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    Lady Susan
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    Lady Susan
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    Lady Susan
    Audiobook2 hours

    Lady Susan

    Written by Jane Austen

    Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Lady Susan is a short, epistolary novel by Jane Austen. Lady Susan Vernon is a selfish, attractive, and unscrupulous woman, who tries to trap the best possible husband while maintaining a relationship with a married man. As a widow, she seeks a match for herself, as well as husband-hunting for her daughter. Lady Susan is not only beautiful but intelligent and witty; she's highly attractive to men and her suitors are always significantly younger. Inspired by Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and written in a similar form, Lady Susan is one of Jane Austen's earliest finished works. In it, she reveals all the caustic wit and brilliant social satire of her later novellas.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateJan 17, 2017
    ISBN9781520064130
    Author

    Jane Austen

    Jane Austen was born in 1775 in rural Hampshire, the daughter of an affluent village rector who encouraged her in her artistic pursuits. In novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma she developed her subtle analysis of contemporary life through depictions of the middle-classes in small towns. Her sharp wit and incisive portraits of ordinary people have given her novels enduring popularity. She died in 1817.

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    Reviews for Lady Susan

    3.5/5

    530 ratings53 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Lady Susan, widow of Frederic Vernon, invites herself to Churchill, where his brother's family live (having overstayed her welcome with friends at Langford), stating that she looks forward to meeting his wife and children for the first time. (Six years earlier, when Frederick Vernon was forced to sell Vernon Castle, she refused to let Charles Vernon buy the family estate, as he was then courting Miss de Courcy. For unspecified reasons, Lady Susan vehemently opposed the match, though she has yet to meet the lady as the novel opens.) Reginald de Courcy, Mrs Vernon's brother, has heard about Lady Susan's sojourn at Langford and decides to visit Churchill to meet this marvel, "the most accomplished coquette in England". As events unfold, Mrs Vernon observes Lady Susan's behaviour and attempts to mitigate it, within the boundaries of the established manners of the time.This is quite a short book, written in epistolary form. Far from being the usual Jane Austen heroine of a young lady 'in need of a husband', Lady Susan of the title is no longer young (approximately 35 years old), being a widow of seven months when we read her first letter, and with a sixteen year old daughter, Frederica. Lady Susan is actually the villainess of the piece, manipulating people for no other apparent reason than her own amusement.The letters we read form the correspondence between different parties (Mrs Vernon with her mother, Lady de Courcy; Lady Susan with her friend in London, Mrs Johnson and so on), so we see the story unfold from different points of view, with varying amounts of sensibility.Though we never meet any of the characters face to face, we get to see them from the inside (including Lady S). We can see, both from letters about her as well as letters from her, that Lady Susan only befriends people to use them, but it is interesting to watch how people's attitudes to her change as she bestows or withdraws her regard (even the sceptical Mrs Vernon); and to watch her calculating that effect.An interesting, captivating book (as I find all Jane Austens), though short. Even though this was an early effort, she really captures the essence of each character through what is written or omitted, and she can tell a whole story with just a sentence dropped in passing.On a personal note, although I've read all her major works, this is the first time I read this Austen. It's nice to come to it fresh, though I will be re-reading it in future, now I've found a copy. I read [Lady Susan] in two sittings. The first time, I found it hard to get into the flow of reading the epistolary form, and felt a bit detached from the characters (possibly because there was no 'action'). However, when I came back to read the second half the next day, I actually found that understanding the way the characters thought made it more intimate and engaging.
    • 4/5
      Such a witty, sarcastic, fun epistolary, starring some of the bitchiest, deliciously nasty lady villains I've read in a while. Lady Susan and Mrs. Johnson are some seriously devious, shallow chicks. Jane Austen wrote this when she was 18, and I wish she had turned it in to a whole novel.
    • 5/5
      Several months ago I started reading Lady Susan with a sense of foreboding—so many negative reviews, plus my dislike for epistolary novels—and ended up devouring Miss Austen’s story! I absolutely loved the book, so much so that I am reconsidering Liaisons Dangereuses and Evelina. I do not care how young Jane Austen was when she wrote this: it is brilliant, just as all her other books are. Unlike some comments (by critics) I don’t see the candidness with which Lady Susan Vernon and her friend Alicia Johnson weave their shameless plans to be improbable. I do not see why people would not openly scheme in letters and unveil their souls as they really were, to their equals—remember, ipad generation: there were no Internet or cell phones then! Last night I finally dared to try to watch the movie made of it, Love & Friendship. This time, my foreboding mood was proven correct: the movie is a sham and I could barely stand 20 minutes of the shameless eviscerating of Jane Austen’s fine story! Kate Beckinsale (who used to be gorgeous and looks bland in the movie) is simply unconvincing as the cunning, smooth-talking, ingratiating Lady Susan Vernon from the book. Her interpretation is lukewarm at most, her face as blank as a clean blackboard. Something else that struck me was the fashion; more specifically, the dresses sitting at the waist. By mid 1790’s (when, scholars believe, Miss Austen might have written this story) waists were coming up—not as high as they got by the early 1800’s. The dresses in the movie were a cross between early 1700’s and Victorian fashion, with the large hats of the 1700’s looking more like pictures hats. And the choice of a man as narrator mystifies me… Stick to the book—one, I have a feeling, I will reread soon.
    • 3/5
      What I like best about “Lady Susan” is the eloquent language. I don’t normally favour epistolary fiction, but it’s the language that makes this short piece work well for me.The plot is vague, and characterisation is limited, yet the author keeps it interesting despite these restrictions.
    • 5/5
      I'm extremely happy to have read this little book of letters, great concept. As I was reading, Lady Susan reminded me of a movie I'd watched called Lillie played by Francesca Annis made in 1978. I would recommend this book to lovers of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and Historical/Regency Fiction.
    • 3/5
      This is obviously not comparable to Austen's better known works. I listened to it on a public domain website.

