Who would you choose - Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters?

[minniemouse91]

Don't get me wrong, I love Jane Austen. But while both her characters and plots are excellent, I struggle with her writing style. It just doesn't hold my attention like the Bronte sisters' styles do. So while I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen in general, I have to say that the Bronte sisters win in the end. When I read a Bronte book, I (almost literally) cannot put it down, while an Austen book may take me weeks to read. The Brontes have the perfect mix of the three components that are most important in a book: excellent style + compelling plot + stellar characters.

[Olivia Parker]

Good question but probably the Bronte sisters. Jane Eyre is incredible. The Bronte sisters offer a certain insight that I enjoy reading about and experiencing.

[Allerdale]

I've picked up a few of Austen's books. Like previous posters already said, her style is just so conventional. Personally I don't enjoy stories revolving around gossip, balls, wit, and everyday life. She has some strong characters like Mr. Darcy and Eyre (I can stand her sometimes), but they're always surrounded by a sea of unremarkable ones.

My biggest gripe with Austen is that her books are so long but you can't say what happened of importance. If filler would be taken out, I might enjoy her works more.

The Brontë sisters on the other hand do something different with their work. They create breathing characters with incredibly human struggles surrounded by an atmosphere of constant suspense. They too have some paragraphs of filler, but they weave the signatures of Gothic Romance into those too, which carry you through without minding them being there.

I say Brontë sisters by far. I suppose I'm prejudiced though; gothic romantice is my favorite genre (pun intended).

[Eleanoroshea]

It has to be the Brontë sisters for me-members of the stormy sisterhood!

[P_hernandez]

I'd choose the Bronte sisters. Jane Austen seems like the popular, cool girl everyone is dying to hang out with and experience. But I like a darker sort of person. I like someone on the outskirts with a bit of an abismal, realistic outlook on life. Both authors represent a very important aspect of love.

[Colleen8868]

Jane Austen. I tried to read Wuthering Heights and just couldn't finish it. I feel I relate more to Austen .

[Beauty and the Books]

I enjoy and love reading both Jane Austen and the Bontë Sisters. I like their writing and I like the settings of the books and I often wonder what it would be like to live like a character in one of her books. I think that if I had to choose between the two, I would pick Jane Austen. Before I was really old enough to read Jane Austen's books and fully understand them, I watched the movies based on them with my mom. Now it's something we continue to share and once I was old enough to comprehend her books, I read them and loved them even more than the movies. I think I would mainly pick Jane Austen because she's who I read first and I like the wit that each of her characters have and I still chuckle when I re-read them.

[Sakuko]

I'd probably choose Jane Austen.
I like Anne and Charlotte Brontes work well enough, but I can't stand Wuthering Heights. But I feel the Brontes are a bit... melodramatic I guess, at times, and I feel some of their books are just not very memorable, while I like pretty much everything of Austen.

[anapessoa]

I would say Charlotte Brontë. The other two I don't like so much. But I like Charlotte a lot, much more than I like Jane Austen, although I have enjoyed reading Jane Austen.

[dprice811]

Jane Austen is easier to read for sure, though her subject matter is lighter and may lack the depth of the Brontes. I have always appreciated the complexity of Jane Eyre, but had a hard time getting into Wuthering Heights. As a younger person, I preferred the drama of the Brontes, but I think now that I am older, I would rather read for entertainment and Jane Austen has a way of entertaining without sacrificing wit. Her characters are colorful and distinct without half the torture of the Brontes but I think I prefer that nowadays.

[Opheliasyndrome]

Bronte sisters for sure.
(My favorite book of all time is Jane Eyre)
Especially Charlotte Bronte, she gives a darker element to her stories that I've never felt from an Austen novel. It's as if Charlotte Bronte delves into the world in almost a gritty way, showing true pain and hardship. She does this but she uses it to add a dimension of feeling and involvement in her novels that keep me coming back to re-experience the intense emotion. Jane Austen novels are very light and quite surface level. Don't get me wrong, I adore Pride and Prejudice but it is very much social drama accompanied by excessive letter writing as well as winning and dinning.

That being said, I do enjoy the way Austen constructs her dialogue and character interactions. It all flows very naturally for me. She just doesn't construct settings and emotion in the way that the Bronte sisters can do.

In the end I would say that the Bronte sisters are more of a Dark Knight batman film and Jane Austen creates more of an Adam West vibe.

Is that a ridiculous comparison?
Maybe, but I'm sticking with it.

[barb429]

I haven't read either in years, but I always enjoyed the Bronte sisters more than Jane Austen. Growing up I loved both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

[Sarah_Khan]

Although Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite books, I would choose Jane Austen because I enjoyed almost all of her books compared to reading Wuthering Heights twice and disliking it both times. I also have read Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and while I enjoyed reading them, they weren't as good as some of Jane Austen's novels. And Agnes Grey was a chore to get through.

[TheresaL]

Jane Austen! Pride and Predujice is my favorite! Both the book and the movies, although after seeing several versions of the movie my favorite is definitely the one with Colin Firth!

[lolashoes]

Bronte sisters i think. I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice but Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have a special place in my heart. I just love everything about both Bronte sisters' stories.