We did have a pretty long discussion about the books and their dramatizations last winter into spring-I pulled up the thread. But there are many facets to her books, so I wouldn't mind another go.
My favorite is Emma, followed by P&P, S&S, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and last, Persuasion. I have not read Lady Susan.

I've only read three of hers (Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility). I've also listened to Northanger Abbey on audio.

My favorite out of the ones I've read/heard is Pride and Prejudice. I really liked both Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey. The one I wasn't as enamored with was Emma; I had a hard time getting into it for some reason.

-ccrdmrbks I am very intrigued that you said 'Emma' was your fav and am curious to know why.
I will take this as a 'yes' and go ahead with a discussion. I think I will start with Austens most known works.
CMK

I think I like Emma best because it is different than the others but yet fits perfectly into the Austen canon.
Emma's sister is a periperal character, and soon into the novel she loses her pseudo-sister to marriage. Sisters play a large part in most of the other novels-either of our heroine or hero. Also, Emma has no mother to help or hinder. Emma stands alone, running roughshod over her father and doing what she likes-to unfortunate end, sometimes.
She is also wealthy-so has no need of a "good marriage" to keep or improve her place. Most of the other heroines do see marriage as a necessity-although they don't all jump at the first suitor-or we would have had Elizabeth Collins and Fanny Crawford. Jane Fairfax is much more the stereotypical Austen heroine-poor but worthy, talented, nobly facing a life for which she is not really suited but must take up.
These differences create a character that is actually hard to like at first-Austen wrote her that way on purpose. Emma was intended to be comic. Emma also reminds me of Shakespearean comedies-the amount of misdirected affection, mistaken impressions and deliberate plots and ploys make the head spin. Just like Shakespeare, at the end everyone ends up with the right partner and they all stroll off into the sunset together.

I haven't read Lady Susan, but here's how I rate the others:

1. Mansfield Park
2. Persuasion
3. Sense and Sensibility
4. Emma
5. Pride and Prejudice
6. Northanger Abbey

I doubt that I could justify these choices though because it's been a long time since I read the books!

Good to hear from you jwttrans! I am glad you liked Mansfield Park so much too. One of my favorite things about it was the irony.
It seems that this is the least liked and most controvercial of the Austens. I can see how it might dissapoint, as it is not quite of the same mould as her other books. But I loved it!
CMK

I am reading "A Cure for all Diseases" by Reginald Hill which is based on "Sanditon" which I have not read, excepting the precis from "The Oxford Companion to English Literature"
Has anyone else read this book? Hill is a very good writer and I think he has blended the Sanditon theme in very well with his Dalziel and Pascoe books.

I have had different Austen favorites at various stages of my life. When I was a teenager I loved Emma because I related best to the youthful foibles, I suppose -- haven't most young woman known at least one Emma in their lives?

Pride and Prejudice came into rotation of favorite next and probably stayed the longest.

I didn't appreciate Anne Elliot and Persuasion until I was in my thirties, at least, but I'd say that it is probably my current (of the past ten years) favorite.

Northanger Abbey, I thought was a scream -- SO amusing -- but I love Gothics, so the send-up of the genre was right up my alley.

Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility both have memorable parts but neither has ever been my favorite.
I haven't read Lady Susan or Sanditon.

Hi Friedag! Loving Gothic novels as you do, have you ever read 'The Mysteries of Udolpho', by Anne Radcliffe? It was mentioned several times in Northanger Abbey. I am curious about it. I don't think I have read anything in the old Gothic style before.

I am glad you mentioned Austen's other unfinished book 'Sandition'. I read it and thought it somewhat different. It was, so much as was written, unusual compared to her other works. She also left another one called 'The Watsons', which I thought would have been great if completed.
CMK

CMK, yes, I first read The Mysteries of Udolpho in college some forty years ago. This was after a steady diet during my teen years of the Brontes, D du Maurier, LeFanu and all those derivative gothic paperbacks with covers featuring young women fleeing menacing mansions. Naturally, I was curious about what books and writers inspired such delicious suspense.

Radcliffe, though not the very earliest Gothic writer, certainly synthesized most of the elements that define Gothic. Her attitude seems to have been "if a little is good, a lot must be even better"; thus her style is one that many readers don't have the patience to slog through. Interestingly, to me, in spite of the popularity of the Gothic, the genre has always provoked detractors who make the valid point that it is often absolutely drippy with excessive lushness and emotion. And none is more delightfully spoofy and spot-on than Austen's Northanger Abbey.

