Ranking ALL of Jane Austen's Novels 💕

Last year I read all of Jane Austen's novels, so I thought I'd share where they rank (for me). If you've read them, please let me know your ranking list!

🧡 MY LINKS 🧡

✨ BOOKS MENTIONED ✨

[azdajajeanne]

I don't share your opinions, but that's exactly what made this video so refreshing! I really appreciate the alternate perspective. I wanna go back to the stories now and see the things you mentioned and discover what I think about those aspects of them.


I'd never thought about ranking the novels 🥇🥈🥉by pairing two for each category instead of ranking them from #1 to #6, but I like it! I think that actually gives me a clearer impression of their quality (from your POV, of course, but still).


I'm so interested to see if you made any more videos. I've never seen anybody rate "Mansfield Park" higher than "Emma". That's so cool! I loved both, personally, but Fanny is _so_ underrated as a heroine.


It's so great to see someone really take into account the different life circumstances of Austen's heroines! People always compare Fanny and Anne to Lizzy and Emma, and it's so annoying, because they've all had vastly different lives.


I also think genre comes into it. "Pride & Prejudice" and "Emma" are comedies; "Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion" aren't! Austen's a witty writer, but people seem to have taken that fact and misconstrued it into this impression that her books are all romcoms. So, when they don't get what they're expecting, they misdiagnose it as poor execution on the author's part.


Sorry to ramble on your page like this. Just really enjoyed your video! 🙂

[staffanlindstrom]

I´m glad you like Sense and Sensebility. So many people put it last on their ranking lists which always upsets me.

[aashnatapia]

I can't really say it's my favourite as it's the only movie adaptation of a Jane Austen novel that I have watched so far, but there is a Bollywood version called Bride and Prejudice, which I thought was pretty funny. Haven't seen it since I was a child though so not sure how closely they followed the book. :P XD

[azdajajeanne]

To answer your question about one's favorite adaptation (because it's fun to be asked, thanks!), I'm actually going to give three answers in the hope of getting to recommend you anything new.


1. My favorite version of "Persuasion" is the 1971 miniseries. It's much less like modern cinema and more like a stage production, but since I love theatre, I didn't notice until someone else pointed it out. A lot of people don't like it for that reason, but I think it hands-down has the best cast. It's got my favorite Anne, and the _only_ Wentworth whose performance I didn't hate.


2. There are many great adaptations of "Pride & Prejudice", of course, but the one I feel gets overlooked is the film from 2003. Not to be confused with 2005's period piece; this is a modernized version that gets written off as "the Mormon one", which I've always found strange because it no more focuses on Mormonism than the original focuses on the Anglican Church.


What really interests me about this one (despite the early 2000s cheesiness) is that they reversed Lizzy and Darcy's roles in their relationship while retaining their roles in the plot. So Lizzy's flaw is "pride" and Darcy's flaw is "prejudice" instead of the other way around. The way this affects their dynamic—I see it as a fun "what if" thought experiment. I know that technically makes them "out of character", but I thought it was creative.


3. The web series, "Emma Approved", has the best Emma Woodhouse. Period. This version of Emma has the most nuanced relationships with the people around her. They don't sacrifice her...having a character arc...to make her more likable straightaway, as adaptations with unlikable leads often fall prey to. But I find her development believable and satisfying because they not only do a better job foreshadowing the harm she's causing, but with humanizing the other characters—especially Harriet!


Since these are your top two and your least favorite, I thought it'd be fun to recommend them just to see if you ever watch them and whether it changes your perspective at all. 🙂