Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775. Austen, who is now one of the most recognized writer’s in English literature, wasn’t well-known during her lifetime. She published most of her novels anonymously, and it was only after her nephew published A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869 that she was introduced to a wider public audience.
Today, Jane Austen is widely-loved and often-read author. My younger sister is a huge fan of Austen, and has watched the BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth more times than I can count. I have to admit, I haven’t read as much Jane Austen as I would like. I think I’ve only read Northanger Abbey, Emma, and Persuasion. I remember liking all of them a lot, so I’m not sure why I haven’t read more.
Anyway, given how much so many people love Jane Austen, I figure I am not the best person to write about how great she is for her birthday. I’ll leave that up to all of you in the comments!
What is your favorite Jane Austen book? How come? What are some good modern adaptations or revisions of Jane Austen’s life or her books?
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Happy birthday Jane!
My favourite three are Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. But I love all six. 🙂
I’ve never read Jane Austen and I don’t plan too. Just not my type of reading.
Eva: I feel like I should read Pride and Prejudice, I just never get around to it.
Callista: Austen isn’t for everyone, that time period and style can be frustrating. TO each her own 🙂
This is a hard one as I have read and liked all of her books. My favorites are probably (at the moment) Emma and Persuasion.
(Persuasion is by far the funniest one, with a male character saying he hates persuasive people and a girl that tried to show him how un-persuasive she was by ignoring the voices of others even when they spoke common sense 😛 I know no one reads Jane Austen for funniness but as I said I read and loved all her books so I had to find a way to differentiate between them 😛 )
I have actually never read any Jane Austen. My mother is a huge fan and read everything many times. I just bought a dvd-box with all the Austen movies made by BBC for my mother for Christmas ;o) HAPPY B.DAY JANE AUSTEN
My favourite is Pride and Prejudice. It’s a comfort read for me, but I also like Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility. I like re-tellings of Jane Austen novels as well – Melissa Nathan has written several, Acting Up being a re-telling of P&P and Persuading Annie is Persuasion.
I’ve only read P&P and Northanger Abbey. But I plan on reading all of them. And rereading those two. Maybe I’ll do P&P again next year. I recall enjoying it, but I don’t remember the details of actually reading it. Loved Colin Firth, though.
Kay: I think lots of people read Jane Austen for her wry sense of humor, I know I do 🙂
Louise: I bet your mom will love that DVD set. My sister loves the BBC Austen specials.
Michelle: Thanks for the titles, I will pass them along to my sister 🙂
Rebecca: Austen has only written six novels (I thought it was more than that), so it wouldn’t be hard to read them all.
Ah my favorite Jane Austen book has always been Northanger Abbey. Its hard to say why honestly, I mean I love Mansfield Park and Pride and Prejudice, but I’ve re-read Northanger Abbey more times then the both of those books combined!
My favorite adaptation…its a mix between the Colin Firth BBC P&P and the new one with Kiera Knightly and then I love the new Northanger Abbey (oh Tilney you are so yum). The Johnny Lee Miller Mansfield Park isn’t so bad either.
Lexie: I know, it’s hard to describe some of the books we love. I know I have a hard time. Those adaptations sound interesting, I’ll have to look at them.
P&P is my definite favourite, and is probably my favourite book period, and the first thing I turn to when I need a comfort read. It gets better every time I read it.
Hello
My favorite Jane Austen book is Emma.This book shows Jan’s life and how she was in misery. .I enjoyed a lot reading this book.It’s so unfair that her books were not published in her time.