Review by pbraue13 - Love and Friendship: And Other Youthful Writings

pbraue13 's review for:

Love and Friendship: And Other Youthful Writings by Jane Austen

3.0

funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint—”

Love and Freindship and Other Youthful Writings - Jane Austen

This is a fitting way to mark Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, a celebration of her juvenilia that shows both the brilliance and the rough edges of a young genius at work. These stories, written mostly in Austen’s late teens and early twenties, are a mix of the astonishing and the rough. Rough for their spelling and lack of subtlety, but astonishing for the sheer confidence, volume, and satirical edge of a writer not yet out of girlhood.

The famous "History of England" is perhaps Austen at her most silly, dismissing Elizabeth I with gleeful disdain while poking fun at the whole idea of “serious” history (promising to be a "prejudiced and ignorant historian"). It’s hilarious and revealing, Austen as comedian-in-chief of her family. In fact, much of the collection is laugh-out-loud funny: people forget whom they are married to, faint at every inconvenience, get caught in carriage accidents, commit murders, and dabble in adultery. This is Austen at her most salacious, scandalous, and action-packed—a far cry from the polite restraint of "Pride and Prejudice".

And yet, under all the absurdity and laughter, you can detect a seriousness. Even in these wild tales, Austen is already observing human folly, testing her powers of satire, and learning how to ridicule the vanities of her characters. These early commentaries on romance and the silly expectations of young women are the seeds of "Northanger Abbey", while names like Elinor, Marianne, and Dashwood hint at the "Sense and Sensibility" to come.

What makes this collection fascinating is the glimpse it gives into Austen’s development. Here she says outright what, in her mature works, she would learn to imply so mischievously. Her family was reluctant to publish these youthful writings because of their vulgarity—drunkenness, bawdy jokes, and impropriety abound—but this only highlights how polished her later work became. The wit, slyness, and control we admire in her great novels were all forged in these early experiments.

For the true Janeites, "Love and Freindship" is a treasure: scandalous, ridiculous, and full of laughter, but also the clearest evidence that Austen’s genius did not spring fully formed. It was earned through practice, through entertaining her family, through embracing both silliness and satire. These stories are a beacon of hope to young writers everywhere, showing that even the greatest had to start somewhere.

Content Warnings