The Wordsworth Collection of Classic Romances: Pride and Prejudice/Persuasion/Jane Eyre/Wuthering Heights/Tess of the D'Urbervilles

by Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë

Pride & Prejudice Jane Austen constructed Pride & Prejudice, with wit, social precision and an irresistible heroine. Beginning with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, it is a perfect ironic novel of manners.

Persuasion Jane Austen's question 'What is persuasion?' - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? - is the force behind this novel. Anne Elliot, one of Austen's quietest yet strongest heroines, is also open to change.

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte's poor, plain, but plucky heroine, possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wid great courage. She is forced to battle against a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order.

Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte's tale is a wild, passionate story of intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and the adopted foundling Heathcliff. Humiliated by Hindley, Catherine's brother, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights, but in time he returns to exact a terrible revenge.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, a poor village girl, her relationships with two very different men, her fluctuating fortunes and her search for respectability.

Genres: Romance

1312 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 5, 1998

About the author

Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), were a modest success but brought her little fame in her lifetime. She wrote two other novels—Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1817—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the unfinished novel The Watsons.
Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as a set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have also inspired many films, including 1940's Pride and Prejudice, 1995's Sense and Sensibility and 2016's Love & Friendship.

Reviews

[Anastasia]

I can’t rate this book because it contains stories which impressed me in astonishingly different ways.
Now I understand that Jane Austen is my author, her books I love greatly. The books by Brontë sisters are not my cup of tea! Jane Eyre was a disaster! And Wuthering Heights was too cruel for me.