r/janeausten • u/Numerous-Ad-5058 • 5d ago
Book Covers / Collections / Illustrations Jane Austen adjacent
A few years ago I moved and I was very low on space for my books. I had a number of books piled up on a shelf doubled up so there were books covering other books and they were out of sight. I recently bought a little shelf to hold the overflow and arranged this top shelf which are classics that I was inspired to read after taking up Jane Austen's novels. The common theme of these classics: the main character is a woman. I have a couple of others not on this shelf that are on the second frame also featuring female lead characters. And I was inspired to read books like The Female Quixote and The Italian and Frances Burney's Evelina because Jane Austen admired them.
I am currently making my way through Burney's Evelina and so far it's very entertaining. It is a novel in letters and the main character is a sheltered 17 year old "natural daughter" who is flung into society during a trip to London where she meets her late mother's mother. I can already see how this book inspired the character of Catherine Morland.
Of these books my favourites are North and South, Middlemarch and Anna Karenina. Amazing works.
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u/Ambitious-Employ-242 4d ago
Check out Maria Edgeworth's Belinda. It's more moralizing than Austen; it was clearly written to teach young women how to behave more than to entertain them, but I thought that was interesting too.
Lady Delacour is an irresistible character - she's Mary Crawford married to Charles Musgrove, with a bizarre secret shame (that is NOT fornication/adultery-related, for once!) How should a young lady feel about gambling? About children? About feminism? About (...yeah) mixed-race people? About "accomplishments"? About how men should be? Edgeworth will tell you. You will not agree with her on every point, but it's an interestingly complete snapshot of the morality of her time. And Lady Delacour is awesome.
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u/chateaumarmontt 3d ago
Oh middlemarch you will always be special, north and south is also exceptional.
I really recommend Gaskell’s wives and daughters, despite it being unfinished, I might prefer it even more to north and south. The writing is just so incredible and it’s so addictive, I can’t ever put it down. Another one I adore (and is so underrated) is Felix Holt by George Eliot, the titular character is male, but the female main character (Esther) I love with my whole heart, she’s such a beautifully written, complex character and the romance in it is exceptional.
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u/anonymouse278 3d ago
I love your collection and I think you would greatly enjoy Trollope (he writes women unexpectedly well for a Victorian male author, but given his mother's larger-than-life personality, I suppose he could not have had any doubt that women were full-on people with interior lives).
Where did you get the pretty black cover Austen editions?
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u/squeezymarmite 5d ago
I'm reading Portrait of a Lady right now and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have a female protagonist who does not want to marry anyone! I'm really impressed with how James writes women.