The Juvenilia: Short, hilarious vignettes, literary parodies, and novellas written c. 1787-1793, when Austen was between the ages of eleven and eighteen. Best-known are the epistolary novella “Love and Freindship,” the parodic “History of England,” and the ambitious, unfinished “Catharine, or the Bower.”

 

Lady Susan: Epistolary novella, mostly written c. 1794 but unpublished until decades after Austen’s death.

 

The Watsons: Novel fragment, probably begun in Bath, c. 1804-1805, but never finished.

 

Sense and Sensibility (1811): Austen’s first published work, based on Elinor and Marianne,  an epistolary novel probably written more than fifteen years earlier.

 

Pride and Prejudice (1813): Austen’s most famous and popular work, based on First Impressions, another early novel.

 

Mansfield Park (1814): Problematic novel that tends to be among Austen’s least popular, perhaps because it features one of her most controversial heroines, virtuous Fanny Price.

 

Emma (1816): Polished, accomplished work dedicated (at his request) to England’s Prince Regent, the future George IV.

 

Northanger Abbey (1818): Based on Susan, an early novel bought by a publisher in 1803 but left unpublished until 1816, when Austen bought it back.  Finally published months after Austen’s death.

 

Persuasion (1818): Austen’s last completed novel, published with Northanger Abbey months after her death.

 

Sanditon: Unfinished novel that Austen was working on when her final illness overtook her.

 

Letters: About 160 of Austen’s letters survive, most written to her older sister, Cassandra.