Okay so Today,
we are going to be talking about Jane Austen,
and specifically,
where should you start,
where should you go next,
how great are these books.
I have been on a Jane Austen binge lately
and I've been loving it.
I've also been getting a lot of comments
on, "Where should I start with Jane Austen?"
I don't have an answer for that
because each of her books are so incredibly unique
and a lot of them are doing very different things.
I figured let's make a video
and talk about what each book's
basic premise and intentions are,
and then, you can decide
where you should read next or first.
Also, this edition will be linked in the description
if you are as enamored by it as I am.
I'm just going to talk about these
in the order that they're in for this set,
no particular order as far as my ranking.
That's coming later.
I have two Jane Austen videos coming for you.
This one, A Guide to Jane Austen,
and then, we're going to rank them
and talk about my favorite to least favorite
or least favorite to favorite of the books
as well as the protagonist.
First book we're going to talk about is Mansfield Park.
Mansfield Park follows a young girl who is born into a very poor family
and is sent off to be raised by her aunt and uncle,
and that family, they're far more wealthy.
Their family is in far higher esteem and they really looked down on Fanny.
Fanny is a very shy and quiet young girl
and she's pushed around a lot by her family,
but she also has a very quiet strength.
I love her so much.
This is probably the most controversial--
not controversial--
This is the book that has the most mixed reviews.
People either really enjoy it or they hate it.
It does seem
that it's the most negatively reviewed of her books.
That's mostly because this is a book that discusses morality a lot more
and it's a lot less lighthearted than her other books
as well as having a more shy lead, which some people don't seem to like.
It's, frankly, her most boring book.
This is not where I would recommend you start
unless you just really--
Actually,
my friend just picked up Mansfield Park
as her first Jane Austen
because she's very, very shy
and really wanted to read a book from a shy protagonist,
but for the most part, I would say,
probably not the best place to start even though it's still a great book.
Next is Persuasion.
Persuasion is about a young woman
who is in love with a man and engaged to him,
and then, she's persuaded
to back out of that engagement by her family.
After she backs out, he leaves and he's gone for years,
and then, he comes back.
This is a second chance romance.
This follows them reuniting
and figuring out
what their relationship looks like now,
if they even want a relationship now.
It would also be considered one of her more slow-moving stories,
especially there's a gap there in the middle
where not a lot happens,
but I will say that the resolution of this book,
the ending of this book, is one of my favorite.
Persuasion-- one of my favorite Austen endings.
Sense and Sensibility is about a family
where the father has passed away
and his estate is going to be passed on
to his son from his first marriage.
After some manipulation from that son's wife,
he decides to not give them any of the inheritance
and they're forced to move out of their manor
and they're in a much more difficult situation.
They move away.
Our protagonist in this one is also more shy,
but her sister is very much a not.
I love the dynamic between these sisters.
In this book,
they handled their situation very differently.
The sister is more outwardly rude
and not happy
about this new society that they have to get used to
and these new routines that they have to do,
whereas our protagonist also hates it all,
but the way she deals with it is by passively mocking it
and leaning into it a little bit extra hard.
This book is full of so much scandal and excitement.
You really don't know
who our protagonist is going to end up with
or how it's all going to resolve.
While this is Austen's first published novel
and does read that way a little bit,
it doesn't flow as beautifully as most of her novels do.
I still think that it's a ride.
Pride and Prejudice, I'm not going to spend much time on
because you know about it.
Lizzie Bennet is snarky and sassy and speaks her mind,
and Mr. Darcy doesn't.
He has a lot of pride because he's very wealthy
and doesn't trust the people around him
to have good intentions with him,
and she is very prejudiced
because she pretty much just assumes that he sucks.
This is a story that has a lot of family scandal and drama
and a lot of character growth within the characters
in order for them to come together.
Emma is Austen's comedy.
This is following an intentionally annoying protagonist
who has deemed herself a matchmaker.
She is wealthy and she is proud of that.
