Where to start with Jane Austen

British novelist, 1775–1817.

Best Jane Austen book to start with: Pride and Prejudice (1813), on 9 of the 13 lists it could have made.

Pride and Prejudice is the obvious first Austen. It’s funny from the first chapter, and it’s the Austen most people finish in a few days. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy’s slow, prickly courtship drives it, and the dialogue is sharp enough to read as fresh today.

After that, read Persuasion, her quietest and most grown-up book. She finished it not long before she died, and it was published after her death. Many readers who think they don’t like Austen find they do once they have read it.

Emma comes third. The heroine is clever, overconfident and often wrong, and the comedy is sharper than people expect. Sense and Sensibility is the earliest of the four and the least polished, so it works well as a fourth.

Save Mansfield Park for last. It’s slower and more serious, with a heroine many readers find hard to warm to, and it’s the one least likely to win you over on a first try.