I'm hesitating between P&P and Emma, and perhaps it would only be fair to reread S&S before ruling it out. Pride and Prejudice is understandably the most popular and enduring of the lot, but I like Emma's more impetuous and more obviously flawed character as well.

After P&P and Emma, I'll go with either S&S (I'd have to reread) or Persuasion, which are both quite solid novels with well-written heroines, but didn't impress me quite as much. I'd argue their male leads aren't as good characters, as well. Then Northanger Abbey, which does have easily the funniest moments in any of the novels and many of the best lines, but the ending was quite weak, and I felt more could have been done with Isabella. Dead last, Mansfield Park, on account of the preachiness and Fanny Price being perhaps the least interesting of the heroines even if not for the preaching about how she's so much more virtuous than Mary Crawford.

Mostly deserved, but a tad exaggerated perhaps.

Lizzie Bennet or Emma. Least favourite is probably Mr. Woodhouse or General Tilney (for being such a boring villain).

I liked the Emma with Romola Garai, but then I like Romola Garai in anything so maybe that's not saying much (part of her genius is just getting all the great roles in adaptations of great books - Amelia Sedley in Vanity Fair, Emma in Emma, Sugar in The Crimson Petal and the White, and then her role in The Hour).

And I have to admit that ITV's "Lost in Austen" was also kind of a guilty pleasure.

Not a big fan, the glance I took at P&P with Zombies didn't impress me much, but for the reasons I explained in my reply to Nate, I might be inclined to read the "Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons" by Vera Nazarian.

Austen does have a keen sense of observation, is very witty at times and there is a certain timelessness to her moral judgements - even modern readers who would radically disagree on many of the things held as self-evident by Austen's characters and ostensibly the author herself, can still find themselves strongly sympathizing with her in her rejection of hypocrisy, pretentiousness and selfish disregard for others. But all the same, I'm inclined to say there's a factor of sheer coincidence to it - there are surely authors with as valid a claim to the regard of posterity, who don't receive a tenth of the attention.

It's hard to say. Mansfield Park is certainly evidence for the former view, but for the most part Austen's moral condemnation is for different kinds of failings, which translate better to our own standards. She never goes out of her way (that I can recall) to defend characters who have really transgressed against the conservative norms of society, the way that e.g. Thomas Hardy does (much later, I should add), but there's something about her moral observations that give one the feeling that she could on some level sympathize. And after all, while she's not exactly kind to Lydia, she concludes her plotline in a quite positive manner all things considered - one gets the idea that while Lydia and Wickham may regret what happened, they do get along well enough to be reasonably happy.

I'll leave that to others, I've probably spammed this thread enough for now...