Jane Austen

After their father dies, leaving them to a life of genteel poverty, sensible Elinor and romantic Marianne Dashwood must rely on making good marriages as their means of support.

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...

"A lo largo de una trama que discurre con la precisión de un mecanismo de relojería, Jane Austen perfila una galería de personajes que conforman un perfecto y sutil retrato de época: las peripecias de una dama empeñada en casar a sus hijas con el mejor partido de la región, los vaivenes sentimentales de las hermanas, el oportunismo de un clérigo adulador...--

Northanger Abbey was among the last of Jane Austen's novels to be published, in 1818, but the first to be written, mostly in 1798-9. Centred on the loves and friendships of Catherine Morland, an endearing young girl extremely fond of novel-reading, it remains the most youthful and optimistic of Jane Austen's novels. During an eventful season in Bath, Catherine meets the sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney who invite her to stay at their father's...

Persuasion narra el emotivo viaje de su protagonista Anne Elliot, quien se encuentra con el capitán Wentworth, un pretendiente al que fue persuadida de rechazar siete años antes, y cuya reaparición la hace reflexionar sobre sus decisiones pasadas y contemplar su futuro matrimonial. La última novela completa de Austen, que representa vívidamente las ciudades de vacaciones de la sociedad de Lyme Regis y Bath e infundida con el ingenio característico...

These three short works show Jane Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary stayles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings.

Norton's third edition (previous editions, 1972 and 1993) based on Austen's 1816 edition, has a background section with letters to Austen's sister, Cassandra; an excerpt describing a country ball from "The Watsons" (a novel fragment); V. Woolf's commentary on "The Watsons"; and two biographical sketches of Austen by family members. Reviews and criticism include 16 assessments of the novel and critical overviews by Sir Walter Scott, George Henry Lewes,...

It is the story of Sterne's fictional travel through both countries, particularly France. Sterne made two trips within the continent, in 1762-64 and 1765-66, but the book is not about his errands, but those of parson Yorick's (a character in "Tristram Shandy"). With a less acid and outrageous humor than in his previous work, Sterne anyway mixes the picaresque with an ironic and, frequently, hilarious philosophical irony. Yorick begins by trying to...

The Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles...