Salon Series

Book Club: Two Masterpieces by Jane Austen

This four-part reading group will consider two great masterpieces by Jane Austen, her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, and her last, Emma.

Full texts of both novels can be found here: Sense and Sensibility and Emma

Jane Austen's novels have been endlessly adapted into films, TV series, and even viral memes—often reducing her work to fluffy romances filled with bonnets, ballrooms, and brooding heroes. But what is it like to actually read her novels? Join us for a captivating four-week reading series dedicated to exploring her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility (1811), and her last completed and published work, Emma (1815).

Our series begins with Sense and Sensibility, Austen's debut that introduced the world to her incisive voice. We'll delve into the contrasting Dashwood sisters—Elinor, the epitome of restraint and reason, and Marianne, the passionate romantic—and examine how Austen uses their stories not just as tales of love and loss, but as a commentary on the precarious position of women in a patriarchal world reliant on inheritance and marriage. We'll unpack the novel's subtle ironies, economic realism, and the ways it subverts expectations of "sensibility" as a virtue, revealing Austen's early mastery of narrative irony and moral complexity.

Transitioning to Emma, Austen's crowning achievement and a novel she famously described as featuring a heroine "whom no one but myself will much like," we'll explore the eponymous character's matchmaking misadventures in the quaint village of Highbury. Here, Austen reaches the height of her comedic prowess, crafting a story that's as much about self-deception and class snobbery as it is about romance. Through close analysis, we'll strip away the charming facade to highlight the novel's innovative free indirect discourse, its critique of social hierarchies, and its exploration of personal growth amid folly and error. By comparing these bookends of her career, we'll trace Austen's evolution as a writer, from the youthful energy of her first work to the sophisticated maturity of her last.

Upcoming Episodes

This salon will read the second half of Jane Austen's Emma.

Full text of the novel may be found here: Emma