She has this mentality
of, "I'm going to get everybody else married
because I'm really good at matching people up,
but I'm going to stay single because with my status,
I can get away with it without being called a spinster,
and that's what I want."
She is a very flawed character
who ends up causing a lot of drama and heartbreak
through her intrusiveness.
It's such a funny, funny, funny book.
Jane Austen likes to lean into characters
and make them over-the-top to prove a point about them,
and I would say that she does that to an extreme in this book,
and I love it.
I thought this book was hilarious.
This is a book that some people find really annoying.
I think part of the reason
a lot of people would find this book annoying
is because they don't go in knowing it's a comedy
and they take it a little bit more seriously
than it needs to be taken.
Also, Emma is just intentionally annoying,
so you might find her annoying.
I found her hilarious.
Also, with Emma not wanting to get married
yet having chemistry
with several characters within the novel,
you really don't know who she's going to end up with,
which adds so much fun and excitement to it.
Northanger Abbey is also really over-the-top.
This is Austen's satire.
This is about a character who loves Gothic fiction
and loves it a little bit too much
to the point where she thinks she's in a Gothic novel.
When she goes to visit a family,
they have a Gothic manner
and she's looking for the secret passageways
and trying to find the mystery
and determines that someone has killed his wife.
There's so much unnecessary drama but in the funniest way
because this character is so over-the-top.
The chemistry between her and her love interest
in his way of calling her out
but also just being charmed by her ridiculousness
is fantastic.
Also, the narrator,
Jane Austen did a really different thing
with this book with her narration,
where the narrator is actually speaking to the reader,
which is one of my favorite tropes.
The narrator will interrupt the story regularly
to provide commentary on these characters
and to just talk about other things
because sometimes the narrator just wants to talk
about stuff not related to this story.
I loved that.
It's also a hilarious book and a fast read.
I think it's her shortest full novel. I had so much fun reading it.
Last book in this collection,
I'm not going to talk about because I haven't read yet.
I haven't read Austen's short stories
or her unfinished works
that got published after she passed away.
I'm not knowledgeable on those.
I'm just talking about her main novels
and those are them.
That's your main premise for each of these books
as well as the themes that they follow.
I'll also talk about protagonist a little bit.
Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Northanger Abbey,
all have very outgoing, bold, and ostentatious characters.
Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion
all have much more shy and quiet main characters.
Each of these are much more slow-moving novels
that focus more on the romance,
whereas these three,
Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma
are all much more fast-paced, make you laugh,
which all of Austen's works, I think,
are funny and charming and so much fun to read.
These are more fast-paced, goofy, and fun
with still a lot of deeper meaning,
except maybe Northanger Abbey.
It's definitely her least intricate and deep novel.
It's really just a lot of fun.
All of her books have deeper meaning and deeper themes explored
that are impactful and beautiful,
but also, just charming and fun.
I really don't think there is a bad Austen book.
Even my least favorite Austen book is wonderful. [chuckles]
I do think that probably the best place for people to start,
if you're looking for a romance,
it would be either Sense and Sensibility
or Persuasion,
lots of drama, second chance..
Also, lots of drama, her books always have drama.
For something fast-paced and funny and charming,
you have Pride and Prejudice and Emma,
and for her probably fastest-paced, silliest,
and easiest to just breeze through,
Northanger Abbey.
Really, every single Austen novel, in my opinion,
is charming and fantastic for its own reasons.
I love each of these dearly.
Every one has its own style
and its own ridiculous but amazing characters.
I love each and every one of them.
I think that where you want to start or where you want to go next
isn't really something
that I can give a broad suggestion for.
It completely depends
on what you're in the mood for and what you want
because each of her novels are so different from the last.
There is a short guide
for where to start, where to go next,
what to do with Austen novels if you're new.
If you aren't new,
I would love to hear
if there are any things that you would tweak or change
as far as recommendations that I gave.
If you are new and you have now decided
which Austen novel you want to pick up first,
please chat with me about it in the comments.
I will have my Austen book and character ranking video
up very soon,
so keep an eye out for that.
I post videos every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
I'll see you guys again soon.
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