aristocratic ladies in Georgian–Regency England, as she has in her earlier writings. Emma is a social comedy that addresses problems such as marriage, sex, age, and social standing.
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a coming-of-age story and a parody of Gothic fiction. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox also inspired Austen (1752). In 1803, she finished Northanger abbey making it the earliest of Austen’s books to be finished in its whole, although it was published together in 1817 with Persuasion. Catherine Morland, the naive teenage heroine, is the focus of the novel, and her path to a deeper knowledge of herself and the world around her. Catherine’s worldview has been skewed by her love of Gothic books and her active imagination.
