I don't think Northanger Abbey is a good recommendation for getting into Jane Austen. Not because it's bad, but because about halfway through it takes a David L

I don't think Northanger Abbey is a good recommendation for getting into Jane Austen. Not because it's bad, but because about halfway through it takes a David Lodge-style detour into gothic pastiche. Indeed the entire novel is a love letter to the gothic novel (many of the classic tropes occur, but transported to a specifically English context). Great book, but definitely falls on the literary side of the fence along with Emma. The best introduction, in my opinion, is Pride and Prejudice. Reading it as a purely romantic novel is, in my opinion, a mistake. It has a huge amount to say about class (which is pretty common for Austen) and is paced like a thriller. The thing with Austen is that the context matters: the Bennet sisters are looking at penury. The mother is determined to avoid it, but going about it the wrong way, and the father is just plain disengaged. There's also a very strong counter-culture thread through all the books where wisdom and gentility are harder to find the further up the social hierarchy you go. The individuals that everyone admires are _awful_. Oh yes, and when reading Mansfield Park, bear in mind that "the spice trade" was a contemporary euphemism for slavery.