Jane Austen revolutionized the literary romance?? using it as a platform from which to address issues of gender politics and class consciousness among the British middle-class of the late eighteenth century. The novels included in the collection - Sense and Sensibility?? Pride and Prejudice?? Mansfield Park?? Emma?? Northanger Abbey?? Persuasion?? and Lady Susan - represent all of Austen's complete novels?? and provide the reader with an entrance into the world she and her memorable characters inhabited.

With witty?? unflinching morality?? Austen portrays English middle-class life as the ei"ntury came to a close and the nineteenth century began. Austen's heroines find happiness in many forms?? each of the novels is a story of love and marriage -- marriage for love?? financial security and fo