Book Review: Lady Susan

I admit that I am a fan of Jane Austen but somehow had never read her epistolary novella, Lady Susan. Written in 1871 with only 180 pages, this books qualifies for the "novella" category in my Back to the Classics Challenge. Lady Susan is as unprincipled of a character as I've ever met. Vain, avaricious, and cunning, she will balk at nothing to get what she wants. Although, I didn't feel as attached to the characters as in Austen's longer novels, I did find myself caring about what was going to happen to Lady Susan's various "victims" and hoping that virtue would win out.

Trying to write a story purely through letters and notes is a challenge. In Austen's day, letter writing was a common form of communication, so these letters don't feel like they're stretching too much to tell the story. Even Austen, however, couldn't quite figure out how to wrap everything up in this fashion and attached an epilogue to let us know how everyone fares in the end.

This story lacks the laugh out loud moments, I deeply prize in Austen's other works. It is not so poignant nor witty. From her other books, I know that Austen must have carefully studied human character and interactions. She portrays the character of Lady Susan amazingly well, giving us insights into her motives and her lack of remorse. Though it's certainly not a favorite of mine, I believe any Austen fan would enjoy a few evenings reading Lady Susan.