Jane Austen - celebrates 250 years in 2025, what will you be reading

me, I've got 6 books lined up including Pride and Prejudice, and currently listening to an abridged adaptation of Emma

I'll probably continue through my boxed set of the BBC adaptations while ironing.

Didn't know about that but was already planning to read Mansfield Park for a challenge.

Not sure I'll read anything specifically, but there is an audio drama series done by the BBC that I'll probably buy on audible and listen to.

I was also thinking about movies / boxsets, and have these books lined up so far

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
The History of England by a partial, prejudiced & ignorant historian Jane Austen
Jane Austen: A Life Claire Tomalin
A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections James Edward Austen-Leigh
The Task and Other Poems William Cowper

Thanks for alerting us to this celebration. Perhaps next year would be a good time to finally reread Emma, the only one of Austen's novels I have not reread in the past 20 years.

>6 sturlington: it's funny you mention Emma, I've borrowed from Libby Emma: A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation, it's a touch dated but enjoying how Jane Austen's humour come through.

I didn't know about the anniversary, but began listening to the audio version of Persuasion a couple of days ago, so will finish it in 2025.

Maybe this will be the year where I actually manage to get through all of Northanger Abbey as I have never completed that particular read.

>9 jillmwo:

That's my sentimental favorite of hers. After the first day of the bar exam, when everyone else was rehashing and second-guessing, I went back to my hotel room and read Northanger Abbey. An excellent distraction!

>9 jillmwo: That one I have read quite as much of as I ever care to.

Northanger, I didn't like it when I read it years back but this time I listened to the abridged version and it was amusing. Catherine Morland at times seemed a bit OTT.

I finished Emma: A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation, t=a touch dated but enjoyable and will try to find more of these dramas.

>15 AnishaInkspill: Hmm...scratching my head. How was it dated? Was it the acting or production? Since the story was contemporaneous to Austen's time, it's going to be very different compared to how we live and think these days, but I think that's to its credit not its detriment. Of course it would feel "dated", but it should, right? Not starting anything, just actually curious since I plan to buy the full set of those dramas from Audible.

>16 Bookmarque: yeah, I can see why. it was more the production, the small things, like choice of music and acting styles. To me Emma acts v worldly but has a lot to learn, it was little accents like this that weren't put to best use by this drama, but i did get use to the style and warm to it. I am not sure if this answer is helpful. putting it another way, I am listening to an abridged ed of Emma (it's part of a volume that also includes Northanger & Persuasion). This to me evokes Emma's world better.

That does help! I know what you mean about older styles in acting and production; I can usually spot them even if I don't know when the play was done. I'll still probably muddle along with them eventually.

>14 AnishaInkspill:

Catherine Morland at times seemed a bit OTT.

Intentionally so. Northanger Abbey was intended as a satire on the popular Gothic novel.

I’m planning a return to Pride & Prejudice, possibly for a YouTube channel I might start, but definitely for the pleasure of hanging with Elizabeth again. It’s been too long.

>19 lilithcat: I did wonder if it was to mock, and listening to it again.

On Amazon Prime I came across a staged musical of Emma, fantastic how i homed in on the comedy. Wanting to know more about the production I found this https://www.streamingmusicals.com/janeausten

finished reading Jane Austen at Home: A Biography ✅ 4* my review .

and listening to The Jane Austen BBC Radio Drama Collection: Six BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations

I'm about midway through listening to Persuasion as an audio book. It's my first time reading Persuasion, and I wonder if Austen wrote it as more comedic than the reader is treating it. Her father and sisters are so exaggerated in their vanity, and Anne is so steady, it reminds me a little of Cold Comfort Farm in the dialog -- not the setting, but the way the characters act.

I love Persuasion.

>24 janoorani24:

I wonder if Austen wrote it as more comedic than the reader is treating it.

Very likely. Too many people treat her books as "romance", rather than the social satire that they are.

>26 lilithcat: I think Jane Austen is always very funny. Mansfield Park was wicked.

>24 janoorani24:, >25 MarthaJeanne:, >25 MarthaJeanne:, >27 sturlington: I think it's because the screen adaptations focus on the romance rather than social satire. The opening of Persuasion is just hilarious, makes me laugh every time.

*Jane Austen Collection Volume 2 (includes abridged novels of: Emma, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey) 📖 ✅ 4* my review .

next up, The Jane Austen BBC Radio Drama Collection: Six BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations, between these two audiobooks I am hoping I have a good enough grounding of Jane Austen's 6 novels to read the full version of S+S and P+P.

* link points to wrong book. it's this one https://www.librarything.com/work/33524486/book/279799256

>24 janoorani24: I thought I'd add my review of the audio version of Persuasion narrated by Juliet Stevenson:

I consider myself a fan of Jane Austen's works, but this is really based on only having read three of her novels and a couple of biographies. This was my first time reading Persuasion, even though I have the Everyman's Library hardcover edition (which contains an excellent introduction by Judith Terry).

Persuasion is the story of Anne Elliot, the daughter of a baronet in Somerset, who, through extravagance, is forced at the beginning of the novel to rent out his ancestral hall and estate and move to Bath in order to save money. Two of his daughters are unmarried, Elizabeth, aged 30, and Anne, aged 27. His youngest daughter, Mary is married and has two children. The father dotes on his eldest daughter and has no affection for Anne, whom he thinks of as having inferior value, "her word had no weight; her convenience was always to give way; -- she was only Anne."

Seven years before the beginning of the novel, Anne had been in love with a Captain Wentworth, a commander in the British Navy, and she had agreed to marry him, but her father did not approve and she was persuaded to give him up by the advice of an old friend of her mother's, Lady Russell. But now, Captain Wentworth will be coming back into Anne's life because her father's estate is to be rented to an Admiral and his wife, who is Captain Wentworth's sister.

When I first began listening to the audio book, I thought the narrator didn't do justice to what was obviously the humorous aspects of the book in the form of Anne's father and two sisters, who are so dreadful. I felt Stevenson was reading them too seriously. But the further into the book I listened, I came to feel that the narrator was incredibly good. She read it the way I imagine Austen herself might have - with just the right amount of seriousness where it was needed and the right amount of humor when needed. Her voice for the distasteful sister, Mary, was so grating - I could perfectly picture her. The other characters were just as well done. Highly recommended.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I would say I'm a Jane Austen fan but have only read three of her books and the Lucy Worsley biography which was fascinating. At the moment I'm going through 'the horrid novels' of Northanger Abbey.

>30 janoorani24: & >31 TraceyMadeley:, me too, only in the last couple of years I have read more of Austen's work, and I haven't read everything.

>30 janoorani24:, I enjoyed Peruasion after the second read, by then I understood Austen's humour,

>31 TraceyMadeley:, Lucy Worsley's biography was a surprise. I read Udolpho a couple of years back, it took me 6 months, oh, it was v sentimental but in the end it left an impression and I would read again.

I'll soon start Sense & Sensibility or Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen: A Life, and finished a few days back her v short but humous piece History of England by a partial, prejudiced & ignorant historian

>32 AnishaInkspill: Claire Tomalin's biography is good, though I only gave it 3.5 stars. I'll have to look up Lucy Worsley's biography.

>30 janoorani24: & >32 AnishaInkspill: I have read them all, but I have very little memory of Persuasion. I am very tempted by that audio edition. Last year I listened to Pride and Prejudice read by Rosamund Pike and loved it.

BTW, I gave the Claire Tomalin book 5 stars.

>33 janoorani24: and >34 clamairy: Tomalin's biography is excellent, but keep an eye out as well for the interesting biographical books by Irene Collins. {Jane Austen and the Clergy is one and another would be Jane Austen: The Parson's Daughter.

I'd highly recommend Jane Austen's Wardrobe by Hilary Davidson, which I picked up at my library & read last year. I'm not particularly interested in fashion, but this book was fascinating. Each item is introduced with an extract from one of Jane's letters describing that item or one similar. Davidson describes who, how & where the garments would be purchased, made & worn in Jane Austen's time. The book has fantastic photographs and is easy to dip in & out of; it is well documented and includes 18th century wardrobe pieces from the author's own collection.

I'm sorry, but i'm going to have to arrange a JA intervention for you.

Maybe I need to reread Death comes to Pemberley It delighted me. P D James was obviously a real Austen fan.

