Your Favorite Book By Austen + why

My favourite wouldn't be P&P, it would be Persuasion, because it's just wonderful. The proposal is the most touching, passionate thing I've ever read.

The people have appointed me. I am their leader. I must follow them.

My fave's would have to be Emma and Persuasion as I agree that the proposal in persuasion is just the most romantic thing ever and also emma just has an amazing wit to it that I found timeless and just as entertaining today as it was then. P+P is joint top to me. I must admit it is very good but the others shine aswell.

My favorite is Emma, I feel like a lot of people remain loyal to their first Austen, and Emma was mine. I adore Mr. Knightley, even more so after I saw the movie. But this book is so funny, and I loved it!

Secondly I like Sense and Sensibility, it is SO sad! But I love it.

I never really understood the obsession with Pride and Prejudice to be honest.

My favourite is Emma, because Emma is my favourite Austen heroine and Mr. Knightley is my favourite Austen hero (and surprise, surprise, they're my favourite Austen couple). Also, I think the book is so cleverly constructed, told through Emma's faulty and unreliable POV, so that it's almost like a mystery that we have to figure out with only the clues that Emma observes but doesn't understand. Plus I'm rereading it at the moment and I'm surprised by how many times I've laughed out loud - it's very, very funny in places.

"I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul."

My favorute is 'Sense and Sensibility' because I love the sisters and their realtionship to each other. I love Marianne's passion, and I respect Eleanor's reserve. They are so totally opposite but complement each other so well. Such an awesome sibling relationship they have. And I love to hate Willoughby. He's, IMHO, te worst villian out of all Austen's books. He's such an a$$, and then he tries to blame his actions on everyone else. He's a great guy to hate, and Marianne ended up with the way better deal when she married Brandon.

My second favorite is 'Emma' mainly because she reminds me a bit of myself. And I love Mr. Knightly and how is so jealous of Frank, and how everyone totally overlooked Mr. Knightly's feelings for Emma even though, IMHO, is was obvious even before I knew they got together.

My third favorite is 'Pride and Prejudice.' I just love how we get to see all the different relationships everyone is in. And how you wonder is Mr. Darcy will follow his heart in the end or not.

'Persuasion' gives 'P&P' a run for it's money for the third slot. I love how Anne regrets listening to the advice when she was younger and turned down Wentworth. And then when he showed backed up, he tried so hard to ignore his feelings for her and 'punish' her in the process. But only ended up punishing himself by almost losing his chance to be with her. He's just lucky that Louisa ended up falling for Benwick or he would have married a woman he didn't love and seen the woman he did love possibly end up with Benwick. And that letter Wentworth wrote at the end to Anne...soooo romantic.

My favorites have changed over time. I started reading them in my mid-20s, now I'm in my mid-40s.

The first one I read was P&P, and of course, I loved it. That was what compelled me to read S&S. For a while those two kept trading places in my heart. I loved P&P for the storyline itself, and the characters. But as time went on, I loved S&S more for its depiction of the struggle between the fading Classical concept of stoic virtue and the oncoming fad of Romanticism. The conversation between Edward and Marianne about the picturesque in chapter 18 is such a glimpse into these two competing worldviews! I feel like I learn more from S&S.

Then I tried to read EMMA and... could not get through it. For some reason, I have never been able to read it all the way through. I skip around and read bits and parts, hoping it will eventually work its way into my heart, but it just never has. I don't actually like the girl. The only part I do like is that little speech that a single woman with money is always respectable. It was kind of a revelation... I didn't know anyone thought that a single woman could ever be anything but pitiable.

I moved on to Mansfield Park and like many people, did not like it upon first reading. Fanny seemed too nervous and timid to relate to, and to be so scrupulous about putting on a play seemed excessive. Only years later did I read it again and begin to like it more. But I still skim over the part where Fanny is at Portsmouth. I don't like that part, until the scandal breaks. My favorite parts are the period from when Sir Thomas leaves until Fanny goes to Portsmouth, and then from the breaking scandal to the end. I do like the way Austen shows Lady Bertram's letters, and how her writing styles changes from flowery and cliche-laden to brief and frightened when she sees how ill her son Tom really is. And Mary's letters, OMG. Serpent!

Persuasion is my favorite right now, from beginning to end. I love the two conversations between Anne and the two Captains (poetry vs prose, men vs women), I love watching Anne come back to life again. I love the 1995 version with Amanda Root. I watch it over and over...

Northanger Abbey is merely cute. Catherine is an empty-headed little ditz and I get very uncomfortable watching her blunder about. I've only read it 2 or 3 times, and it doesn't do much for me.

So currently I'd say Persuasion, then S&S tied with P&P, then Mansfield Park, with Emma and Northanger bringing up the rear.

Persuasion is #1. No question. It's been my favorite since I first read it in 1995 (right after seeing P95). It's funny; it's gut-wrenching; it's beautiful -- everything I could want in a favorite novel.

After that, MP. I've read it less often than the others, but it is so much more interesting than most other novels I've read. There's a lot going on under the surface that I'd never noticed before. And yes, parts of it really are laugh-out-loud funny.

S&S, P&P and Emma flip-flopping for 3rd, 4th and 5th. To be brutally honest, the older I get, the less patience I have with Elizabeth Bennet and P&P. I find the other books more interesting. I'm reading Emma right now, and am having trouble getting into it. Maybe now that I'm unemployed and have more time on my hands I'll pay more attention to it.

NA is last. I just cannot get into it.

http://currentscene.wordpress.com/tag/jane-austen-odyssey/

Emma is my fav - i just love the dramatic irony as we can see her make a mess out of her match-making, shes loveable despite her flaws, a few good twist to top it off. Out of all of them it is probably the most satirical of the the upper class of teh times too.

PP is of course amazing. I really enjoyed Northanger Abbey because it was different from the other books with its horror mystery. Persuasion was such a beautiful story.

Mansfield park is my least fav because Fanny is so annoying, and i wanted her to end up with Henry Crawford, it felt too incestuous her and Edmund. And he didnt really love her like Henry did when he tried so hard to reform.