Re-Reading Classics: "Lady Susan" by Jane Austen

In my early 20s, I read all of Jane Austen’s novels. In the years since then, however, I’ve only re-read two: Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. The other day, sort of on a whim, I picked up Austen’s Lady Susan on audio book. I am ashamed to say that I remembered nothing of the plot or the general structure of the novel. In fact, I was surprised and intrigued to discover that it is an epistolary novel, i.e. written entirely in the form of letters.

What struck me in particular was how dark the novel was compared to her other works. To be sure, in many Austen’s novels some of the characters are not nice people. Take George Wickham or Caroline Bingley for example in Pride and Prejudice! However, such unpleasant characters are mostly employed by Austen as background personalities and are there to expose human weaknesses, flaws, to create conflict in the plot and to nicely contrast with the main heroes of the story.

Not so in Lady Susan. The title character, Susan Vernon is in every sense a manipulative, selfish and highly unlikable creature. She spins lies and makes up schemes with little regard for anyone’s feelings or happiness other than her own. She is a terrible mother, a heartless sister-in-law, and an ungrateful house guest. I am not even mentioning the ease with which she breaks men’s hearts and even marriages. She also remains unremorseful in her actions and considers herself to be fully justified in taking advantage of other people and selfishly using them for her purposes.

I also really liked the format of the novel. It was fun to read the story through the eyes of various characters as they corresponded with each other. After reading this novel, I am now inspired to start re-reading all of Austen’s works just to see what else I’ve forgotten. My guess would be a lot! Five out of five stars. A short but very powerful read.