Author Guide · Lisanne Swart
Books Written by Jane Austen
Jane Austen completed six novels in a writing career that lasted barely two decades, published anonymously as "By a Lady," and died at 41 without knowing how permanent her place in English literature would become. Two of the six appeared only after her death. What's remarkable isn't the size of the body of work — it's how little of it feels dated: the comedy, the social precision, and the exact calibration of who deserves the reader's sympathy still land two centuries later. Here are all six, in order, plus the unfinished work she left behind.
By Lisanne Swart · 6 novels · Classic · British Fiction · Updated August 2026 · ~8 min read
Quick answer
Jane Austen wrote six novels: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (both published posthumously in 1817–18). She also left one unfinished novel, Sanditon, at her death. Start with Pride and Prejudice if you've never read her.
Watch
Jane Austen, explained in five minutes
A quick primer on who she was before you dive into the novels themselves.
Quick facts about Jane Austen
- Born: December 16, 1775, Steventon, Hampshire
- Died: July 18, 1817, age 41
- Novels completed: 6, published 1811–1817
- Published anonymously: as "By a Lady," her identity wasn't publicly confirmed until after her death
- Posthumous novels: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published December 1817, six months after she died
- Unfinished at death: Sanditon, along with an earlier abandoned draft, The Watsons
- First novel published: Sense and Sensibility (1811); her first-written novel was Northanger Abbey, though it wasn't published until after her death
- Most-adapted novel: Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Why trust this list: Every book below is one I've read in full. Curated by Lisanne Swart.
In this guide
- Her debut — sisters, sense, and heartbreak
- Her most famous novel, and the best place to start
- Her most morally serious, and most divisive, novel
- A heroine you're not always supposed to like
- Her first-written, last-published novel
- Her last completed novel, and her most quietly devastating
- What she left unfinished
- Publication timeline
- Frequently asked questions
Sense and Sensibility
Austen's debut novel, published anonymously as "By a Lady," follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood after their father's death leaves them financially dependent on relatives. Elinor's controlled restraint and Marianne's open, romantic feeling represent the "sense" and "sensibility" of the title — two ways of managing love, loss, and disappointment that the novel tests against each other rather than simply endorsing one.
Less tightly constructed than her later novels, but the sisters' contrasting temperaments set up a question — how much feeling should you show, and when — that Austen kept returning to for the rest of her career.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters whose mother is desperate to see married off, meets the wealthy, aloof Mr. Darcy and dislikes him almost on principle. The novel is built around both characters slowly, believably revising their first impressions of each other — Austen's title names the exact flaw each of them has to overcome.
The most purely enjoyable entry point into Austen: the wit is sharper here than anywhere else in her work, the plotting is her tightest, and Elizabeth Bennet remains one of the great romantic-comedy heroines in English fiction, two centuries on.
Mansfield Park
Fanny Price, a poor relation raised alongside her wealthy Bertram cousins, is quiet, morally rigid, and often overlooked — a sharp contrast to Austen's more vivacious heroines. The novel is her most explicit examination of class, dependency, and moral seriousness, including uncomfortable glancing references to the Bertram family's wealth being connected to slavery in Antigua.
The most argued-over Austen novel: some readers find Fanny's passivity frustrating compared to Elizabeth Bennet's wit, others find the novel Austen's most morally rigorous work. Worth reading once you already know why you like her, so you can decide where you land.
Emma
Emma Woodhouse is wealthy, clever, and thoroughly convinced of her own good judgment, particularly when it comes to matchmaking the people around her. Austen described her as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like" — the novel's comedy comes from watching Emma's confident meddling repeatedly go wrong, and from the slow, humbling process of her actually learning something.
Austen's most technically accomplished novel in terms of structure — nearly every clue to the actual plot is visible on a first read and completely missed, because Emma herself misreads everyone around her, and the narration stays close enough to her perspective to mislead the reader too.
Northanger Abbey
Austen's earliest completed novel, though the last published — it appeared six months after her death, alongside Persuasion. Catherine Morland, an avid reader of Gothic novels, visits Northanger Abbey and lets her overactive imagination convince her the house is hiding a dark secret. It's Austen's most direct literary satire, gently mocking the Gothic fiction craze of her own youth.
Lighter and more openly comic than her later work, and a good demonstration of how developed her satirical instincts already were before she'd written any of the novels she's now most famous for.
Persuasion
Anne Elliot, now 27 and considered past the age for romance by the standards of her time, encounters Captain Wentworth — the man she was persuaded to reject eight years earlier for want of fortune and status. The last novel Austen completed before her death, it's quieter and more melancholic than her earlier work, concerned with regret, second chances, and what it costs to have once been talked out of what you wanted.
Often cited as Austen's most emotionally mature novel — the wit is still present, but it's tempered by real sorrow about time lost that can't be recovered, which reads differently knowing it was the last thing she finished.
What she left unfinished
Austen left two novels incomplete. The Watsons, abandoned around 1804-05 for reasons that aren't fully known (possibly her father's death), follows a family of sisters in circumstances similar to several of her completed novels — it exists only as a fragment. Sanditon, her final work, was left unfinished at her death in July 1817; she'd written eleven chapters, sketching out a satirical look at a seaside resort town built on health fads and speculation, before her illness made further writing impossible. She also wrote Lady Susan, a short epistolary novella completed around 1794 but not published until 1871, following a manipulative widow scheming her way through London society.
Publication timeline
- 1811 — Sense and Sensibility
- 1813 — Pride and Prejudice
- 1814 — Mansfield Park
- 1815 — Emma
- December 1817 — Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (published together, six months after her death)
- 1871 — Lady Susan (written c. 1794, published posthumously)
Frequently asked questions about Jane Austen
How many books did Jane Austen write?
Jane Austen completed six novels: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in December 1817. She also left one novel unfinished at her death, Sanditon, and an earlier abandoned draft, The Watsons, plus a short epistolary novella, Lady Susan, written around 1794 but not published until 1871.
What was Jane Austen's first novel?
It depends on whether you mean written or published. Northanger Abbey was the first novel Austen completed, written around 1798–99, but it wasn't published until December 1817, after her death. Sense and Sensibility (1811) was the first novel she actually published, making it her true published debut.
What order should I read Jane Austen's books in?
Publication order works well: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. For a first-time reader, Pride and Prejudice is the most commonly recommended starting point regardless of order, since it's her most accessible and best-known novel.
Why were Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published after Jane Austen's death?
Jane Austen died in July 1817 before either novel had been published. Her brother Henry arranged for both to be published together that December, along with a biographical notice that publicly identified her as the author for the first time — during her lifetime, her novels had been published anonymously as "By a Lady."
What is Jane Austen's best novel?
Pride and Prejudice is generally considered her most popular and accomplished novel, and the most commonly recommended starting point. Emma is often cited by critics as her most technically sophisticated, and Persuasion is frequently named as her most emotionally mature, since it was the last novel she completed.
More from the shelf
Reading list
The Best Fiction Books of All Time
Where Austen sits among the greats.
Index
List of Books by Author
Find any author's full bibliography.
Overview
Best Books by Year — Full Overview
Browse all reading lists organised by year.
Author Index
Every Author Guide, A–Z
Browse all author guides on the shelf.
From the bookshelf
Find your next book — hand-picked, not algorithmically sorted.
If Austen's wit and social precision is your thing, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author pages, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations