Jane Austen


Born
in Steventon Rectory, Hampshire, England
December 16, 1775

Died
July 18, 1817

Website

Genre

Influences
Frances Burney, Mary Brunton, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Mari ...more


Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), were a modest success but br
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Average rating: 4.18 · 9,138,681 ratings · 349,742 reviews · 3,968 distinct worksSimilar authors
Pride and Prejudice

4.30 avg rating — 4,921,138 ratings — published 1813 — 7558 editions
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Sense and Sensibility

4.09 avg rating — 1,318,617 ratings — published 1811 — 7625 editions
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Emma

4.05 avg rating — 1,005,767 ratings — published 1815 — 36 editions
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Persuasion

4.15 avg rating — 795,930 ratings — published 1817 — 7976 editions
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Northanger Abbey

3.85 avg rating — 464,263 ratings — published 1817 — 6223 editions
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Mansfield Park

3.86 avg rating — 385,521 ratings — published 1814 — 5182 editions
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Lady Susan

3.67 avg rating — 54,753 ratings — published 1871 — 2599 editions
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The Complete Novels

4.57 avg rating — 34,141 ratings — published 1981 — 258 editions
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Lady Susan / The Watsons / ...

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3.74 avg rating — 14,282 ratings — published 1871 — 109 editions
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Love and Freindship

3.51 avg rating — 10,025 ratings — published 1787 — 1060 editions
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More books by Jane Austen…

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Quotes by Jane Austen  (?)
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“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Polls

104299
What book do you want to read for the Classic Book Group Read for the period of July through September 2014?


Emma by Jane Austen
Emma, by Jane Austen

“I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.”

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. 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.
 
  20 votes, 44.4%


Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.
 
  14 votes, 31.1%

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë

Emily Brontës only novel, Wuthering Heights remains one of literature's most disturbing explorations into the dark side of romantic passion. Heathcliff and Cathy believe they're destined to love each other forever, but when cruelty and snobbery separate them, their untamed emotions literally consume them.

Set amid the wild and stormy Yorkshire moors, Wuthering Heights, an unpolished and devastating epic of childhood playmates who grow into soul mates, is widely regarded as the most original tale of thwarted desire and heartbreak in the English language.
 
  11 votes, 24.4%

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