Mansfield Park. Jane Austen.
Novel. Example of life at a different time (early 19th century) in a
different society (British). Austen tells a good story.
Persuasion. Jane Austen. Note Jane Austen’s
humorous observation of the people in her social circle and her keen sense of
the place of women in her society. Austen’s impressions of the people around
her are delightful.
Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen. Novel. Two sisters with dramatically
different personalities. Elinor is cool in crisis, objective, keeps emotion in
check, sees and accepts the world as it is. Marianne is emotional,
uncontrolled, blows apart in crisis. The two are jilted. How do they handle
this disappointing turn in their lives?
Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen.
Quite a few people say that Pride and
Prejudice is their favorite novel. It begins with a major domestic problem:
Mrs. Bennet’s goal is to marry off her five daughters. Mr. Bennet’s goal is to read his books in
peace and to comment wryly on the people he encounters, including his wife and
daughters, except for Jane Bennet who is sweet and Elizabeth Bennet who is
intelligent and accepts life as it is. Elizabeth is prejudiced toward Darcy
whom she perceives as proud (her family is beneath him socially) and arrogant.
But he can’t help himself. He loves Elizabeth.
Emma. Jane Austen. Emma
is an amateur matchmaker who makes some serious mistakes in judgments about
people who want to do what they want to do, not what she wants to direct them
to do—and almost loses the love of her life.
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