any input from the austen fans would be great. I have never picked up any writings of jane austen can anyone share there input onto which book to start reading first would be greatly thanked.

thank you

Read Pride and Prejudice first of course (you've got to love Darcy), Emma next, Persuasian (my personal favorite - love Wentworth), Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey (not well known, but very good) and Mansfield Park is my least favorite.

thank you so very much...i really thank you for this info..

I am new myself and have only read Pride and Prejudice. I LOVE IT !!!! I can not bring myself to read any other stories of hers as yet but have purchased the moving Sense and Sensibility. I seem to have gotten stuck with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and am currently reading every sequal I can get my hands on. Enjoy the awaking of romance into your life and enjoy her books.

I actually read Emma first, then Sense and Sensibility, then Pride and Prejudice, which I fell in love with and it remains my favorite book to this day, followed by Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.

But I have to say that all of her books are fascinating, but Pride and Prejudice is the best, then Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and then Mansfield Park, which I liked, but not as well as the others.

If you have not started reading yet, I would HIGHLY recommend this book...

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Author), David M. Shapard (Editor)

I think that without this books as an introduction I would have been lost in the world of the characters. It explains SO MUCH in the way of social rules and etiquette, explains things in the text that may have lost it's meaning in todays language. It has everything from illustrations to the dresses, and things they used like the different sort of carriages and why saying "this particular" carriage for this particular person was so, because one was much more grand than another.

I would have been lost and it opened the door to understanding her wit so much better when I knew just exactly she (Jane Austen)was reffering to.

I started reading Emma,
then I read Pride and Prejudice.
Then I read Northanger Abbey,
Persuasion
and Mansfiel Park.
The last I read was Sense and Sensibility.

If I had to put the books from the best one to the "worst" one, I would write:
1) Pride and Prejudice - Emma
2) Persuasion
3) Northanger Abbey
4) Mansfield Park
5) Sense and Senibility