Customer Reviews

The Complete Novels of Jane Austen

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This review is regarding the quality of the 1994 hardcover edition published by Grammercy. I ordered this edition several weeks ago and was extremely disappointed to find it was poor quality. The binding is acceptable when new but after a week of light use, I already noticed deterioration on the front binding. Actually the binding is so poor that, if not careful, you could easily tear some of the front pages out. The paper quality is cheap and is the same used for mass media paperbacks expect slightly thinner. Overall, I was so dissatisfied with this edition that I returned it.

However, I would also like to make a recommendation. After returning the book, I was still looking for collection of Austen's works and happened to find a 1995 hardcover edition of this exact book by Grammercy. The edition costs five dollars more but the quality is ten times better. The book has a faux leather cover with gold trimmed pages and a ribbon bookmark. The paper quality in thin but polished, smoother and more refined. The binding is very durable and I have noticed no deterioration yet after a week of use.

If I had to a chance to redo my purchases, I would have skipped this edition completely and ordered the 1995 edition. If your interested in this edition, it can be found using search under ISBN # 0517147688

I appreciated rereading Austen's work over the summer, and it was a natural choice for me to get it on my new Kindle. The pages look great and the type is adjustable. The one drawback was the size of the illustrations. Condensed onto the Kindle's screen they were difficult to appreciate. The fact that the book in e-version is so light to carry made up for this. It also made a difference in that the Kindle helped me look up the word "eclaircissement" as I was reading it.

As a devoted reader of Jane Austen's novels, I thought this book was the answer to my prayers. Except for Sanditon, it contains all her novels, and it has a pleasing presentation.

But there are some details in this book that can become quite bothering. As I read Pride and Prejudice, I noticed that an entire line of a dialog between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet (the main characters) is omitted, and frankly, it is difficult to follow the conversation without that particular line. There are also many other mistakes in the text (i.e. 'becausee'). If you are too particular about this kind of errors (like me), maybe you should choose another book. If you don't really care about these things, it is a good choice.

I highly recommend Jane Austen's delightful writing to one and all. Each one of her, unfortunately too few, novels are true classics in every sense of the word. She is witty and very readable. Her novels are deliciously addictive and you will enjoy rereading them over and over.

I purchased this edition for my 17 y/o daughter so that I could keep MY own copy of this book available for myself...I am so envious! This is a lovely, expensive-looking book which sells for an amazingly low price. There are cheaper hardback copies but the extra $4.00 for this one is very much worth 3 times that small amount. The leather binding and original artwork make this an excellent bargain.

This was a great book for the price and everything. It is fantastically layed out, and the pages are thin but no so much that you fear they will tear every time you turn the page. I was hesitant with the five starts only because there are SEVERAL typos throughout the book, which worried me a little as to the correctness of other points. But it is a very attractive book that includes a bookmark and very well worth the price. I would highly recommend this anthology over many others. Be on guard for the typos, however.

I had a copy of the Complete Illustrated Novels of Jane Austen before I bought the Kindle. It was a pain to have to drag the 1200+ page book around with me. The book itself is easy to use, and it's great to have all the novels together. This was the first book I bought on the Kindle and I'm really happy with it. Thank you, Kindle, for lightening my purse considerably!

I am a great Jane Austen fan, and was thrilled to find this book, which is a very good price. I like owning all 7 novels! The book is really surprisingly light, and not at all cumbersome, unless you want to carry it around. I do not find the print too small or close, either. If you are beginnning Jane Austen I recommend that you start with Emma or Persuasion. Emma is a delight to read- I am in the process of reading it for the first time now! Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility can be a liitle confusing and a more difficult read. I have not read Lady Susan, Mansfield Park, or Northanger Abbey yet. The only thing I could ask for is that they would have included Love and Friendship, which I have seen in other Complete Works editions.

I love Jane Austen. But this edition is full of spelling and text errors. Words that run together. Context that was not checked. These are annoying. The editor clearly didn't do his or her job. I was very disappointed.

I was searching for a good compilation of all the Austen novels so I could have it available for when I get the "bug" to read them all once again. Rather than keep running out for paperbacks, I wanted a single volume that I could keep pretty much for the rest of my life, available at my whim. I thought this might be the volume, but I was disappointed in the actual quality of the book. It is printed on newsprint, which ages very quickly. This book won't retain it's neatness or newness for very long. If you are looking for something durable, beware. Try the Everyman editions -- they look much better and though the collection will be pricey in comparison, in the end you'll have books to last a lifetime.

Why do people still go on reading, quoting and making films about the novels of Jane Austen, a stay at home maiden lady who wrote her books almost two hundred years ago? An easy answer might be the romance and simplicity of the Austen age, where the most important news of the day was the arrival next door of a young, eligible bachelor. It was a world in which overheard conversations at a country dance, the imprudent behavior of a girl at a picnic, or a public snub in the village square would utterly change the course of your life. But this easy answer doesn't really explain the broad appeal of Jane Austen's novels. Her world is so unlike our own, that there simply must be more to it than romance. The fact is, that in spite of her limited experience, Jane Austen writes with tremendous wit, charm and perception. She appeals to the modern reader because she never minces words. She gets right into the heart of her characters, strips away the veneer of social grace, and makes shrewd observations about love, marriage, pride, snobbery, money and manners. Her opening sentences are a key to the clean, crisp writing you can expect from Austen. Take, for example, the character description that begins EMMA: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence, and had lived nearly twenty one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." It is the brilliant use of the word 'seemed' that tips us off for the events that follow. In one sentence, Austen has given us a character who is spoiled, self assured and intelligent, and we can hardly wait to find out what is going to 'distress or vex her' in the following pages! Or what about the opening sentence of her most famous novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." What a marvelous assumption, and what delightful matchmaking schemes and foibles are about to unfold! Just picking one of Austen's novels at random gives you a wealth of charming observation. Take these thoughts on conversation, from NORTHANGER ABBEY: "He shortly found himself arrived at politics, and from politics, it was an easy step to silence." ...and from "SENSE AND SENSIBILITY "Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition." Or how about this wistful observation from PERSUASION: "One does not love a place the less because one has suffered in it." You don't have to be a scholar to understand and appreciate Austen. Her novels will surprise and win over any first time reader, and they have an amazingly good shelf life - they can be read and reread. Here, in one volume you have a portrait of missed opportunity in the provocative novel PERSUASION; matchmaking gone awry in EMMA; masterful observations of two sisters and their different approaches to love in SENSE AND SENSIBILITY; snobbery and manners in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and more. In short, Austen is a writer you never tire of. This is a must have in any collection, small or large!