From my review "It felt like a gift from one Austen lover to another."

>38 MarthaJeanne: Just catching up on this thread. Sorry, but it appears to have gotten buried.

I recently read Death Comes to Pemberley and I found it entertaining, but I didn't love it. I also read The Other Bennet Sister which was decent but went on too long, IMHO. I absolutely loved Longbourn! I do highly recommend that one.

>39 clamairy: I've read Death Comes to Pemberley, the Wickham storyline was interesting.

I'm currently reading Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney and it has inspired me! I'm just picked up The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe.

Apparently Dame Julie Andrews is reading P&P as a podcast.

>42 MarthaJeanne: Oh nice!

I came across this poem, a tribute to Jane Austen written by Rudyard Kipling.

https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_janemarriage.htm

>45 AnishaInkspill: That's just beautiful and I got a little emotional reading it. Thank you.

I wanted to finish the year with Pride and Prejudice, haven't started yet but hope to start on Jane Austen's birthday, Dec 16th.

Feel free to join me if you want.

>47 AnishaInkspill: I am going to be listening to Mansfield Park, starting next week. That is the only Austen I have not revisited in the last 18 months. It's my least favorite, but I will be diving in anyway. I am hoping that listening to the audiobook will tickle a different part of my brain than reading it with my actual eyeballs did.

>48 clamairy: I will be interested in hearing whether the audio does indeed tickle a different part of the brain. I was in my forties when I first read Mansfield Park and I think that adult kind of grip on reality was why I could take it in as Austen might have intended. It's a book about parenting, about internal integrity, and about the problems associated with putting on a false front.

Mansfield Park is probably my favourite.

I generally say that the last Austen I read is currently my favorite :) Right now I am listening to Juliet Stevenson read Sense & Sensibility and reading the notes from The Annotated Sense and Sensibility with annotations by David Shapard. Each page of the novel usually has an equivalent full page of notes, making it quite a long read. I'm also working on a Jane Austen jigsaw puzzle, and hoping to have it finished by December 16.

>49 jillmwo: I will be sure to let you know. I did not read Mansfield Park for the first time until 2018. I may end up liking it more via audio. I realized I liked Emma less this year after listening to it than I had when I read it in my thirties. Pride and Prejudice was always perfect, no matter what age I was when I experienced it.

>51 kac522: Juliet Stevenson is my favourite Austen narrators, and I'll be interested to know how you find The Annotated Sense and Sensibility.

>48 clamairy: It took me a couple of reads to get more connected to Mansfield, Fanny is a v different kind of heroine to Elizabeth and Emma; and the scenes when she is back in London with her family, crumbs.

>53 AnishaInkspill: Yes, Juliet Stevenson is the best. Besides Austen, I have recordings of her reading Middlemarch, Jane Eyre and Gaskell's North and South.

In these Shapard annotated editions there is a page of annotations following every page of text, so it doubles the pages of reading. The explanations are good, especially about social protocol of the era. However I think it would be way too much information for someone reading the novel for the first time. Although he doesn't have spoilers per se, he often makes allusions to what will happen later in the story.

There are very helpful maps of southwest England and London, showing important places in the story. There's also a chronology of events in the book, so you get an idea of when things happen. The main action of S&S, for example, takes place over the course of a year, from one autumn to the next autumn, from when the Dashwoods leave Norland to Elinor & Edward's marriage. I don't think I would have figured this out on my own without a lot of effort, and I've read S&S many times.

>55 kac522: oh, lucky you, I've not read any novel by George Eliot yet but can see how perfect Juliet Stevenson would be to read these, and maybe it's all classic reads.

And I didn't clock the timespan of S&S, I'm adding this ed to my wishlist, thanks for the info

>56 AnishaInkspill: I think Stevenson reads all sorts of things. I mostly read & listen to classics, so that's what I've got.

Interesting. I have not listened to any audiobooks narrated by Juliet Stevenson to my knowledge. I listened to both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility narrated by Rosamund Pike, and thought she was amazing.

>58 clamairy: I've not listened to Rosamund Pike, but I've heard many people praise her narrations. For Stevenson, I particularly like her reading of Persuasion; she gives it a bit of a melancholy feel, which fits the book so well.

>47 AnishaInkspill: I hope you don't mind that I have jumped the gun a bit. I was ready for a new fiction book so I read the first five chapters of P&P.

>60 MarthaJeanne: no, I don't mind at all

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen

Happy 250th!

Having only read Mansfield Park once and having zero memory of it, I decided to get the Audible Plus version read by Frances Barber. I'm in chapter 8 and am ready to call it quits. This is by far the most boring Austen novel. Does anything ever happen? Will I care? None of the characters has the sparkle and individuality that I'm used to with Austen's work. Ugh. Slog city.

Don't give up just yet, >64 Bookmarque:. It's a slow build because it's about the failures of parenting (at least in part) and presentation of false fronts in relationships. Things get interesting once the father returns from Antigua.

>64 Bookmarque: & >65 jillmwo: This is my second time through, and I am appreciating the humor a lot more this time around, but just about everybody is still despicable. The father just got back, and he is not pleased.

Ok, I'll continue after the book I just downloaded. Seriously, this needs an editor and I liked Sense & Sensibility a lot more. I'll trust you though and return to it.

>66 clamairy: and >67 Bookmarque: The only individual WHO IS NOT DESPICABLE in the book (even if to the modern reader, she is a puritanical prig) is Fanny. (Well, her brother William seems also to be a decent young man.) But all of the others have some serious re-thinking to do about the choices they make. And remember as well that this is most definitely not primarily a love story or romance. Austen is examining ideas of integrity and moral behavior across the board.

>68 jillmwo: Yes, Fanny is the only decent person among the main characters. (William is quite minor.) One feels thar Edmund can perhaps be saved. The rest are not so much evil as false. They have various priorities, thus act in various false ways. Each trying to gain the advantage over everyone else. Fanny's big advantage is that she has never thought much of herself.

I shall almost certainly return to seeing Austen's work mostly in the BBC videos. I find I know much of the dialogue by heart, but it is nice occasionally to enjoy bits that did not make it in. "What are men to rocks and mountains! Oh! What hours of transports we shall spend!" (P&P Chapter 27)

It took me a couple of reads to warm to MP, I've read all six, Northanger I is the only one I have read once but to me each one of Jane Austen's novels seems very different.

>70 MarthaJeanne: it's funny seeing this quote without the rest

>72 AnishaInkspill: It hit me as very funny even in context. I've gotten a bit further and am very disappointed to see that Austen's Mr. Darcy does not appear soaking wet from a swim. I'll need to watch at least that scene with Colin Firth again soon. I am enjoying the reading, though. There are many passages that did not transfer to the screen. You will realize that if I am already at Pemberly that the plot is rapidly thickening. Elizabeth's internal ponderings make the difference between then and now much clearer.

>73 MarthaJeanne: Interesting to get the point of view of someone who saw the film first and read the book later.

I'm fairly sure I first read the book, but I last read it ten years ago, and certainly have watched the series at least once a year for much longer than that. The Austen DVDs are my favourites to iron to. My copy of the book has a still from the series on the cover, and was added here during my first year of membership. In general, the series keeps fairly close to the book.

It's lovely to see all the Austen enthusiasm on this thread!!!! XXAlice

My string quartet and I put on a 250th B-day party for my fav. author in September, here in London. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV7hI3JwlOk

>73 MarthaJeanne: I watched this recently, this moment is captured beautifully on the screen, I have watched the movie and at the time remember thinking the drama was closer to the novel than the movie, I also preferred the drama then but I can't remember why and hope to watch the movie soon to remember.

I am still getting familiar with this platform and discovered that you can also post movies here.

why is it such a good boook

So it's been a while since I've read this, but I have no memory of monsters from the deep or any other place. Thoughts?



Also, it's Gorey-esque, but I don't believe it's his work.

>80 Bookmarque: Just my personal thought, but in my view, Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions should be called on the carpet for that one.

>80 Bookmarque: Yeah, that's pretty ugly. I suppose Anne Elliot is somewhat "restrained" by her family, but sheesh.

Finished P&P.

>80 Bookmarque: not making sense to me either

>83 MarthaJeanne: me too, I've finished P&P, third read and it's been differnt each time

Still slogging my way through Mansfield Park. Zoning through a lot of the audio though, so I may just put myself out of my misery.

I’ve given up. DNF & deleted off my phone.

>86 Bookmarque: You tried, this novel is very different from Pride and Prejudice or Emma. If you like to watch Jane Austen screen adaptations then I would suggest Clueless, which captures the spirit of Jane Austen's Emma.

I just listened to an adaptation (audio only) of Sense & Sensibility and liked it very well. Maybe I'll try one like that for M.P. Ugh...how are they going to wring the least amount of interest with those characters, I don't know. But we don't all have to like everything so I don't think not finishing it is a hanging offense. LOL.

>89 Bookmarque: LOL, no absolutely not and sometimes it's not the right book or the right time, I didn't take to MP on its first reading but I'm really pleased that Sense & Sensibility worked better for you.

>86 Bookmarque: I finished listening to it the other day but I still haven't written my review. I liked it only slightly more as an audiobook than I did reading it. I think I liked Fanny a little better this time, but I disliked Mrs. Norris even more, if that's possible.

Mrs. Norris is a piece of work isn't she? Sociopath! It's a wonder her dead husband waited so long to turn up his toes.

>92 Bookmarque: The audiobook made her seem both more comical and more despicable in parts than reading the book had, oddly. Signs of a good narration, I suppose.

You just feel for Fanny how Mrs Norris at every opportunity puts Fanny her into place but in the end things don't go too well for her.

>94 AnishaInkspill: Fanny stands out in the book because she is the only character who has an opinion of herself that is below what she would deserve. Mrs. Norris is nasty to Fanny, but her behaviour to the cousins is actually a lot worse because she has encouraged them to think they are above criticism.

>95 MarthaJeanne: it’s interesting what you say, it makes me now wonder if Mrs Norris was inadvertently responsible for Maria abandoning her marriage.

>96 AnishaInkspill: I can't imagine a better way to get a young woman to abandon her marriage than to push her into a marriage that is based solely on his owning an impressive property when neither spouse has any regard or respect for the other or interest in being with the other. She will not even be in control of the household as long as his mother is in the house. It may not have been the intention, but yes, I think Mrs. Norris set her up to run away.

>97 MarthaJeanne: in this light I feel sorry for both Mrs Norris and Maria as Henry gets bored easily and Maria took a really big chance on him.

Maria has no excuse. Sir Thomas offers her an easy out of the engagement before she actually marries Rushworth. While I agree that Aunt Norris probably encouraged the marriage for all the wrong reasons, Maria didn't have to accept the idea quite so readily as she does.(I do feel sorry for her ultimate circumstances because who would ever want to live with Aunt Norris? The level of screaming boredom is intolerable.)

Of course, we can't Henry off the hook, either. He is equally to blame because he is simply flirting for his own enjoyment and is oblivious to the feelings and/or circumstances of the various parties. The man is charming but he's utterly thoughtless.

One of the things I've come to appreciate about Mansfield Park is the concept of "home." Fanny is sent from her home to live at Mansfield with relatives, but she's miserable, except for the kindness of Edmund and her rare letters and visits from her brother William. After many years (6 or 7?) she finally gets to go back to Portsmouth and it's a shock: her mother is exhausted, the younger children are out of control, the house is a wreck and her father is a boor. Fanny is completely out of her element and actually longs to return to Mansfield, where at least she has her own space and daily life has a certain amount of order. And when she returns to Mansfield she finds that Lady Bertram depends upon her and Sir Thomas, ignoring Mrs Norris, begins to treat Fanny (almost) like one of his own children.

My favorite passage in the book is when Fanny looks all around her little room at Mansfield and treasures all the things and memories it holds. I can't think of anything similar in any of Austen's other books.

Maria is a spoiled 20-year-old who has never had the chance to experience society outside of a few country balls. She makes two bad choices, and she pays for them. But I think it rather harsh to say that there is no excuse.

>101 MarthaJeanne: You can make a case for that, when recognizing the short-comings of Maria's upbringing, her isolated country life, and her naive belief that Henry is sufficiently interested in her to ultimately marry her. Sir Thomas however seems to share my view. From the final chapter of Mansfield Park:

Sir Thomas very solemnly assured her (referencing Fanny) that, had there been no young woman in question, had there been no young person of either sex belonging to him, to be endangered by the society or hurt by the character of Mrs. Rushworth, he would never have offered so great an insult to the neighbourhood as to expect it to notice her. As a daughter, he hoped a penitent one, she should be protected by him, and secured in every comfort, and supported by every encouragement to do right, which their relative situations admitted; but farther than that he could not go. Maria had destroyed her own character, and he would not, by a vain attempt to restore what never could be restored, by affording his sanction to vice, or in seeking to lessen its disgrace, be anywise accessory to introducing such misery in another man’s family as he had known himself.

It ended in Mrs. Norris’s resolving to quit Mansfield and devote herself to her unfortunate Maria, and in an establishment being formed for them in another country, remote and private, where, shut up together with little society, on one side no affection, on the other no judgment, it may be reasonably supposed that their tempers became their mutual punishment.

It doesn't seem that Maria overcomes the drawbacks of her unfortunate upbringing and her own poor choices. I kind of wish there were a writer willing to come up with a sequel that would put Maria and Fanny in direct opposition to one another. Fanny needs to learn a certain amount of (there but for the grace of God, etc.) self-awareness and Maria needs to recognize her own lack of responsibility and/or maturity. I'm sorry for her but primarily for the fact that she has to go into exile accompanied by Aunt Norris.

Maria and Aunt Norris each serve as the punishment of the other. And there is no question in Austen's text that Aunt Norris is the worst of the pair:

Mrs. Norris’s removal from Mansfield was the great supplementary comfort of Sir Thomas’s life...He had felt her as an hourly evil, which was so much the worse, as there seemed no chance of its ceasing but with life; she seemed a part of himself that must be borne for ever. To be relieved from her, therefore, was so great a felicity that, had she not left bitter remembrances behind her, there might have been danger of his learning almost to approve the evil which produced such a good.

She was regretted by no one at Mansfield. She had never been able to attach even those she loved best; and since Mrs. Rushworth’s elopement, her temper had been in a state of such irritation as to make her everywhere tormenting. Not even Fanny had tears for aunt Norris, not even when she was gone for ever.

Mansfield Park is what I would characterize as a severe novel. There was a very real point to Austen's commentary.

I hope you have all enjoyed visiting or revisiting her works of Jane Austen as much as I have. Next year I want to read her juvenilia / shorter / unfinished works. I also want to read the plays she wrote for her family, but this maybe more down the line as I don’t have much room it fit in with what I plan to read next year.

Thank you, I’ve enjoyed being a part of this and would like to share one of my favourite Jane Austen quotes:

“I thank you; but I assure you you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends, and nothing more;” and she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are for ever falling into; and not very well pleased with her brother for imagining her blind and ignorant, and in want of counsel. He said no more.

quote from: Emma By Jane Austen, Chapter XIII

Little does Emma know what is to come. ☺️

>103 AnishaInkspill: Thank you so much for starting this thread and prodding us all throughout the year. I have to admit I am a little sad it's over. I still need to listen to Jane Austen's Bookshelf, so I will be celebrating her life a little longer, at least.

>104 clamairy: you're welcome, and you all made this, I'm just pleased we showed our appreciation of Jane Austen. I'd be interested to know what you think of Jane Austen's Bookshelf.

>105 AnishaInkspill: I started reading it over the Summer and I got bogged down when she was spending so much time on her personal acquisition of old books, and not on the actual history. It will be easier for me to listen to it, I believe.

>106 clamairy: I've heard others say the same, it would be good to know if listening to it makes a difference

>107 AnishaInkspill: Listening to it definitely made a difference! This time around I became totally immersed. I'm purchasing a hardcover copy so I can add some sticky notes. I'm going to attempt to read (or listen to) some of those novels that influenced Austen.

>108 clamairy: oh good, I have the kindle book now but I don't have the room right now to read this. I did make a start with Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, it stayed with me but not really my thing in how the drama was too heightened but I would read this again, and I've been wanting to read more of the others mentioned, the one I have not come across before is Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi. I'm pleased listening to this is making a difference for you.

>109 AnishaInkspill: I read The Mysteries of Udolpho in college, but I have next very little recollection of it.

I think my problem with the Romney book was that I tend to do most of my reading in bed at night, and I just kept falling asleep.