大象传媒

A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

Chosen by The Reading Agency

Seth’s epic novel also explores themes of arranged marriage. Pick up this modern classic before the sequel is published this year.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernières

Chosen by Sarah Mears and Cathy Garrington, Essex Libraries

The heroine Pelagia initially rejects the advances of the handsome Italian Captain as an invader threatening her settled life. In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennett initially rejects Mr Darcy seeing him as a threat to her sister’s happiness and her sense of who she is. But love has a way….

Pride and Promiscuity - Arielle Eckstut

Chosen by The Publishers' Association

A brilliantly executed parody of Jane Austen's 'forgotten' sex scenes!

Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World - Claire Harman

Chosen by The Publishers' Association

Part biography and part cultural history, this book not only tells the captivating tale of Jane Austen's life, but also her literary legacy.

Me and Mr Darcy - Alexandra Potter

Chosen by The Publishers' Association

Bookworm Emily Albright has had it with modern-day men; she’d rather curl up with Pride and Prejudice and lose herself in a time when men were dashing, devoted and honourable.

Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley

Chosen by The Publishers' Association

Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen at Home is a new take on Jane Austen, examining the novelist through the places and spaces in which she lived her life and wrote her world-changing books.

Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym

Chosen by Sandra Tuppen, Lead Curator of Modern Archives & Manuscripts 1601-1850 at the British Library

Like Emma Woodhouse, Pym’s character Jane is an inveterate matchmaker. She even compares herself to Emma. Jane can’t resist bringing her glamorous London friend Prudence down to her small village to meet handsome, brooding widower Fabian Driver. Prudence, meanwhile, is besotted with her married boss.

Like Austen, Pym writes about small, everyday happenings with deliciously wry humour, and fills her novel with pithy observational detail. She captures beautifully the tensions and jealousies that lie just beneath the surface of her characters’ outwardly harmonious relationships. Also like Austen, Pym subtly reflects on women’s place in society – in this case in 1950s England.

Grasshopper Jungle - Andrew Green

Chosen by Sarah Mears and Cathy Garrington, Essex Libraries

Austen’s Emma is a beautiful and well-meaning young woman who has compassion but lacks discipline. Compare her to Austin Szerba in Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Green: well-meaning but so often gets it wrong, also lacks discipline. Does he love his pregnant girlfriend or his best mate Robby? And (spoiler alert?) actually ends up alienating both.

The Genius of Jane Austen - Paula Byrne

Chosen by The Publishers' Association

As we celebrate Britain’s favourite novelist 200 years on, Byrne looks at the influence of theatre and her radical use of dialogue in the novels to explore why her books make such awesome movies, time after time.

Matilda - Roald Dahl

Chosen by Sarah Mears and Cathy Garrington, Essex Libraries

Margaret Dashwood, a lesser known character in Sense and Sensibility, is the youngest of the three sisters, feisty and keen to step into the footsteps of her older siblings.

Think of Margaret when reading Roald Dahl’s Matilda another determined young woman but with ambitions so much greater than marriage and domestic life.

Post your recommendations for good reads on social media using #LoveToRead. Happy reading.