Jane Austen Made Me Read It

...or at least made me *plan* to read it.

One telltale sign of a classic is that it will always lead you to another classic. The best books are invariably in conversation with other good books, so it’s no surprise to find plenty of literary references in the works of the one and only Jane Austen.

As you will already know from my channel and the long playlist of videos I’ve made about Jane over the years, she is my ultimate author bias. One of the reasons I’m excited to be hosting the Febregency readathon next month is to dive more deeply into the world of Austen and the works that influenced her.

For this week’s new video, I put together a list of writers and titles that have piqued my interest as I’ve read (and reread) Austen’s novels and letters. Here it is to provide some Febregency inspiration…

Northanger Abbey

Poets Catherine Morland Reads: Alexander Pope, Thomas Gray, James Thomson and William Shakespeare

Novels of Genius, Wit and Taste:

• Camilla by Fanny Burney

• Cecilia by Fanny Burney

• Belinda by Maria Edgeworth

Isabella and Catherine’s Gothic Reading List:

• The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

• The Italian by Ann Radcliffe

• The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons

• Clermont by Regina Marina Roche

• The Mysterious Warning by Eliza Parsons

• The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest by Ludwig Flammenberg

• The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom

• The Orphan of the Rhine by Eleanor Sleath

• The Horrid Mysteries by Carl Grosse

John Thorpe’s Reading List:

• The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis

• Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

Sense and Sensibility

Marianne’s Favorite Poets: William Cowper, Sir Walter Scott

Not Marianne’s Favorite Poet: Alexander Pope

Referenced by Mrs. Dashwood: Columella by Richard Graves

Emma

Harriet Smith & Robert Martin’s Reading List:

• The Elegant Extracts

• The Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith

• The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe

• The Children of the Abbey by Regina Marina Roche

Adelaide and Theodore by Madame de Genlis

Persuasion

Poetry Discussed by Anne & Captain Bennick:

• “Marmion” by Sir Walter Scott

• “The Lady of the Lake” by Sir Walter Scott

• “The Giaour” by Lord Byron

• “The Bride of Abydos” by Lord Byron

Referenced by Anne Eliot:

• “Henry and Emma” by Matthew Prior

• The Tale of Scheherazade from Arabian Nights

Mansfield Park

Fanny Price’s Reading Selection:

• Tales by George Crabbe

• The Idler by Samuel Johnson

• Journal of Embassy to China by Lord Marcartney

The Mansfield Set’s List of Potential Plays:

• Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello by William Shakespeare

• Douglas by John Home

• The Gamester by Edward Moore

• The Rivals by Richard Sheridan

• The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan

• The Wheel of Fortune by Richard Cumberland

• The Heir at Law by George Colman

• Lovers Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald