I once took a test on Facebook to find out who my Jane Austen love interest was, I ended up with Edward Ferrars and I have to say I wasn’t at all disappointed with the choice. I guess if Edward is my match my personality must be that of Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, this is one thing Jane Austen is great at no matter the novel or the character you see yourself or someone you know reflected in them.

The death of Mr Dashwood sees his fortune entailed away to his son from his first marriage forcing Elinor, her mother, sisters Marianne and Margret having to move to a small cottage and live a life vastly different from what they have previously known. Thankfully Elinor is resourceful and has a smart head on her shoulders. She forces her family to realise their new future and make the best of what they have. With Elinor’s position in the family comes an isolation. She is unable to give into the full feelings of a romance unlike her sister Marianne and must keep many secrets to herself. Where as Elinor is sensible and reliable Marianne is the polar opposite. Marianne is ruled by her emotions, she expresses everything, nothing is kept hidden. She falls in love deeply with all her emotions on display, a scandalous concept for the time. While Elinor gets “burnt” for being too reserved, Marianne’s fall from grace is all the worse for laying all her feelings out on the line.

For me Elinor was the character I related to most. At times during the book Marianne annoyed me and it was like watching a train wreck about to happen. You sit there reading her exploits thinking, don’t do that, you are going to get yourself hurt or in trouble. It was also for me a little strange the idea of a 35-year-old man falling in love with a 16-year-old. I have no problem with age differences in relationships but when your suitor is old enough to be your father that is a little wrong. Of all the love interests in the book, Edward Ferras is my favourite he is the compliment to Elinor, cut from the same cloth he is sensible but reserved caring and stuck within a family who have none fo these compassionate qualities. Sense and Sensibility to me a beautifully written book, diverse characters a story line that you fall in love with but like every Jane Austen novel the final conclusion and the loose ends are tied up in the last few pages and then is over before you know it. If you like period romances and classic novels you will love this and I have to finish of by saying “Mr Ferras….what a dream boat!”

After I had bought the six Austen novels I looked to see if all had a film or better a BBC version counterpart. Everyone had some version though a few were very outdated. I decided that after reading all the novels I would watch the movies. I have watched a version for every book except this one because of the two versions there is one from the 80’s and one  from 2007  but both looked totally rubbish in the previews and really what can you expect when the book really isn’t great.

Northanger Abbey has to be my least favourite of the Austen novels.  I know this was the first of the novels written and concessions should be made but this book bored me to death and annoyed me at the same time. Catherine Morland is a young impressionable woman, who at the age of 17 spends all her time reading Gothic novels, being a little bit flakey and unfortunately is the protagonist of this story. Her neighbours (the Allens)  invite her to stay with them on their trip to Bath and during this trip she meets the Tilneys, Eleanor and her brother Henry. A friendship is formed and Catherine accompanies the Tilneys back to their place Northanger Abbey, where confusion and hilarity (though I don’t know if this is intentional) ensues.

Where to be begin with my detestation of this book. Catherine is annoying, her friend Isabella Thorpe even more so. The characters are one dimensional and the story isn’t about anything. To me is seems as if this book is kind of a waste of the paper it was written on. I feel really bad for disliking this book so much, I am a huge Austen fan but this one just should be left of the list of her literary achievements.  Read this book if you want to but I wouldn’t recommend it.

I hadn’t really heard anything about this novel before I got the box set. I had no idea what the book was about though being a Jane Austen book I guessed there was some romantic element to it but that was about it. However after finishing this book in a matter of days I have come to the conclusion that Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen novel.

Persuasion was Jane Austen’s last completed novel and while reading it I thought the story reflected a more mature mindset in the development of her characters and the choice of topic. It is different from your standard Austen novel in that boy meets girl and romance, albeit most of the time highly detoured follows.  This story centres around Anne Elliot a 28-year-old women apparently past her prime who gave up her true love Frederick Wentworth after much persuasion from her snooty family and close friends. Now Captain Wentworth has come back into her  life and it is killing Anne inside while she keeps this serene facade pasted on the outside.

Anne as a character shows more maturity and reserve. Like Elizabeth Bennett (whom I also love) she has her opinions but unlike her she doesn’t make waves by adding stinging wit to them. She isn’t weak and spineless like Fanny Price and her maturity level is far beyond Emma Woodhouse. Anne has suffered through losing the man she loves and come out of the other side change for better and for worse.

I love this story. Every time Anne and Captain Wentworth are in the same room with each other there is a tension and a longing for someone to make a move, it makes you want to put the book down due to frustration but you have to keep reading on. If you have read Pride and Prejudice there is the part where Elizabeth is playing the piano and Mr Darcy “gazes” at her, the feeling I got when I read that part is the feeling I had throughout most of this book.  This story makes me feel hope for the future and believe that there is true, pure romance.

Well we bought the set of six Jane Austen novel and earlier I had already read Emma and Pride and Prejudice so I decided to start with Mansfield Park.

Fanny Price is an eight year old girl when she is invited to live with her well to do Aunt and Uncle the Bertram’s at Mansfield Park. Learning to find her place in the family and how to avoid Aunt Norris becomes daily routine for Fanny but when the Crawford’s move into the area things begin to change. Fanny is a shy young women who enjoys nothing more than taking the mare out for rides in the country or wandering aimlessly through the gardens. Her thoughts and ideas clash greatly with the Crawford’s who have seems to enliven and corrupt all the Bertram’s including the solid dependable Edmund.

I don’t mean to be harsh for all the people who love Mansfield Park but this book irritated me greatly. It is well written and an interesting story but the characters made me want to run my fingernails down a chalkboard rather than spend time with them. Fanny is insipid and spineless, she cries at the drop of the hat. Edmund is too self righteous and when he justifies his part in the play I could barely keep down my lunch, such arrogance.  Within every Jane Austen novel there has to be at least one overbearing incredibly annoying character, the kind you want to close a door on mid sentence, the one that makes you embarrassed to read their dialogue, in this book that is Mrs Norris. She downright rude and mean and makes you cringe reading her passages. Without these character though a Austen novel would not be the same.

Other than the majority of the character annoying me I did enjoy the story and reading about the evolution of the character interactions. However with many Jane Austen novesl she spends most of the book setting up the story and developing the characters that the final resolution of the story is left to be completed in less than 20 pages. I found it a little disappointing in Mansfield Park that everything is nicely wrapped up so quickly and then the book is over.

This isn’t my favourite Austen novel but each book is different with a variety of characters and I think  this is why Austen appeals to everyone. There is a character for all of us out there, which is your favourite?