Love and Freindship: And Other Youthful Writings

‘They flew into each other’s arms – It was too pathetic for the feelings of Sophia and myself – We fainted Alternately on a Sofa’

This sparkling collection of Austen’s early writings – some penned when she was just eleven years old – is playful, subversive and shot through with wit. Here are bawdy sketches, short tales, imagined letters and miniature histories in which vain, egotistical men forget their own wives, drunken young women slander and poison their competition, and one woman accepts two marriage proposals for fear of causing offence. Also featured is the novella ‘Lady Susan’, telling of an adulterous aristocrat who manipulates and deceives those around her for personal gain. Delighting in nonsense and wordplay, these riotous pieces reveal Austen’s dark, anarchic young imagination.

Edited and with an introduction and notes by Christine Alexander