MovieChat Forums > Mansfield Park (1999) Discussion > what is the best book by JA?

what is the best book by JA?

posted 19 years ago by meleve
15 replies | jump to latest

I'll post this message in the most popular movie for every book...
The popularity was determined by imdb, not me, so if you like another version better, that's fine. They list the most popular version at the top if you want to see the results from other boards like this.

Here are my favs (and some of them were only better by a millimetre):
#1 Mansfield Park - haven't seen the movie or the mini but was pleasantly surprised by the book. I've always thought ppl overlooked this because of the 'insipid'? female lead. I'm always changing my mind between this and P&P coz it's so close.

#2 Pride and Prejudice - just love it! The 1995 mini is the best. Seen the unfaithful 2005 one and couldn't finish the 1980 mini (really bad).

#3 Persuasion - Who says JA is old fashioned? I think the themes here are really modern and clever. Haven't seen the 1995 movie but i saw the 1971 BBC version. It wasn't as bad and bland as the old 1980 BBC mini of P&P. Perhaps I liked the book so much I was predisposed to like the '71 version but it's good and faithful enough that I would watch it again.

#4 Sense and Sensibility + Emma - I couldn't choose between these two. They both have their great and not so great bits. The films for both were excellent.

#5 Sanditon - Very modern ending because someone else finished it but it somehow worked. Really liked it.

#6 The Watsons - It's ok, not fabulous which could be because someone else finished the story off but i thought the Sanditon writer had the JA style down. It's just the storyline that got a bit boring.

#7 Northanger Abbey - The worst one yet. The only one I couldn't like.

#8 Lady Susan - haven't read it. The story hasn't been completed by anyone as far as I know but I heard it's the sauciest of all JA's books?

I'm really excited to hear from you all. I'm interested in both the books and the movies (whatever influenced your opinion).

[–] xxJeannettex 19 years ago

My absolute favorite is Persuasion. Second chances with a first love... who wouldn't love that?

The way it was written was, to quote a line in Mansfield Park, "in a style entirely new". So fast paced with a spartan character list, multiple changes in scenery and very little dialogue and exposition...deceptively simple but more satisfying than any other Austen work I've ever read. Anne is like the less annoying but equally endearing version of Fanny Price, and Wentworth is a subtle and perfect.

I was surprised at how magically the novel worked as a whole. The movie, on the other hand, was abyssmal.

"I got Soul but I'm not a Soldier!"

[–] jack-bard 19 years ago

Jane Austen's novels are great, but my favorite 18th Century novel is Frances Burney's Evelina. Burney was a great influence on Austen, and you can see it in any of her novels. Burney's dialog is also hilarious. The characters are somewhat less morally ambigious and more driven by the rules of society (which may be good or bad depending on your perspective).

[–] meleve 19 years ago

How did you know that Frances Burney was a great influence on Austen? I've never heard of Burney before (even when I went Austen-crazy and did a lot of research).

[–] Unwanted_Birdtamer 18 years ago

Fanny Burney was a very successful author writing just before Austen (her first novel was published about 20 years before Austen began writing), she was probably the most successful female author in England prior to Austen, and in fact Burney was even more successful during her life with her writing than Austen was during hers; Austen couldn't help but be influenced by Burney, especially as they dealt with the same subject matter and had the same satiric view of society. Austen was a professed admirer of Burney's, and discusses reading her novels in her letters. She got the title for Pride and Prejudice from a phrase in Burney's Cecilia, and Burney's Camilla directly influenced the creation of Sense and Sensibility. Of the three novels that Austen praised in her "Defense of the Novel" in Northanger Abbey, two of them were Burney's, Cecilia and Camilla (the third was Maria Edgeworth's Belinda).

I've got a clan of gingerbread, men here a men, there a men
Lots of gingerbread, men

[–] morgankm 18 years ago

I was actually just introduced to Frances Burney via a British Lit survey course, and I love her! I haven't read any of her novels yet (just bought Evelina), but I'm very excited! (Interesting note, he name is Fanny and her sister is Susanna, and she wrote her lots of letters - sound familar?)

Anyway, to actually answer the question, my favorite Austen Novel is Pride and Prejudice, followed by - and here's the shocker - Northanger Abbey! I loved it! Followed by Emma, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, and finished with Mansfield Park. I haven't read any of the others (yet).

[–] laviniaz 19 years ago

1.mansfield park-the characters are much more developed and the story has a complexity that most of her other novels seem to lack.it is quiet and simple and vey tasteful
2.pride and prejudice-simply love it.i can't even remember when i read it the first time (because i 've reread it so many times).and i think the '95 version is great
3.emma-thr most convincing love story of her novels.also, the only one where the characters are more or less equal( as opposed to p&p for instance-on a social scale)or morally (northanger abbey)
4.persuasion-i liked the ending and the story a lot. it was very solid. but it lacked certain humour
5.sense 7sensibility-the characters are too extreme, especially marianne.and the novel clearly needed more work.but the movie is great
6.northanger abbey- i took as it was meant to be - a half- ironical tribute to anne radcliffe's (she is the most famous,ther have been others_ gothic novel
haven'y read the others but i am sure i wd b quite disseppointed to read one of austen's books not finished by her own hand

[–] Peekoo 19 years ago

I vary between Pride & Prejudice versus Persuasion by whichever one I read most recently.

Love Mary

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] styleequeen 19 years ago

Pride and Prejudice is my favourite but I think Mansfield Park is the best written. The only Austen I dislike is Emma because I loathe the title character. Though funnily enough I love Clueless.

"Now go away before I taunt you a second time."

[–] celebworship 19 years ago

My favorite

Tie for #1 : Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice. Both are very different books. Persuasion was written soon before Austen died, P&P was written in her youth.

I loved the Root/Hinds production of Persuasion, it is my favorite Austen adaptation. It captures the reflective spirit of the novel beautifully. I love the Ehle/Firth P&P, it too captures the spirit of the novel. I just wish they had cast a better Jane.

#2: Emma. She means well if she isn't a little "clueless". I didn't like Paltrow's Emma, but enjoyed Clueless.

#3 Sense and Sensibility. I didn't like the movie
#4 Northanger Abbey
#5 Mansfield Park. I don't like Fanny Price. I agree with another poster, that Anne Elliot is a less annoying version of Fanny Price. She took all of Fanny's goodness but left out the haplessness and gave it to Anne. LOL I liked the movie version although as said before, it has little to do with the book except the broad outline of the story.

[–] Pietta 18 years ago

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

I haven't read the others, but really I love all of the above. JA was such a brilliant writer!

[–] diving4gold 18 years ago

#1 Pride and Prejudice
#2 Persuasion
#3 Sense and Sensibility
#4 Emma
#5 Mansfield Park

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kixie-poo 18 years ago

#1 Pride And Prejudice - I've been a fan of this book for years and years and years... it will always be one of my favourite books ever.

#2 Persuasion - I loved it and couldn't put it down towards the end. The fact that I was in school supposed to be working on an assignment made that a little difficult, but oh well, work can wait when faced with a beautiful novel like Persuasion!

#3 Sense and Sensibility - I enjoyed the contrast of Elinor to Marianne. And Colonel Brandon was a lovely character.

#4 Northanger Abbey - It was amusing to have a heroine like Catherine, with all her flights of fancy. Because of this novel I now own The Mysteries of Udolpho and plan to read it very soon.

#6 Emma

#5 Mansfield Park - I have to read this again, but the first time I read it I felt a little disappointed by the ending... it seemed to conclude all so suddenly.

And one more, I don't really think it's really considered a novel. It's called Love And Friendship, and was written by JA when she was about 15 I believe. Pretty silly overall, but highly amusing. In fact, they quoted from it in the movie Mansfield Park.

I haven't read Sanditon and The Watsons yet, but I'm currently reading Lady Susan. Yes, it is very saucy... it should have been named Lady Saucy.

Looks like breakfast, smells like your auntie!

[–] gemtsoi 17 years ago

#1 Sanditon - yeah, all the JA purists gang up on me! Even though it wasn't finished by JA, I still love this book and Sidney Parker is my favourite hero ever. Though since I love 'Another Lady's' completion of it, maybe it's not technically considered JA.

#2 Mansfield Park - there's just so much in this book. It's JA at her peak. And yeah, I'm one of the few who like and admire Fanny. I don't find her priggish or pious, simply a very downtrodden and mistreated girl who somehow manages to have a mind of her own.

#3 Persuasion - when Wentworth listens in on the conversation between Anne and that other guy...and Anne's quote about women loving longest...that was perfect.

#4 Pride and Prejudice - Darcy and Elizabeth are great, the novel is great, but maybe I'm just a bit turned off by the amount of public adoration and stuff by people who have never even read Austen, lol.

#5 Sense and Sensibility - the movie was good, but the book...is so hard to get through.

#6 Emma - Emma is annoying.

Haven't read Northanger Abbey, nor had any desire to.