For over 200 years, Jane Austen’s timeless stories of wit, romance, and societal critique have captivated readers around the world. To celebrate her enduring legacy, we’ve gathered six leading experts to champion her most beloved books in a literary showdown. From the biting satire of Pride and Prejudice to the quiet grace of Persuasion, each of her six completed novels has a passionate fanbase. But which one truly stands out as the best? This guide, featuring the expert arguments, will help you decide for yourself.
The debate over the Best Jane Austen Novels has raged on for generations, and we’re here to add to the conversation.
The Case for Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Championed by Lucy Thompson, Aberystwyth University
As Jane Austen’s first published work, Sense and Sensibility is a quietly radical novel. While it may be less polished than her later fiction, its incisive critique of society is no less powerful. The story lays bare the emotional cost of living in a world obsessed with reputation and gendered expectations. Through the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, Austen dramatizes two different strategies for survival: one based on restraint and the other on emotion.
The novel also brilliantly explores how information—or misinformation—circulates and distorts lives. Gossip doesn’t just constrain; it outright misleads. In this world, everyone is watching, but few truly see. Sense and Sensibility may wear a quieter face than Emma or Pride and Prejudice, but it’s arguably Austen’s sharpest early critique of how appearances govern our lives.
The Case for Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Championed by Andrew McInnes, Edge Hill University
When people ask, “What is considered Jane Austen’s best novel?” the answer is often Pride and Prejudice. And the reason is simple: Elizabeth Bennet. Her charisma is so infectious that you might forget the title refers to a character flaw and not a love story. We share her “prejudices” because Austen makes them so delicious. We roll our eyes at Mrs. Bennet, and we fall in love with Darcy right alongside Lizzy.
Pride and Prejudice is arguably the funniest and sexiest of all of Austen’s novels. Unlike her other stories, this one allows for a perfect, swoon-worthy romance with no major hitches. Darcy is a complex character—shy, domineering, and surprisingly funny—who falls in love with Lizzy first. It’s a romance that feels earned and deeply satisfying. Austen herself called the novel “too light and bright and sparkling,” but we know that’s exactly why it shines. It’s just light, bright, and sparkling enough to outshine all the others.
The Case for Mansfield Park (1814)
Championed by Amanda Vickery, Queen Mary University of London
While Pride and Prejudice is often the first “grown-up” novel young girls read, Mansfield Park is the only one of The Novels of Jane Austen that’s truly about a young girl growing up. All of her other heroines are already formed young women, but here we meet our heroine, Fanny Price, as a timid and cowering little girl.
Mansfield Park is Austen’s bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story, on par with classics like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Like the poor, plain Jane, Fanny is a girl of no consequence, a Cinderella figure in a mansion of the rich and selfish. She is shy and frail, but she is not a moral coward. She learns to bear her lot with dignity and hold fast to her beliefs. By the end, Fanny is no longer a sideline character but the undeniable center of her own story. It’s not just a love story; it’s a life story.
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The Case for Emma (1815)
Championed by Ruvani Ranasinha, King’s College London
Emma Woodhouse is Jane Austen’s most vividly realized, proto-feminist heroine. Witty, clever, and attractive, Emma is supremely self-confident and deeply flawed. She challenges every expectation of female propriety and is full of contradictions: self-centered yet devoted to her hypochondriac father; snobbish but kind.
Emma delights in meddling in the romantic lives of others, especially her protégée, Harriet Smith. When her carefully laid plans unravel, she makes mortifying mistakes and, in the process, learns true self-knowledge. All of Austen’s novels are aware of the role that wealth and class play in marriage, but Emma—as the story of “an heiress of thirty thousand pounds”—is unique. She is free from the intense competition for suitable young men and attracts suitors on her own terms. This is why the novel is both a product of its time and a story that still speaks to ours.
The Case for Northanger Abbey (1817)
Championed by Octavia Cox, University of Oxford
Northanger Abbey is an absolute riot of jokes. Nothing and no one is spared: not the heroine, not societal conventions, not even the readers. This novel has everything you’d expect from an Austen book—sharp satire, laughter at human absurdity, and a beautifully crafted plot—but with an extra dose of sass.
This is Austen’s most meta-fictional text, constantly making jokes with the reader about the action. It’s a must-read for all Austen lovers because it reveals so much about her aims and style as an author. And, as a bonus, it is one of the Most popular Jane Austen novels due to its incredible sense of humor.
The Case for Persuasion (1817)
Championed by Richard de Ritter, University of Leeds
Persuasion contains what many consider the greatest love letter in all of English literature. It is the culmination of a slow-burning romance between Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth, the man she has loved for eight long years. The brilliance of the novel lies in the depiction of its complex heroine. At 27, Anne is older and wiser than Austen’s earlier protagonists, and the depth of her personality is revealed through Austen’s most luminous prose. We are plunged into Anne’s mind, witnessing her innermost thoughts and feelings as she navigates the awkwardness and, finally, the sheer joy of a second chance with Wentworth.
Persuasion was the final novel Austen completed before her death, and in it, she was at the peak of her powers. It is her most moving and her greatest work.
Your Turn to Decide
The experts have made their case, and now it’s your turn to decide which of Austen’s six completed novels is her best work. These are the books that cemented her place in literary history and continue to influence pop culture today. So, which of the Best Jane Austen Novels gets your vote? Let us know in the comments below!