Shorter Works of Jane Austen by the Folio Society

I first took an interest in Jane Austen after watching Pride & Prejudice (specifically, the 1995 BBC version – sorry, Kiera Knightley’s flick can’t compare).

It wasn’t just THAT Colin Firth pond scene that did it, though the moment didn’t hurt. I loved how funny and irreverent the lines were; I particularly liked Lizzie Bennett admitting she fell in love with Darcy after seeing his massive gaff.

So, I read the novel, adored it, and thumbed through the first few pages of Sense & Sensibility too before sadly forgetting it. It’s only this year, as we’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth, that I have finally dedicated myself to going through all of the author’s written works.

Though Emma remains my favourite, these four forever changed how I viewed the rest of Austen’s work:

1) Lady Susan

Love and Friendship was packed with hilarious criminal and romantic mischiefs, but I have to admit I couldn’t follow all of them; the prose was a little confusing to me.

Not so with Lady Susan, who is proven an outright rogue and indisputable villain through addictive letters. She is cruel, romantically ruthless, and obsessed with money, men, and status – all of which were necessarily linked back then.

By the end of the multi-perspective book, it’s hard to........

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