AJ Dunn Reads

  Mansfield Park By Jane Austen   3 stars.

  Emma By Jane Austen   4.5 stars.

  Persuasion By Jane Austen Anne Elliott is a woman past the prime marrying age. She lives with her vain father and her older sister who doesn't think much of her. When her father, who lives beyond his means, has to let his property and move them to a smaller place in Bath, Anne takes it in stride, willing to go where providence leads her. Her younger sister, who is married and lives near the family home place, persuades Anne to stay with her and her husband and children. Anne accepts and is is swept up in their lives of the usual Austen fare of upper class visits, parties, and getaways. Anne has a friend in an older woman named Lady Russell who, along with Anne's family, is responsible for Anne denying a marriage proposal in her past to a naval captain named Frederick Wentworth. But Captain Wentworth resurfaces in a much more acceptable position of wealth for the landed gentry and enetrs Anne's circle of acquaintances. However, there are many young ladies who find him appe...

  Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen We all know the basic premise of any Jane Austen novel: the heroin in grand society (a lady, but not necessarily of comparable means to those she interacts with) meets a man and falls for him through a series of misadventures with him, his family, her own family and friends, and society at large. There is the inevitable backdrop of town versus country with a lot of commentary on social manners and settings. All very picturesque and full of Austen's biting wit. Northanger Abbey is no exception. This book, Austen's first real attempt at a novel even though it was last to be published, was originally called Susan. This makes sense when reading the book, in that the bits about the Abbey only appear toward the last third of the book. Mostly the story is about Catherine Morland meeting and falling in love with Henry Tilney when she is on holiday with friends in Bath. Catherine, newly beautiful and feminine, meets Henry and his sister while engaged w...