Jane Austen: Four Classic Novels

disappointing and incomplete

The book is poorly laid out, not even a page break between the end of one novel and the beginning of the next. The Table of contents is useless and unwieldy, and hundreds of pages are missing, including one whole novel. (Persuasion). It's a disgrace how many of these books have been slapped together without care for whether or not they're readable or worth any amount of money no matter how small.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Disappointed

All titles did not download. Recommend buyer choose another complete collection

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Does not download

Very upset about this. It will not download to my iPad. Other books from this service have but this one will not.

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

anon

It did't download the whole book. Very dissopointing. This had some great books in it, and I would have rated it a lot higher, however, it failed to download over half of the promised titles. DON'T buy it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

All The Best In One Lovely Hardcover Edition!!

I've read all of Jane Austen's novels several times through - my favorite being Pride and Prejudice which was what got me started back in middle school. They are all good and worth reading. Sometimes, you read a good book by an author, and when you try reading another one of their works, they disappoint you. That's not the case with JA. While all her books have similarities (novel of manners, marriage issue, the importance of character, etc.), the plots and characters are about as different as can be. Each heroine is unique, yet you can appreciate and like all of them. It's also a reasonable price and comes with a good, though short, introduction. For a longer more detailed introduction and end notes, go to the B&N Classics and buy them individually.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Austen Collection Not recommended

Although all Ausen's books are in this collection, it is difficult to access them. The advertisement says that the Table of Contents is interactive, but it is difficult to make it work. I'm reduced to trying to set 'bookmarks' at the beginning of each book.

If I knew it was this hard, I would not have bought it, even for 2.99.

A Jane Austen Book Review

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!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Jane Austen Book Review

I had a copy of the Complete Works of Jane Austen before I bought the Nook. 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 Nook and I'm really happy with it. Thank you, Nook, for lightening my purse considerably!

An excellent compendium of all things Austen

If you want, you can hunt down the texts of all of Austen's books. But this Complete Collection is a nice and easy way to get at all of Jane Austen's novels in one package. You can lend this title to your friends as well. The table of contents makes it easy to jump to the various titles within, and you'll be digging Austen's wit in no time.

Best Jane Austen Collection

This is the best Jane Austen Collection I've seen. It actually has everything! Has a great table of contents.

Written in Old English?

This copy of the Jane Austen stories is UNABRIDGED and I could not understand the context very well. It is written in Old English or something. I went back to get a edited version, and it has been a lot better!. I do not recommend this edition of the stories.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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