(1) The best preparation will be to read as many of the novels as possible in advance of the module. Recommended editions are the New Penguin Jane Austen series as listed below. This is because the introductions and notes are excellent, and the paperbacks can be purchased cheaply (in the region of £3) from second-hand outlets such as abebooks.co.uk, or borrowed from QM Library. 

(There are many other satisfactory editions, the best alternatives being those published by Norton and Oxford University Press; those published by e.g. Wordsworth Classics, may also be ok, but are unlikely to have useful explanatory notes.)  

• Northanger Abbey, edited by Marilyn Butler (1995)

• Sense and Sensibility, edited by Ros Ballaster (1995)

• Pride and Prejudice, edited by Vivien Jones (1996)

• Mansfield Park, edited by Kathryn Sutherland (1996)

• Emma, edited by Fiona Stafford (1996)

• Persuasion, edited by Gillian Beer (1998)

(2) There is a great deal of critical literature on Jane Austen. Here are just three recommendations to begin with:

• Janet Todd (ed), Jane Austen in Context (2006). In the QMUL Library - shelfmark: PR4037 JAN

• Tom Keymer, Jane Austen: A Very Short Introduction (2022). You can read this online via the QM Library  by accessing the database 'Oxford Very Short Introductions'

• Mary Lascelles, Jane Austen and Her Art (Oxford, 1939, 1995): the classic study of Jane Austen’s style. There are copies in the QM Library and it is also available as an e-book online, for example on archive.org.