i think pride and prejudice is a fantastic starting place, but i’d want to know more about your personal reading preferences before recommending the rest! pride and prejudice has the largest presence in the pop culture landscape, meaning that many readers already know what to expect from it, and you (hopefully!) won’t struggle much with the transition of reading a classic. it also has two wonderful film adaptations that can help spur a reader along! it’s also the most tightly plotted, and it’s humor and characters conform nicely to modern tastes.

after that, the world is your oyster! emma is probably the place to go for fans of literary fiction, she’s a similarly sparkling heroine to elizabeth bennet, but she asks more from the reader in terms of likability. if you’re going that route, i’d follow with mansfield park for a change of pace; just as cerebral as emma, but with a heroine who’s challenging for her reluctance to speak instead of her outspokenness.

if you like genre novels (horror or gothic, in particular!) i’d say northanger abbey the best place to go next. it’s a satire of gothic novels written when austen was very young, and utilizes the conventions of the genre to great effect! there’s a youthful energy to it, both from the author and the protagonist, that makes it a fascinating and lighthearted read.

if you want something a bit more grown-up than pride and prejudice, i’d say to follow with persuasion. it’s my personal favorite, and a meditation on living with a choice you deeply regret. it’s also her last novel, and so has the benefit of forty years worth of discovering how to write.

finally, if pride and prejudice was exactly your cup of tea, i’d say to follow it with sense and sensibility! it’s probably the second most commercially attractive novel, but one that i never really connected with. you can get equal enjoyment reading it as a novel about sisters, or one interrogating the practicality of two separate philosophies as they manifest in these young women.

and then there’s her juvenilia, and the unfinished novels, and so many wonderful things, but those can wait until you’ve tried the published novels! i hope you find a good starting point, and i’m a bit envious that you get to experience austen for the first time! have so much fun!