Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Northanger Abbey Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 0-451-52636-8 Publisher: Signet classic Type of book: Regency, 1790s?-1800s? Bath, vacation,  young adult, Gothic parody, England, pretenses Year it was published: 1818 Summary: The most sprightly and satirical of Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey is both a comedy of manners and a cautionary tale. Written when the author herself was in early twenties, the novel takes for its heroine seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland, a spirited young woman preoccupied with the pleasures of dressing, dancing, and reading sensational novels. When she is on a visit to the fashionable spa town of Bath, Catherine's naive charm makes her prey to the sinister influences of the ambitious Thorpe family. But she is rescued by handsome Henry Tilney for a visit to his ancestral home, Northanger Abbey, where Catherien's choice of reading material comes back to haunt her. The rambling house full of locked doors and the family...

Name of Book: Pride and Prejudice Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 9780451525888 Publisher: Signet Type of book: 1800s, Regency, England, marriage, wealth, love, classical Year it was published: 1813 (version I have 1961) Summary: The romantic clash of two opinionated young people provides the sustaining theme of Pride and Prejudice. Vivacious Elizabeth Bennet is fascinated and repelled by the arrogant Mr. Darcy, whose condescending airs and acrid tongue have alienated her entire family. Their spirited courtship is conducted against a background of assembly-ball flirtations and drawing-room intrigues. Jane Austen's famous novel captures the affections of class-conscious 18th century English families with matrimonial aims and rivalries. Her people are universal; they live a truth beyond time, change, or caricature. George Eliot called Jane Austen "the greatest artist that has ever written," and Sir Walter Scott wrote of her work, "There is a truth of paint...

Name of Book: Emma Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 0-7607-0166-0 Publisher: Barnes and Noble Classics Type of book: Regency England, 1800s, marriage, fear of diseases and colds, "humor", friendship, class rigidity Year it was published: 1816 (version I have 1996) Summary: Pretty, bright and born atop the social strata of the English village of Highbury, Emma Woodhouse has all anyone would want. But she is fated to become the victim of her own irrepressible willfulness. Because of hte recent marriage of her friend and governess, Emma fills the void in her life by attempting to "improve" Harriet Smith, a sweet, pretty 17-year-old of unknown parentage. Emma's good-hearted attempts to rearrange the lives of Harriet and other marriageable townspeople are then the incitement to the book's subtle, intricately constructed plot. Austen employs a sympathetic, gentle satire as she portrays the provincial townspeople-all of whom are good-hearted, but h...

Name of Book: Persuasion Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 0-14-043005-9 Publisher: Penguin Classic Type of book: mature, 1814-1816? England, poetry, parody, second chance, marriage novel Year it was published: 1818 (version I have 1985) Summary: In Persuasion, her last novel, Jane Austen reveals her most mature dissection of people, place and social setting. Like the earlier works Persuasion is a tale of love and marriage, told with the irony, insight and just evaluation of human conduct which sets her novels apart. But the heroine - like the author - is more mature; the tone of the writing more sombre. Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth have met and separated years before. Their reunion forces a recognition of the false values that drove them apart. The characters who embody those values are the subjects of some of the most withering satire that Jane Austen ever wrote. Characters: The best way to describe the main characters are repressed and for the most part hardly vi...

Name of Book: Mansfield Park Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 0-19-280264-X Publisher: Oxford World's Classics Type of book: Regency England, navy, Portsmouth, 1800s, repressive, acting, Lover's Vows, rank, first cousin marriage Year it was published: 1814 Summary:  "Me!" cried Fanny..."Indeed you must excuse me. I could not act any thing if you were to give me the world. No, indeed, I cannot act." At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her wealthy uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, in the chilly grandeur of Mansfield Park. There she accepts her lowly status, and gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund. When the dazzling and sophisticated Henry and Mary Crawford arrive, Fanny watches as her cousins become embroiled in rivalry and sexual jealousy. SHe struggles to retain her independence in the face of the Crawfords' dangerous attractions, and when Henry turns his attention...

Name of Book: Sense and Sensibility Author: Jane Austen ISBN: 0-553-21334-2 Publisher: Bantam classic Type of book: England, classic, Regency, marriage novel, sisters, 1790s? 1800s? Year it was published: 1811 Summary: In 1811, Jane Austen's first published work, Sense and Sensibility, marked the debut of England's premier novelist of manners. Believing that "3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work upon," she created a brilliant tragicomedy of flirtation and folly. Romantic walks through lush Devonshire and genteel dinner parties at a stately manor draw two pretty sisters into the schemes and manipulations of landed gentry determined to marry wisely and well. Neither sense nor sensibility can gurantee happiness for either- as romantic Marianne falls prey to a dangerous rascal, and reasonable Elinor loses her heart to a gentleman already engaged. Wonderfully entertaining yet subtle and probing in its characterizations, Sense and...