Love And Freindship And Other Early Works [Paperback]

Jane Austen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2008

LOVE AND FREINDSHIP - 1922 - PREFACE - IN a recent newspaper controversy about the conventional silliness and sameness of all the human generations previous to our own, somebody said that in the world of Jane Austen a lady was expected to faint when she received a proposal. To those who happen to have read any of the works of Jane Austen, the connection of ideas will appear slightly comic. Elizabeth Bennett, for instance, received two proposals from two very confident and even masterful admirers and she certainly did not faint. It would be nearer the truth to say that they did. But in any case it may be amusing to those who are thus amused, and perhaps even instructive to those who thus need to be instructed, to know that the earliest work of Jane Austen, here published for the first time, might be called a satire on the fable of the fainting lady. Beware of fainting fits . . . though at times they may be refreshing and agreable yet believe me they will in the end, if too often repeated and at improper seasons, prove destructive to your Constitution. Such were the words of the expiring Sophia to the afflicted Laura and there are modern critics capable of adducing them as a proof that all society was in a swoon in the first decade of the nineteenth century. But in truth it is the whole point of this little skit that the swoon of sensibility is not satirised because it was a fact, even in the sense of a fashion, but satirised solely because it was fiction. Laura and Sophia are made ludicrously. unlike life by being made to faint as real ladies do not faint. Those ingenious moderns, who say that the real ladies did faint, are actually being taken in by Laura and Sophia, and believing them against Jane Austen. They are believing, not the people of the period but the most nonsensical novels of the period, which even the people of the period who read them did not believe. They have swallowed all the solemnities of the Mysteries of Udolpho, and never even seen the joke of Northanger Abbey. For if these juvenilia of Jane Austen anticipate especially any of her after works, they certainly anticipate the satiric side of Northanger Abbey. O1f their considerable significance on that side something may be said presently but it will be well to preface it by a word about the works themselves as items of literary history. Everyone knows that the novelist left an unfinished fragment, since published under the name of The Watsoris, and a finished story called Lady Susan, in letters, which she had . . herself appar-Vlll ently decided not to publish. These preferences are all prejudices, in the sense of matters of unnanageable taste but I confess I think it a strange historical accident that things so comparatively dull as Lady Susan should have been printed already, whiile things so comparatively lively as Love and Freindship should never have been printed until now. It is at least a curiosity of literature that such curiosities of literature should have been almost accidently concealed. Doubtless it was very rightly felt that we may go much too far in the way of emptying the wastepaper basket of a genius on the head of the public and that there is a sense in which the wastepaper basket is as sacred as the grave...

Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: Read Books (January 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1408618400
• ISBN-13: 978-1408618400
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,933,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Peek Into Austen's Early Writing, March 9, 2010

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JAScribbles "Kindle is charged and ready!" (Near Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Love and Friendship (Kindle Edition)

When this ebook was first loaded, the title was listed as - "Love and Freindship". The preface to this work stated they had not corrected the spelling, punctuation or odd capitalization Austen used in these pieces. I have been told the `i before e' rule was not in place during her time. I am not sure if this is true. She also spells - greif and beleif as such.

This is a great collection of the early writings of Jane Austen. As a writer I LOVED reading her rough ramblings. She played with plot lines and character traits. So this title is not so much a full story but many snippets of ideas or writing practice. Many of the shorts contained are rough and unpolished.

The first section of Love and Friendship is a funny, rambling tale told through letters. Imagine what a soap opera written by Austen would be like and you'll have it. Once you've read this collection I suggest you try Lady Susan. That one is equally as fun.

Love and Friendship is a peek into the working mind of a classic author. We rarely get this opportunity and I encourage you to give these samples a read.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The youthful start of a great writer..., January 31, 2011

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Angela Wolf "bookangel" (Hamburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love and Freindship [sic] (Paperback)

This was...cute. And clever. A collection of the early works of Jane Austen. The Austen fan can see Jane's sharp wit and sense of humor right off the bat. These writings are immature, but impressive for her age. Occasionally the reader catches glimpses of settings or characters that are later used in Austen's 'great' novels.

Recommended only for Jane Austen's loyal readers.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for Austen Completists, But Consider a Different Edition, December 30, 2010

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Joseph "jck09" (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love and Freindship [sic] (Paperback)

This is an early Jane Austen work, written when she was a teenager and unpublished during her lifetime. It's not a great story, but is a good read for serious Austen fans - you can see her experimenting with the ideas and techniques that she would later use to better effect. The book is a romance told in a series of letters, but mocks many of the conventions of romances.

My main complaint about this particular edition is the typesetting, which is done with unappealing and difficult to read block print. If you're interested, I would recommend that you start with the (free) Kindle version, or look at Love and Freindship: And Other Early Works of Jane Austen (Classic Reprint), which looks like it was typeset more appealingly.