Jane Austen is beloved for good reason. Her witty novels never lose their incisiveness, no matter how many years pass since they were written. (Currently at 200 years and counting.)
From the classic will-they-won’t-they of Pride and Prejudice to the romping adventure of Emma, we can’t get away from the presence of Jane Austen in our lives and media landscape. (Netflix announced another adaptation of Pride and Prejudice coming in 2026, joining the ranks of the 2005 movie starring Keira Knightley and the much-loved BBC mini series from 1995.)
For those avid readers looking for more books like Jane Austen outside her canon of novels, look no further. Here are a few of our favorite similar authors to Jane Austen and how they stack up to the queen of dramedy herself. Maybe we’ll see one of these adapted in the future, to join the newest adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that we’re getting soon?
For the Plot: Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)
A hundred years after Jane Austen, Dodie Smith was trying to make her way as an actress in London, looking for opportunities on the stage. Instead, she found her success on the page. Her best-known work is for children, The One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but she also wrote nine novels for adults, including I Capture the Castle, which we’ve recommended before, and The Town in Bloom, another classic. Her books don’t sit in the reserved culture of Regency-era England but push at the boundaries of 1930’s London and the heightened drama that was more common to talk about at that time. (Yes, her characters sometimes have sex.) But the realness of her characters matches Jane Austen, with people you feel you’ve always known and choices you love to watch them make, for better or worse.
For the Romance: L. M. Montgomery (The Blue Castle)
She’s famous for Anne of Green Gables, but L. M. Montgomery also gave us so much more. If you’re looking for Jane Austen’s enchanting relationships, the dynamic tension between love interests that permeates books like Pride and Prejudice, try The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery, a fan favorite for nearly one hundred years.
For the Insight: E. M. Forster (Howards End)
If you’re looking for a book that leaves you nostalgic for worlds that aren’t yours, try reading Howards End from E. M. Forster. With an eye for human observation like Austen, Forster taps into similar themes, examining how time and place shape us as we get older. Do we gain wisdom or find ourselves brittle to the world around us?
For the Humor: Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
For the mayhem and mishaps and all the comedy that goes along with them, the works of Oscar Wilde sit alongside our favorite novels of Jane Austen. If you’re looking for a good place to find his humor, Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest has pithy one-liners and characters tangled up in each other’s lives, akin to the best Austen books.
For the Themes: Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South)
Coming just over forty years after Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Gaskell is thought to have written North and South with Austen’s classic in mind. The book looks at the social strain between England’s rural south and industrialized north, through the story of Margaret Hale, a young woman who must find her footing in her adult life amid these tensions.
Find more great books on writing in our Bookshop store. This post includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org. By purchasing using these links, you are supporting Penny Magic. Or, consider finding your local bookstore on Bookshop.org and shopping with them!