The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen/Volume 11

by Jane Austen

Layout 2

THE NOVELS AND LETTERS OF

JANE AUSTEN

Edited by

REGINALD BRIMLEY JOHNSON

with an Introduction by

WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, Ph.D.

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Complete in Twelve Volumes

THE NOVELS AND LETTERS OF

JANE AUSTEN

Edited by

REGINALD BRIMLEY JOHNSON

with an Introduction by

WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, Ph.D.

---

Complete in Twelve Volumes

The Old Manor House Steventon Hants

THE NOVELS AND LETTERS OF

JANE AUSTEN

Edited by
R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON
with an Introduction by
PROF. WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, Ph. D.
Lampson Professor of English Literature,
Yale University.

LADY SUSAN

THE WATSONS

LETTERS OF JANE AUSTEN

Part I

With Colored Illustrations by
C.E. and H.M. BROCK

The House in Hans Place, London.

FRANK S. HOLBY
NEW YORKPHILADELPHIA
MCMVI

Prefaces
to
Lady Susan and the Watsons
Copyrighted 1906
by
FRANK S. HOLBY

ILLUSTRATIONS
 

The Old Manor House Steventon Hants		Frontispiece
		page
Jane Austen, after an original family portrait		viii
Home in Winchester where Jane Austen died, from a photograph by Mrs. Wm. Lyon Philps, September, 1900		108
North Aisle of Winchester Cathedral; Burial Place of Jane Austen		196

PREFACE

Jane Austen left two incomplete novels, “Lady Susan” and “The Watsons.” Miss Austen did not give “Lady Susan” to the world and would have earnestly deprecated its publication. Before her death she removed from Chawton to Winchester for medical advice, leaving her papers in Chawton, so that she could hardly have had an opportunity in her last moments of destroying those papers she did not intend should see the light.

“Lady Susan” is a novelette in the form of letters. The date of its having been written is not known, but it is believed to have been a very early production. It is a mere exercise, which, when her taste had improved, was laid aside. It is complete after a fashion. The story, which it briefly and not very clearly tells, is that of a worthless, though clever and fascinating, woman who carries on two love intrigues at once, one with a married man, while in the case of the other she is eventually supplanted in her lover’s affections by her own daughter. All this time she is cruelly ill-treating her daughter and trying to force upon her a husband whom she hates. In the end her two intrigues clash and are wrecked in the collision. “Lady Susan” ultimately takes herself up by marrying the man she intended her daughter to marry. Her daughter marries the man her mother hoped to secure for herself. The plot is worthy of a French novel. Although the theme is to a degree repulsive, the reader feels that the writer has a moral reason in showing deceit captured in its own snare. The coldness of the narrative precludes any imputation against the extreme respectability of the author. Being merely an exercise, the characters are little better than lay figures, but are described with that minute observation, shrewd sagacity and insight that the author devotes to all of her sternly practical heroes and heroines.

“Sense and Sensibility,” like “Lady Susan,” was at first composed in the form of letters. Jane Austen was doubtless following the example of Richardson, whom she regarded with unbounded admiration. One of the defects of this method, in addition to its awkwardness for narration, is illustrated by “Lady Susan,” in which the wicked woman is made to write letters revealing her own character and designs with an openness which, under a paternal government, might get her into trouble.

Contents (not listed in original)

• Lady Susan
• The Watsons
• Letters of Jane Austen, Part I