Love and Friendship - Jane Austen (Cranford Classics)

Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: A Hilarious Satire of Sensibility

For enthusiasts of classic literature, Jane Austen's Love and Friendship offers a refreshingly witty and satirical departure from her more renowned novels. Written in 1790 when Austen was just fourteen, this epistolary novel, a collection of letters, showcases her precocious talent for social commentary and parody. It's an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the development of Austen's literary genius and her lifelong critique of eighteenth-century sentimental fiction.

The novella unfolds through fifteen letters penned by the protagonist, Laura, to Marianne. Laura recounts her melodramatic adventures and "misfortunes" with an air of exaggerated sensibility, a popular literary trend Austen gleefully dismantles. This juvenilia work is a brilliant mockery of the overwrought emotions, instant affections, and improbable coincidences that characterised many contemporary romance novels.

At its core, Love and Friendship is a sharp satire on sensibility. Austen highlights the absurdity of characters who prioritise intense, often superficial, emotional reactions over reason, practicality, and moral conduct. Laura and her companion, Sophia, frequently indulge in fainting fits and bouts of hysterics at every turn of misfortune, no matter how trivial. This exaggerated display of emotion serves as a direct critique of heroines who believed "feeling deeply" was synonymous with virtue.

Hardback - New