Jane Austen The Dover Reader

Jane Austen: The Dover Reader is a collection of Jane Austen's works which includes the complete version of Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, two of her most read novels. Rather than just combining the books and adding a short introduction, Dover also includes her earlier work and letters. Three early works are included "Love and Friendship" a novel written in a series of letters between two friends, "The History of England" (Henry IV through Charles 1st) written by a self-described partial, prejudiced, and ignorant historian, and an outline for "The Beautiful Cassandra".

Perhaps the most important addition is the collection of letters. There is probably more to learn about an author in their personal writing than in all their biographies or autobiographies. This is when their personal side shows through. Usually written to friends and colleagues, the writer usually tends to be more open and informal than in their public writings.

The Dover Edition, as usual, gives the reader a large bang for the buck. The Dover edition sells for six dollars, less than the cost of the Barnes and Nobel edition of Pride and Prejudice. The Dover edition also comes with Persuasion and the above discussed early works and letters giving the reader a fuller understanding of the Jane Austen. A great value for anyone interested in getting to know Jane Austen and her work.

This is a useful collection for teachers, students or general readers. Collected here are the full texts of Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion, alongside juvenilia and a small selection of Austen's letters.

Love and Freindship (sic) is probably the best of the youthful writings, a sardonic though unsubtle commentary on the literature of sensibility such as Goethe's Werther. We can see how some of the ideas here emerge more fully in Northanger Abbey and in more sophisticated form in Sense and Sensibility's Marianne.

The letters give a sense of Austen's authentic voice and are gossipy: they really need annotating, though, for us to be able to place them.

Altogether, then, a useful collection of Austen's writing beyond the core novels at an affordable price.

I loved this book. It had a good number of books and other info. that I found interesting and helped enhance the experience. A great, great bind up here. Easily 5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this to Jane Austen or classic fans.

Nice little anthology of Austen's letters and her more famous novels. Loved the addition of her 'History of England', I'd never read it before but I had heard it at the beginning of Patricia Rozema's 'Mansfield Park' and it provides a nice alternative view of history.

I received an e-ARC of this collection through NetGalley and Dover Publications.

I need to tell you right away that I have been a great fan of the writings of Jane Austen for a very long time. Because of that reason it was absolutely impossible for me to give this collection less than a five star rating. What did pique my interest and make me want to read this specific edition was to read the Juvenilia which I have not previously taken the time to read. This consists of three short writings from Jane Austen when she was between the ages of 15 and 17. First was "Love and Friendship" in 1790 which is a parody of the romantic novels feeding a certain "hysteria" which was considered possibly detrimental to the health of young women. Hard to imagine, but true. The second is "The History of England" written in 1791, where Austen is poking fun at the history books being used in schools at the time. If this piece is anything to judge by, history was considered whatever someone wanted to say it was. The third piece is "The Beautiful Cassandra" from 1792 - a parody of the excessively flowery and sentimental novels of the day. All three of these were quite enjoyable for me, but "The History of England" had me laughing out loud with its casual disregard of facts replaced by fiction.

The two full length novels in this collection are what many consider the Austen masterwork, "Pride and Prejudice" and the final novel she wrote, "Persuasion". Both of these novels are well loved by me and I had no hesitation in reading both of them once again.

Included in this collection are nine letters written by Jane Austen, most of them to her sister Cassandra. The letters are merely a sample of the real personality behind the author. If you have some time to read the letters written by Miss Austen, you will find yourself understanding the language and tone and subtle nuisances of the world in which she lived which will then help to understand and enjoy her novels even more. These few letters will give you just a taste for her normal, day-to-day correspondence and if you enjoy them you will be better prepared to buy the entire collection of letters available for purchase.

(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.)

This reader has Austen's novles Pride and Prejudice (not my favourite) and Persuasion which I had not read. I really wish Emma or Northanger Abbey was included in this reader. I did love that her earlier works were included as well as the letters with her sister.

k (My Novelesque Life)