The author of six major novels including Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, Jane Austen was more than a beloved English novelist who continues to charm readers throughout the centuries with her witty heroines and compelling stories.

Jane Austen also loved to read books.

Her father was proud of their family’s 64 square feet of books.

“How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Researchers have a good idea about the books the author most likely read and enjoyed from her letters and literary allusions in Jane Austen’s novels. Here’s a sampling of Jane Austen’s favorite books.

1.

The Collected Works of William Shakespeare

2.

Paradise Lost by James Milton

3.

The History of Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson

4.

The Task: A Poem, in Six Books by William Cowper

5.

Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennon

6.

The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe

7.

Camilla: A Picture of Youth by Frances Burney

8.

Self Control by Mary Brunton

9.

The Monk by Mathew Lewis

10.

Cecilia; Memoirs of an Heiress by Frances Burney

11.

A Practical Education by Maria Edgeworth

12.

Evelina by Frances Burney

13.

Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth

14.

The Lady of the Lake (poem) by Sir Walter Scott

15.

Alicia De Lacy, an Historical Romance by Jane West

16.

The Works of the Right Hon. Lord Byron

17.

The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties by Frances Burney

Related: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jane Austen.

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