Jane Austen Collection

Northanger Abbey is the light-hearted account of a young girl's first excursion into fashionable society. While in Bath, Catherine Morland is invited by Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor to visit their home, Northanger Abbey. A devotee of Gothic novels, Catherine hopes that the Abbey will live up to her vision of haunted ruins. This delightful novel pokes fun at the popular fiction of its day and exposes the difference between illusion and reality.

Albeit that she is not yet 21, Emma Woodhouse foresees a future as a spinster dabbling in matchmaking. Charming and infuriating, she almost ruins the marriage prospects of Harriet Smith, her protégée, after misguidedly attempting to match Harriet with the local rector, who is in fact in search of a wealthy wife. Reprimanded by her friend, George Knightly, and misled by Frank Crawford, whom she saw as a potential suitor, Emma learns some valuable lessons in humility and about love and marriage.

Jane Austen's classic tale of love overcoming preconceptions centers on the two eldest daughters of the Bennet family: Jane and Elizabeth. Elizabeth has to fend off an unwelcome offer of marriage from the Rev. Collins, while mistakenly falling for the charms of the dashing Mr Wickham, before realizing that appearances are deceptive and that her prejudice against Mr Darcy has blinded her to his real character. Witty, humorous and ultimately satisfying, this masterpiece of classic fiction has endured for more than two hundred years.

Sense and Sensibility tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Left almost penniless and homeless on the death of their father, each needs to resolve their problems by marrying well. But fate takes them on a bumpy road as impetuous Marianne falls for the duplicitous Willoughby while Elinor seems to be unlucky in love. As ever, Austen resolves her heroines' fortunes in her inimitable and witty way.

Anne Elliot is persuaded to reject the love of her life, Captain Wentworth, when her good friend Lady Russell, hints that there is a better match to be found. Now eight years later, Anne's family has been forced to retrench and move to Bath. But while visiting her married sister, Anne meets Captain Wentworth again, who is now a wealthy man and seeking a wife. Will fate give Anne a second chance at happiness, or will the Captain look elsewhere as he still bears the hurt of her rejection.

When shy Fanny Price arrives at Mansfield Park to live with her cousins, she is overwhelmed and only put at ease by her cousin, Edmund Bertram, whom she soon comes to love. But Edmund's head is turned by the beautiful Mary Crawford and she and her brother Henry spark a series of romantic entanglements that lead the Bertram family to the brink of social disaster. It becomes apparent to Fanny that pretty manners and fine words are no substitute for integrity.

This collection contains Jane Austen's six best-loved titles: Emma, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.