Jane Austen

Jane Austen may be romance fiction's first superstar, though during her lifetime she never aspired to that goal. Austen's specialty was domestic fiction and she remains eternally popular due to her ability to both chronicle and satirize the daily lives of her peers. While the genre that developed around the era she wrote about, the Regency, has become largely focused on the peerage and its foibles, Austen largely focused on ordinary, albeit landed, people.

On the Web

• The Republic of Pemberley - One of the oldest and best-established online Jane Austen communities.

Books

• Emma
• Mansfield Park
• Northanger Abbey
• Persuasion
• Pride & Prejudice
• Sense & Sensibility

Movies

• Pride and Prejudice (1940) (imdb) starring Laurence Olivier (Mr. Darcy) and Greer Garson (Elizabeth Bennet)
• Pride and Prejudice (1995) (imdb) BBC mini-series starring Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy) and Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995) (imdb) starring Emma Thompson (Elinor Dashwood), Kate Winslett (Marianne Dashwood), Hugh Grant (Edward Ferrars) and Alan Rickman (Colonel Brandon)
• Persuasion (1995) (imdb) BBC movie starring Amanda Root (Anne Elliot) and Ciarán Hinds (Captain Wentworth)
• Emma (1996) (imdb) starring Gwyneth Paltrow (Emma Woodhouse) and Jeremy Northam (Mr. Knightley)
• Emma (1996) (imdb) BBC movie starring Kate Beckinsale (Emma Woodhouse) and Mark Strong (Mr. Knightley)
• Manfield Park (1999) (imdb) starring Frances O'Connor (Fanny Price) and James Purefoy (Tom Bertram) und Jonny Lee Miller (Edmund Bertram)
• Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000) (imdb) Bollywood version of "Sense and Sensibility" starring Aishwarya Rai
• Pride and Prejudice. A Latter Day Comey (2003) (imdb) starring Kam Heskin (Elizabeth Bennet) and Orlando Seale (Will Darcy)
• Bride & Prejudice (2004) (imdb) Bollywood version of "Pride and Prejudice) starring Aishwarya Rai (Lalita Bakshi) and Martin Henderson (William Darcy)
• Pride & Prejudice (2005) (imdb) starring Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Bennet) and Matthew Macfadyen (Mr. Darcy)
• Mansfield Park (2007) (imdb) ITV movie with Billie Piper (Fanny Price) and James D'Arcy (Tom Betram)
• Northanger Abbey (2007) (imdb) ITV movie starring Felicity Jones (Catherine Morland) and JJ Feild (Henry Tilney)
• Persuasion (2007) (imdb) ITV movie starring Sally Hawkins (Anne Elliot) and Rupert Penry-Jones (Captain Wentworth)
• Sense and Sensibility (2007) (imdb) BBC mini-series

Honors

• 1994 RRA Awards Nominee - Best All-Around Classic Romance Author