DescriptionLike Barbara Pym, E.F. Benson, and, mother of them all, Jane Austen, Angela Thirkell has created a small world of her own in the English countryside. Calf-love, village affairs, and literary effort are her nominal subjects, while people at their imperfect best are her real subjects. The Brandons is replete with youthful nonsense and middle-aged folly. People will fall in love with the wrong person, and all are determined to misunderstand each other. The Brandons and their friends and servants are irresistible. This is the gentlest of social satire.
DescriptionPride and Prejudice, the best known of Jane Austen's novels, reveals the acerbic and amusing critique of manners and morals in 19th-century England. Hear how the daughters of the bookish and indolent Mr. Bennet search for husbands...and how the family reacts when one of the daughters marries a scoundrel!
DescriptionMansfield Park, the idyllic Bertram family estate, becomes home to a poor young relative, Fanny. In this wealthy world of social accomplishments and flirtations, the sensible Fanny finds herself out of place, yet secretly in love with her cousin, Edmund. Jane Austen employs her unerring wit to brilliantly capture the social and moral values of an English society at a time of great upheaval.
DescriptionEmma, originally published in 1815 and deemed Jane Austen's best novel, is a witty satire of English society set within the customary plot: young ladies finding proper husbands. It can be heard as a charming love story, a detective story, and a comically lively picture of English life 200 years ago. Prunella Scales' delightful reading reveals Austen's mastery of dialogue and character.
DescriptionIn her final novel, Jane Austen creates a delightful social satire of England's landed gentry and a moving tale of lovers separated by class distinction. Here Austen achieves her most mature observations, especially of the silent torment of an unloved woman.
