Seven Days of Austen: Emma by Jane Austen

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Publication Date: Originally published 1815
Publisher: 2008, Random House
ISBN:  0099511169
Age Group: Adult/Young Adult
Genre: Classic/Romance
Source: Bookshelf
Lootability: ***

Emma is wealthy, beautiful, accomplished and a self-proclaimed matchmaker. When Emma meets Harriet Smith, a young girl of unknown parentage, Emma is convinced she can find Harriet a suitable husband. But, in her quest to find Harriet the perfect match, Emma jeopardizes Harriet's happiness and, much to her surprise, her own happiness too.

The last of my 'favourite' Austen novels, I can never really decide if I like Emma more or less than Sense and Sensibility. More, I think, probably because Emma Townsend and George Knightley are far more interesting, and possibly more dynamic than any of Austen's other romances.
George was a teenager when Emma was born and has always acted as more of a guardian than a lover, until a rival for her attentions arrives on the scene turning their lives upside down.

Seven Days of Austen: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

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Publication Date: Originally published in 1811
Publisher: 2008, Random House Publishing
ISBN:  009951155X
Age Group: Young Adult/Adult
Genre: Classic/Romance
Source: Bookshelf
Lootability: ***

Elinor is as prudent as her sister Marianne is impetuous. Both sisters must learn from the other after they are forced to leave their home and enter into the contests of polite society after the untimely death of their father. The charms of unsuitable men and the schemes of rival ladies mean that their paths to success are stocked with disappointment, but together they attempt to find a way to happiness.

Seven days of Austen: Persuasion by Jane Austen

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Publication Date: Originally published 1818
Publisher: Oct 1st, 2008 Random House Publishing
ISBN:  0099511177
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Classic/Romance
Source: Bookshelf
Lootability: *****

Eight years ago Anne Elliot bowed to pressure from her family and made the decision not to marry the man she loved, Captain Wentworth. Now, circumstances have conspired to bring him back into her social circle and Anne finds her old feelings for him reignited. However, when they meet again Wentworth behaves as if they are strangers and seems more interested in her friend Louisa.

7 Days of Austen: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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Publication Date: Originally published 1813
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
ISBN:  0679783261  
Age Group: All Ages
Genre: Classic/Romance
Source: Bookshelf
Lootability: *****


What is it about Pride and Prejudice that makes it such a successfil and romantic love story? Why do Elizabeth (Lizzy to her friends) Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy appeal to us, and make such a dynamic duo?
I first read P&P when I was fifteen and spending the last two weeks of my summer holidays trying not to look like a dunce in literature by reading classics. I expected to struggle, to miss the fantasty realms I was used to, what I didn't expect was to fall head over heels in love with this book.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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Publication Date: October 1st 1986 (first published 1860)
Publisher: Arrow
ISBN:  0099419785
Age Group: Young Adult/ Adult
Genre: Classic
Source: Bookshelf
Lootability: ****

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature

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Publication Date: Originally published 1847
Publisher: Norton and Company
ISBN:  0393978893
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Classic/Gothic/Supernatural
Source: Bookshelf
Lootability: *****