Lady Susan

Written in the then fashionable style form of letters between the characters in the book, Jane Austen tells the story of the beautiful widow Lady Susan. Lady Susan has an eye toward re-marrying well, and marrying off her teenage daughter. To achieve her objectives, she spins a tale of Victorian humor and manipulation. In the end, she outsmarts even herself.Jane Austen’s earliest known serious work, Lady Susan is a short, epistolary novel that portrays a woman bent on the exercise of her own powerful mind and personality to the point of social self-destruction.Lady Susan, a clever and ruthless widow, determines that her daughter is going to marry a man whom both detest. She sets her own sights on her sister-in-law’s brother, all the while keeping an old affair simmering on the back burner. But people refuse to play the roles assigned them. In the end, her daughter gets the sister-in-law’s brother, the old affair runs out of steam, and all that is left for Lady Susan is the man intended for her daughter, whom neither can abide.Told through a series of letters between the characters, the work concludes abruptly with the comment: “this correspondence…could not, to the great detriment of the Post Office revenue, be continued any longer.”The Letters:Letter 01: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. VernonLetter 02: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 03: Lady Susan Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 04: Mr. de Courcy to Mrs. VernonLetter 05: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 06: Mrs. Vernon to Mr. de CourcyLetter 07: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 08: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 09: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan VernonLetter 10: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 11: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 12: Sir Reginald de Courcy to His SonLetter 13: Lady de Courcy to Mrs. VernonLetter 14: Mr. de Courcy to Sir ReginaldLetter 15: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 16: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 17: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 18: From the Same to the SameLetter 19: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 20: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 21: Miss Vernon to Mr. de CourcyLetter 22: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 23: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 24: From the Same to the SameLetter 25: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 26: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan VernonLetter 27: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyLetter 28: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan VernonLetter 29: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 30: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. de CourcyLetter 31: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 32: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan VernonLetter 33: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 34: Mr. de Courcy to Lady Susan VernonLetter 35: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. de CourcyLetter 36: Mr. de Courcy to Lady Susan VernonLetter 37: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. de CourcyLetter 38: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan VernonLetter 39: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. JohnsonLetter 40: Lady de Courcy to Mrs. VernonLetter 41: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de CourcyConclusion