In a publishing career that spanned less than a decade, Jane Austen used the romantic endeavours of her well-plotted characters as a stage from which to address issues of gender politics and class-consciousness rarely expressed in her day. The novels included in this collection, "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice", "Mansfield Park", "Emma", "Northanger Abbey", "Persuasion" and "Lady Susan", represent all of Austen's mature work as a novelist and provide the reader with an introduction to the world she and her memorable characters inhabited.