Fans pick 100 books like Eugenia

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre follows the format of a romance novel: a governess falls in love with her employer, they overcome impediments, and they live happily ever after. Add a madwoman in the attic, Thornfield Hall in flames, and Mr. Rochester’s voice calling to Jane across the winds, and you have an unforgettable romance novel.

I admire Jane immensely. Her journey from being a suffering student at Lowood School to an independent woman is as relevant as ever. Through every experience, she asserts her autonomy but never wavers in her moral compass.

In Brontë’s world, love involves every fiber of one’s being, not just emotions or desire. Mr. Rochester is a complex, conflicted man who proves himself worthy of Jane’s love. For me, they have set the standard of the romantic heroine and hero. 

Georgette Heyer was the first author to pay homage to Austen by writing comedic love stories set in the Georgian/Regency era. Since Heyer wrote them a century after Austen, she’s considered one of the earliest writers of historical romance.

In this book, a dashing gentleman doesn’t turn out to be all he was cracked up to be, and a naïve young woman learns what qualities are truly desirable in a husband. It’s an absolute blast and very sweet. 

P.G. Wodehouse is a comic genius best known for his series of books featuring Wooster and Jeeves, but this book differs from his usual fare in that it has a female protagonist and a sweet little romance.

I loved Jill, who is the type of heroine Jane Austen might have invented: loyal, spunky, and highly principled. Jill’s adventures take us from London to 1920s New York, but this isn’t historical fiction. Like Austen’s books, this is a contemporary novel written in the era in which the author lived.

I love Austen because of her wry humor and her feisty female characters, two things that are also present in this very fun book. 

This was the first book I read by Joan Aiken, and I found after reading some of her backlist that this was the only one I liked. Some of the other historical fiction she wrote is much darker, but this book, while it does have a mystery subplot, is lighthearted and fun with a sweet romance.

It is a delightfully convoluted tale that will keep you guessing up until the very end when its downtrodden, capable heroine saves the day and gets her man. 

This was a modern-day retelling of Persuasion. I’ll admit, Persuasion has long been my least favorite Jane Austen novel. But Staci Hart finally made me fall in love with it. The story is told in first person, alternating between the perspectives of the hero and heroine, which made me feel that I was given a glimpse into their minds and hearts, something that the original novel failed to do. The added complication of the hero’s father being terminally ill really added depth and emotion to the story. I was completely wrecked—in the best way, of course!—by the end of this book. Read it with a box of tissues!

This book about rebels itself rebels against historians such as Abrams, who view Romanticism as a single movement unified by an expressive theory of art. 

Instead, Butler argues, there are many different sorts of Romantics, and they are best understood not through theories of art but through "the fierce personal and artistic politics of an age in the midst of profound change." That Age of Revolution had begun in the 1760s, and the ordering of the arts reflects debates about the social standing of the arts, not any consensus. Butler relishes these conflicts.

She pays attention to the groundswell of "art for the people" as well as "the war of the intellectuals," and she is not afraid to embrace the chaos and complications that thwart any effort to paint all arts and artists with one brush.

I would have to say, hands down, that this is the best Jane Austen variation I have read so far. The story begins with Elizabeth Bennet having a near-death experience. The description of Heaven during this experience was so striking and poignant, it brought tears to my eyes and made me think that this was exactly how Heaven ought to be. Throughout the story, Ms. Ellsworth’s message of hope and purpose was inspirational. For me, personally, it was a wonderful reminder of the hope that I have in God and the plans that He has for my life. The story is incredibly romantic, and a very unique approach to the Darcy and Elizabeth drama which I have not seen in any other novel. I also liked that she gave alternate outcomes for Lydia and Charlotte than the fate that Austen originally gave them. A must-read for fans of Regency-era variations… show more.

A luminous portrait of Jane Austen chocked full of spirited text and shimmery illustrations that capture the times. The story highlights the beginnings of Austen’s great career as a novelist from her youngest days all the way to famous writer. It’s a great addition to any classroom or library. Like Jane Taylor before her, Austen’s success paved the way for women authors to come.

Figes argues that although women novelists did not directly challenge the rules of a patriarchal society, they challenged its assumptions by protesting the restrictions on women’s lives and severely criticizing the clergymen, enablers of the patriarchy. My favorite section of the book is her interpretation of the Gothic novels, which she calls the female equivalent of picaresque novels. Women, she points out, were not permitted to roam the world like Tom Jones, having adventures. Instead, these novels presented women, who, through no fault of their own, are imprisoned by evil men. Their adventures, as they find their way to safety in foreign lands, prove their courage and intelligence.

There are more comprehensive biographies of Jane Austen, but I love this one, which charts the relationship between Jane and her favorite brother, Henry. He was a banker for a while but also a soldier and became an Anglican minister.

E.J. Clery has done tons of research but she also writes beautifully and brings it all together into a moving and fascinating story that shows a new side of Jane Austen. I discovered that Jane didn’t just stay home writing and embroidering but often went to London and stayed with her brother and his wife (their cousin Eliza). They went to the theatre together, they had parties, and she met French aristocrats who’d escaped from the Revolution.