Lady Susan
Lady Susan Vernon is beautiful, recently widowed, and the most accomplished flirt in England. Jane Austen's wicked, witty early novel, told entirely in letters. By Jane Austen (1871). A public-domain classic.
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How it begins Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. Vernon.Langford, Dec. Keep reading →About this story
Lady Susan Vernon is beautiful, recently widowed, and the most accomplished flirt in England. She goes to stay with her brother-in-law’s family, and tries, with great skill, to manage everyone’s lives, including her daughter’s. The story is told entirely in letters.
Jane Austen wrote it in the 1790s, when she was a young woman, but it was not published until 1871, long after her death. It is her sharpest and most unsentimental work, and Lady Susan is unlike any of her other heroines: clever, selfish, and not at all sorry.
- Themes
- Manipulation, wit, women and money, a villain as heroine
- Good for
- Austen readers who want something sharper; a short novel told in letters
- Worth noticing
- How the letters Lady Susan writes to her friend differ from the ones she writes to others.
