Austen fans, maybe Waugh fans too...your favorites?

Question

In my opinion, Austen never wrote a less-than-brilliant book, but I definitely have my preferences and I'd like to know yours, and your reasons for them. Similarly, is there anyone else out there who loves Evelyn Waugh for the same reasons they love Austen, i.e., accurate social commentary, plus smart and funny as hell?? Anyone with a thought, please share it! Thanks.

Answer 1

I like Lady Susan because she is so bad!

Answer 2

I love Austen. I love Emma because she's so mischievous but my real favourites are the stuff she wrote as a kid, like Jack and Alice, in Catharine and other Writings. (Has poems too!)

I remember reading a book by Waugh in college (I'm way old) but I can't remember the title and I don't seem to think I liked it. It was the one with Tony and Brenda Last (or similar names). I think the title referred to their house? Then a year or so ago I read Vile Bodies and found it just generally annoying, not bad and sometimes quite funny, but annoying. So it's interesting that you make a parallel between Austen and Waugh.

Answer 3

The Loved One is my Favorite Waugh
A British take on life in SoCal, a perspective with which I can Identify.

Although I loved Clueless the movie I have found Jane Austen difficult to get into. My mother adores her work though

Answer 4

My favorite was Emma. I think beacuase of the order I read them. I read P&P first, then Sense and Sensibility, followed by Emma. I guess after practically perfect Elizabeth and practically perfect Elinor, it was nice to see one of Austen heroine's truly flawed. Emma's life/situation was presented being ideal, and other characters kept saying how she could do no wrong. But Knightly saw her flaws and loved her enough despite them to help her see the flaws in herself and to help her want to grow past them and become a better person who understands the world around her better. Emma grows more than any other heroine in Austen's works. I've never read Evelyn Waugh, but I certainly willing if you want to recommend one of her books. The author who in my opinion most resembles Austen in period and content of her books is Elizabeth Gaskell. She wrote, among others, 'North and South' and 'Wives and Daughters', both excellent books.

Answer 5

Probably Northanger Abbey, but mostly because I read it just after reading Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho, which Austen then proceeded to totally make fun of all over the pages of Northanger Abbey.

Answer 6

Brideshead Revisited

Answer 7

The irony of Evelyn Waugh is, in my opinion, unsurpassed.

Answer 8

I'm sure your right