I've known readers of NA, having not read Gothics prior, who don't know what to make of it -- and don't really like it -- but as soon as they add a few Gothics to their reading experience, they begin to recognize and appreciate Austen's satire. I imagine the reverse path -- appreciating Radcliffe because of reading Austen -- would be true as well. By all means, I recommend giving Udolpho a go, at a time when you think you might be more receptive and patient.

Has anyone seen the movie Jane Austen Book Club?

Drove -

I watched "The Jane Austen Book Club" last night - pretty good chick flick. I think it would help to either (a) have all the JA novels or (b) have read the original book to get the most out of the movie. But even if you haven't done these (which I haven't), the flick is still enjoyable.

lemon

I totally agree...with or without reading the books it was a great chick flick.

Loved the book-just can't see Jimmy Smits in that role, though. Too too handsome.

I borrowed a library book containing the minor works to read Sanditon. I thought that Lady Susan was very amusing. An Austen "bad woman" like an older Becky Sharp, don't you think? Excepting that Becky never had a similarly minded friend to confide her bad deeds to!
What a wonderful description of an Assembly dance in The Watsons. I never would have thought that a 10 year old boy would have been allowed to participate in the dancing but the details were so exact that it must have happened in those days. What a shame that book was never finished but I see that there are some follow-ups by other authors which I will try to get.
I noticed that the Hill Sanditon-based book is referred to as "the Price of Butcher's Meat" in Wikipedia. Perhaps the US version?

-annpan, Becky Sharpe is EXACTLY who Lady Susan reminded me of. Vanity Fair is one of my favorites.
I really liked how The Watsons was going. It is a shame it was never completed, I think it would have been great. I thought Sandition was going in an unusual direction.
I have never read that book by Reginald Hill. Is it like a spin-off or completion of Sandition? Or does it have to do with deseases, restorative sea resorts, 'pump rooms' and the like?
CMK

The Reginald Hill book is the latest in a police procedural series. This one is set in Sandytown, (due to the serious injury of one of our heroes in the last book) a place that claims to be the "home of the healthy holiday". There is a fore-note "to Janeites everywhere" noting that he has taken Sanditon in a new direction. I haven't read it yet, just brought it home from the lib yesterday. However, on a quick flip-through, he has certainly brought the story into contemporary times. The story begins as a set of emails.

Christin, do read the Hill book and see what you think. Although it is included in the "Dalziel and Pascoe" series, it does stand alone.
"Vanity Fair" is a special book to our family as one of Thackeray's descendants was my mother's piano teacher and recommended the book to her. I have read it many times and seen TV adaptations and films of it. The TV one was best as it was able to follow most of the book, not having time restraints. I think that only a very early TV adaptation showed the complete end part with her returned to England and respectability. I have not been able to get that one and vaguely recall seeing it many years ago.

-annpan that is an AMAZING story!
Vanity Fair is one of my favorites for several reasons. First is that I adore Thackeray's subtle condescending humor. Second is that this book changed me in some ways. I am sure that sounds funny (especially considering what book it is), but it is true.
I know someone who is a lot like Becky Sharpe, but worse. I was fooled by this person for a long time. Perhaps I simply choose to ignore how truly cruel they were. I also found myself being rather like Mrs. Bute Crawley (aka. 'the toady') to this person. I did not like seeing myself this way. So I changed, and can now see the person for who they are.

As a book, Vanity Fair had its faults. One was how there were a great many parts in which nothing happened. It was certainly not the most exciting book to read, but I enjoyed the humor. And I appreciate its effect on me.

Have you read anything else by Thackeray? I have read 'The History of Henry Esmond Esq'. I didn't much care for it. It was hard to get into, especially since I did not know much of that particular time in English history. I plan to read 'The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon' in the future. There is also a book about Thackeray at the library I plan to read someday. It is called 'Memoirs of a Victorian Gentleman: William Thackeray", by Margaret Forster.
I have not seen the TV program of Vanity Fair. I have only seen the movie with Miss Witherspoon. I did not care for it. Thackerays special 'moralizing' wit was lost on it.
CMK

Christin: No, I have not read any other Thackeray books. As to your comment about people getting involved with a fascinating person, that happens a lot, I think, but at some point there is a time when there is a revulsion, in Amelia's case when she saw the effect on her George, and enough is enough!