Austen's work has recently enjoyed a revival in the form of excellent film adaptations. Her witty, insightful stories of life among England's genteel classes in 19th century England are classics.

Note: Austen's work is available in multitudinous editions, including hardcover audio cassettes, sets of complete works, and foreign language versions. We present a selection of modestly priced English language editions in paperback, hardback, and audio cassette, as well as our favorite film versions.

Novels

• EMMA--Austen's only heroine who begins her story rich, popular, and happy. Emma wants to help everyone around her to happiness, but her interference has unexpected, and unpleasant, effects. A delightful, if sometimes painful, coming-of-age story.

Emma, Mass Market Paperback

Emma, Sophie Thompson (Narrator); Audio Cassette

Film

Emma VHS Tape. Gwyneth Paltrow is delightful as Austen's most fortunate and happy of heroines, who only means the best as she ruthlessly manipulates the romantic affairs of the hapless citizens of Highbury. 1996. (rated PG)

Emma DVD. Gwyneth Paltrow, 1996.

• MANSFIELD PARK--Fanny Price is in the uncomfortable position of the poor relation taken in by a charitable uncle. A book addressing problems of values and education that are surprisingly familiar to modern audiences.

Mansfield Park, Mass Market Paperback

Mansfield Park, Hardcover

Mansfield Park, Harriet Walter (Narrator); Audio Cassette

Film

Mansfield Park 1983 BBC miniseries, 261-minutes on two VHS tapes. Sylvestra Le Touzel is Fanny, with Bernard Hepton (Sir Thomas Bertram), Angela Pleasence (Lady Bertram, Christopher Villiers (Tom), Liz Crowther (Julia), and Nicholas Farrell (Edmund). (1986)

Mansfield Park 1999 Miramax production, VHS. Austen's juvenalia and a very late-20th-century attitude toward slavery are added to Jane Austen's somewhat dated morality tale in order to make it more palatable to contemporary movie-going audiences. The result is interesting, though not strictly Austen. Beautiful locations and cinematography, competent work from Frances O'Connor (Fanny Price), Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola, Harold Pinter and Embeth Davidtz.

• NORTHANGER ABBEY--Hilarious, early satire of the Gothic novel, complete with gloomy ancestral home.

Northanger Abbey, Mass Market Paperback

Northanger Abbey, Hardcover

Northanger Abbey, Audio Cassette

• PERSUASION--Austen's last completed novel. Generally considered to be highly autobiographical, this take of thwarted love is almost oppressive, but is saved by the gentle wisdom of maturity.

Persuasion, Mass Market Paperback

Persuasion, Hardcover

Persuasion, Glenda Jackson (Narrator), Audio Cassette

Film

Persuasion VHS Tape. Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds in a masterful performance, catching every subtlety of emotion in Austen's saddest tale and carrying the audience from depression to exhilieration. 1995. (rated PG)

• PRIDE AND PREJUDICE--Classic tale of the clash between sharp-witted Elizabeth Bennett and haughty Mr. Darcy. Austen's best-known work, deservedly so.

Pride and Prejudice, Mass Market Paperback

Pride and Prejudice, Hardcover

Pride and Prejudice, Audio Cassette

Film

Pride and Prejudice VHS Tape. Jennifer Ehle (Paradise Road) and Colin Firth (The English Patient) in the six-hour 1996 British version (aired on A&E). Perhaps the best film version to date.

• SENSE AND SENSIBILITY--A study in contrasts of character; Elinor is practical to a fault, while her sister, Marianne, is wildly romantic.

Sense and Sensibility, Mass Market Paperback

Sense and Sensibility, Hardcover

Sense and Sensibility, Glenda Jackson (Narrator); Audio Cassette,

Related Non-Fiction

The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries : Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film; Emma Thompson, et al; Paperback. Delightful diary of the filming of Sense and Sensibility by writer and star Emma Thompson. Many wonderful photographs.

The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries : Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film; Emma Thompson, et al; Hardcover

Film

Sense and Sensibility VHS Tape. Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, et al. in Ang Lee's brilliant 1995 film. Emma Thompson's screenplay won an Academy Award, and well-deserved it was! (rated PG)

The History of England : From the Reign of Henry the 4th to the Death of Charles the 1st, Hardcover--Wickedly funny, this early work shows Austen sharpening her satirical pen.

Lady Susan ; The Watsons ; Sanditon (Penguin English Library), Margaret Drabble; Paperback--Two early partial novels and Austen's last, unfinished, work.

Sanditon and Other Stories (Everyman's Library (Cloth), 225), Peter Washington (Editor); Hardcover

Jane Austen's Letters, Deirdre Le Faye (Editor); Paperback

Jane Austen's Letters, Deirdre Le Faye (Editor); Hardcover

Selected Letters, 1796-1817, Paperback

The World of Jane Austen, by Nigel Nicolson, Stephen Colover, Paperback. Reprint of 1997 edition.

Jane Austen:  Her Life Honan, Park, Paperback. An excellent, probing biography, with lots of excerpts from surviving letters, and excellent observations about Austen's world.

Jane Austen's Little Advice Book; Jane Austen, et al; Hardcover

Jane Austen's Little Instruction Book; Jane Austen, et al; Hardcover

The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries : Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film; Emma Thompson, et al; Paperback. Delightful diary of the filming of Sense and Sensibility by writer and star Emma Thompson. Many wonderful photographs.

The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries : Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film; Emma Thompson, et al; Hardcover

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