Lady Susan - Jane Austen
One of her lesser known works, Lady Susan was never truly completed and never published in Austen's lifetime. It is a little choppy compared to some of the author's other novels but remains interesting because of the title character.
Lady Susan Vernon is almost entirely unlike any other 19th century heroine I've come across. Indeed she really falls into the category of anti heroine because as opposed to the wilting, helpless maidens of contemporary gothic novels like Radcliffe's, the virtuous Pamela of Richardson, or even Austen's other sprightly heroines, Lady Susan is an absolute minx!
The novel, which is written in the epistolary style popular at the end of the 18th century, introduces us to Lady Susan (a woman between 30 and 40 who is considered extremely beautiful, clever, and charming) who is obliged to leave the area she has been staying in because of a scandalous flirtation with two men simultaneously (one of them married). She is trying to force her only child, a daughter named Frederica, into marriage with a rich nincompoop (with one of her own former admirers) and because of Frederica's continued refusal has packed the girl off to London to a boarding school she hates so that she may learn to be more agreeable towards the match. Meanwhile, Susan descends upon her in-laws since she has no money of her own to live on.
There she immediately snares her sister-in-law's much younger brother Reginald in her web, while still leading on her married admirer, and promoting Frederica to the idiot Sir James. The only character who can see past her deceit is her sister-in-law, Catherine Vernon, who tries to protect her pitiful niece, open her brother's eyes to his danger, and warn her extended family of the possibility of Susan adding herself to their ranks. Eventually, on a trip to London, Reginald and Mr. Manwarring (her married lover) both visit her at the same time and the game is up! Her wicked, selfish deeds regarding her own bad behavior and her cruelty towards her daughter are revealed.
The ending is not very well edited, and it seemed to me as if it had not been properly finished, but everyone ends up well. More or less. Frederica eventually goes to live with her aunt and uncle and marries Reginald, when he has recovered from being in love with her mother, and Lady Susan remarries...to Sir James. The bumbling fool she had tried to foist upon her daughter.
Dangerously, you almost find yourself liking Lady Susan. She wants comfort and stability, but not at the expense of her own freedom. And though her motives are purely selfish and often cruel, she is so good at being bad! She even ends well, most adulterous characters of this age died in a poorhouse, contracted smallpox/syphilis, or at the very least were cast out of polite society never to be heard from again. But Lady Susan survives and, one gets the feeling, absolutely never amends her ways.
This book is obviously not great literature, but it's a quick read and a good way to round off Jane Austen's writings.
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