Sense and Sensibility: This one is a bit from bias because I liked the pictures best in the kids version I read before getting into the real version. Even so, I enjoyed how it focuses on family as much as romance. And having Elinor and Marianna as protagonists offer two heroines for readers to relate to. If you don’t get Marianna’s melodramatics, you’d like Elinor’s reserve and maturity or vice versa. They both go through their own heaps of development and learn to better understand the other (moreso with Marianna toward Elinor). Plus as an only child, and just generally enjoy sibling dynamics and seeing familial dramas play out as it does here.

Pride and Prejudice: Ah who could argue against Pride and Prejudice with its timeless tale of looking past first impressions. I can’t add much but Darcy and Lizzie are really an ideal match as they recognize their mistakes and their own flaws, and change so they can better enjoy their similarities of wit and observation. It’s just such a good romance.

Emma: I heartily enjoyed Emma even though Austen originally said that she’d be a protagonist that one might dislike. I think Emma’s flaws of pride and meddling and spoiledness are all part of her charm as the novel brings her down a few pegs as she tries her matchmaking schemes. Plus all the characters are enjoyable like the stately Knightley, the charismatic Churchhill and dreamy Harriet. It’s also helps that she has her fair share of good intentions even though they don’t always turn out the way she means to. And like, Northanger Abbey it is a relatable tale on society, which is why it is readily available to adaptations like Clueless.

Northanger Abbey: This is quite a fun book I think. While it has signs of Austen starting out, relying heavily on Gothic tropes, that’s the fun. It’s meta. Plus I can relate to Catherine in sometimes getting carried away with your imagination, envisioning yourself as the heroine in a story. So the moral of getting your head out of the clouds is a good one. Plus the relationship dynamics between Catherine and Henry, Catherine and Isabelle, Isabelle and James and so on are engaging showing the different classes in the ton and the clash of etiquette when it comes to golddigging.

Lady Susan: I’ll admit the movie does it better in showing how crafty and shameless Lady Susan is, but the book does a good job as well. The wit just sparkles off the page. Honestly, Lady Susan may be selfish, a golddigger, a philanderer and a horrible mother, but it is entertaining to watch her outwit and outtalk her in-laws to get everything she wants. And while yes, the good guys win eventually, she still wins. It’s just impressive. Plus it’s a departure from Austen’s usual style as she experiments with an entirely epistolary novel. It just proves she can write villains and heroines equally well.

Persuasion: While Persuasion may be the most well-rounded of Austen’s books in balancing social critique, the military, pining love and prose, the plot doesn’t do much for me. While Anne and Wentworth’s dashed love due to persuasion is tragic and the lovelorn regret Anne feels is ocmpelling enough, it still feels a bit slow to me. Anne is admirable for her restraint and her attempts to get over Wentworth like a mature young lady, it still feels like she is more of an outsider looking in. It’s a more subtle, nuanced portrayal of love lost and regained. It has some beautiful passages but I wished there were a few more scenes between the two so I could see the youthful love bloom again between the two rather than Wentworth’s flirtations with Henrietta as Anne looks on or Anne’s relationship with – which we all know is never going to happen.

Mansfield Park: I have to side with the majority that Mansfield Park would have been more interesting with Mary Crawford as the lead. Now I get what Austen was trying to do in making Mary the evil Lizzie Bennet using her wit to do such scandalous deeds and glide by on her charm, but at least she does something. While Fanny’s inner fortitude and strength to stick by her morals are interesting, she doesn’t do much. She sticks by her morals, and stays out of everyone’s business because she knows moralizing won’t change anyone’s mind. So she sticks to the sidelines, reacting to things, pining. She only rejects Henry’s marriage proposal and then gets punished. And she would have languished in punishment for the rest of the time, if Edmund hadn’t convientally broken out of Mary’s spell and goes to Fanny. She didn’t do anything to get ending, it just happens to her. So while inner strength is good, I’d rather have a heroine who backs it up with some action and has some shaping in her story.