I am posting this on all three P & P boards. I love Austen's works and have read all of them many many times. What non-Austen books have you read that you love as much as or close to Pride and Prejudice?
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I too am quite the Persuasion fan.. That letter Frederick writes to Anne... oh my! Some of my other faves are The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
There are so many, I cannot count, and so many left to read!
good guys are good at playing bad guys and bad guys are good at playing good guys
"Persuasion" and "Emma" by Austen. My favorite is P&P.
"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte.
William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair", Tolstoy's "Anna Kerenina" and "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert. For me all three of the foregoing have elements that foreshadow Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind".
I also like Bram Stoker's "Dracula".
'Effie Briest' by Theodor Fontana is a lovely novel, Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary', Tolstay's 'Anna Karenina', Balzac's 'Eugenie Grandet' and 'Old Goriot' (I love Balzac's novels) - and I also love 'Rebecca'. I also love the works of the Australian writer Martin Boyd, especially his Langton tetralogy. But as others have pointed out, there are too many brilliant novels to mention.
I simply loathe 'Jane Eyre' though - it is all right to read it on the surface, but if you go down into it it is a bit sick, especially the way she treats her hero, Mr. Rochester whose only crime was to be fooled into a marriage with a woman who was insane. Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca' is similar, but she treats her characters fairly. It is a much better novel in my opinion.
As a second son,Rochester married Bertha for her fortune, as did many second sons in those days to secure an income for themselves. All we know of Bertha comes from Rochester, who wants everyone to believe he is an innnocent victim. Bertha is unable to speak for herself.
Actually what's sick about "Jane Eyre" is Rochester's selfishness. He would have made the innocent Jane (who did not know he was married) his mistress to satisfy his lust for her, he is brusque and unloving to his ward Adele, and downright rude to Mrs. Fairfax.
Thank goodness Jane had the strength of mind to turn away from this arrogant and dissipated monster in spite of her love for him, until he was properly chastened and made to reflect and repent (in his solitude after his fire-inflicted infirmity) of his selfish conduct. Rochester is anything but a hero.
What I most like about my favorite Austen book, P&P, is that it has a richness that rewards subsequent readings.
I like E.M. Forster's A Room With A View and Elizabeth Bowen's The Death Of The Heart.
Excellent Women, Jane and Prudence, a Glass of Blessings, all by barbara pym
Hercule poirot's Christmas, Mrs McGinty's Dead, A Murder Is announced, cards on the table, all by agatha Christie
Three Men In a boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer
Our Village by Mary Russell Mitford
Some Experiences of an Irish r.M. By E.o. somerville and Martin Ross
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. wodehouse
Queen Victoria Was amused by Alan Hardy