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catherine_t 's review for:
Love and Friendship: And Other Youthful Writings
by Jane Austen
This edition collects Jane Austen's three volumes of juvenilia, works written when she was just what we moderns would classify as a teenager, into a single book. Most are short, many are unfinished, but they all showcase Austen's talent for satire and parody. Also included is Lady Susan, which is more often classed with Austen's later, unfinished novels The Watsons and Sanditon, but which editor Christine Alexander believes more properly belongs with the early writings of Austen's youth.
I'd been aware of Austen's juvenilia, of course, but had never come across it in published form. In fact, I'd rather dismissed it as something that Austen scholars read and wrote papers on, and since scholarly works are no longer in my bailiwick, I ignored it. But having read all the "proper" novels at least once, I felt, in my "year of Austen," I should acquire a copy, if possible. I'm so pleased that I did! There's a sprightliness to the young Austen, a sense of winking at her audience (who were likely her family), that, while not exactly missing from the mature works, is certainly subtler there. The reader can see her playing with the conventions of the novel, such as they were then, subverting expectations even then and creating female characters not of their own time, but of all time.
It was a joy to read these, and especially Lady Susan, which, compared to her later works and characters, is practically scandalous. I recommend this edition to anyone with a love of Jane Austen.
I'd been aware of Austen's juvenilia, of course, but had never come across it in published form. In fact, I'd rather dismissed it as something that Austen scholars read and wrote papers on, and since scholarly works are no longer in my bailiwick, I ignored it. But having read all the "proper" novels at least once, I felt, in my "year of Austen," I should acquire a copy, if possible. I'm so pleased that I did! There's a sprightliness to the young Austen, a sense of winking at her audience (who were likely her family), that, while not exactly missing from the mature works, is certainly subtler there. The reader can see her playing with the conventions of the novel, such as they were then, subverting expectations even then and creating female characters not of their own time, but of all time.
It was a joy to read these, and especially Lady Susan, which, compared to her later works and characters, is practically scandalous. I recommend this edition to anyone with a love of Jane Austen.