      The story consists of a series of letters that are exchanged between various characters. The sophisticated, witty, elegant and recently widowed Lady Susan is on the hunt for a second husband. Dragging her unloved and neglected daughter in her wake she proceeds to visit the households of a number of relatives in order to pursue a match. Her flirtatious behaviour and carelessness with the feelings of all those in her path are the subject of much letter-gossip. To her face, the perpetrators of course remain impeccably courteous.

      Austen's novels are brilliant because they accurately portray human behaviour in a way that most authors shy away from. She reveals the true hearts of her characters, in this book through letters. As always, she turns the awkward, uncomfortable but necessary pretences of society into humour. She is no doubt revealing her own amusement through her writing and comments extensively on romantic relationships and her views of them in the process...

      Silly woman to expect constancy in so charming a man.

      This was worth listening to but it would probably have been easier to read as it was hard at times to keep up with the characters due to the constant flow of letters. There is obviously no bad language, violence or sexual content--just a bit of polite flirting!



    • 4/5
      Jane Austen's mature work skewers the economic and social basis of the English landed gentry of her time with rapier wit and exquisite irony. In this novella, evidently written when Austen was 19, the weapon is a bludgeon and the wit is satire. Lady Susan Vernon is a shameless adventuress (in the old, not the modern meaning), but her chutzpah is such that it's hard not to root for her as she lies, manipulates, flatters, seduces and cons her way through life - though her utter unconcern for her daughter's welfare is impossible to forgive. She gets off some caustic zingers about men, relationships and marriage, as well."Lady Susan" is nowhere near the standard of Austen's six published novels - in particular, the characterisation of everyone but Lady Susan is pretty much flat; and the novella abruptly wraps up with a few pages of exposition. But this early draft, which Austen tried not to have published, is a remarkably good read all the same, and all the more so considering its author's age. This is Jane Austen with the cynicism dialled up to 11 and no punches pulled.
    • 2/5
      Maybe Austen only knew why, in the course of her lifetime, she didn't have it published. As for myself, I purposely came to the text without knowledge of the story, since I find that Introductions and whatnot tend to say far more about a work than I wish to know before I've read the work for myself. I had, therefore, all the room in the world to be surprised by this Susan Vernon.I wouldn't have imagined an Austen heroine like Lady Susan, and I didn't enjoy her much, nor did I gain much satisfaction from the way it all turned out for her in the end. Plus, though there was a time when it had greater popularity in literature, the style of telling a story chiefly through characters' written correspondence isn't my favorite.I imagine that Austen wasn't the keenest on the style for her own writing either, given that she didn't use it in any of her other six completed novels. She even gives the style up before this novel is finished, beginning her third-person Conclusion by writing, "This correspondence...could not, to the great detriment of the Post Office revenue, be continued longer."I now feel much as I did after reading The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott: glad that I read it, and even gladder that the authoress got better with time.
    • 4/5
      This was a nice quick read. Written as a series of letters between Lady Susan, a recently widowed femme fatale, and her friend who shares her manipulative ways, and various in laws worried about the recently widowed woman's influence on her sister in law's brother. A nicely done portrait of a despicable woman.
    • 3/5
      The tale of a manipulative, charmingly evil woman told through letters. Reading the varying accounts of her dealings is great fun.
    • 4/5
      I am not really a Jane Austen fan, but I thought this was an amusing novella about a manipulative schemer. When Lady Susan is caught out in one of her schemes, one of the characters commiserates with her by saying "facts are such horrid things". The unfortunate husband of one of the characters is described as being "too old to be agreeable, too young to die".The story is told in the form of letters and the various narrators of the audio book did a good job with the characters.
    • 3/5
      The book was ok and I liked how all characters were represented in the letters, which allows readers to see what is going on from all perspectives.
    • 4/5
      This book is what you call an epistolary novel. This was in itself something new for me and made me often wonder how would such a book be written in usual romance prose. It sounds quite interesting and realistic the way how it's written though. In this book you'll have a previous glimpse of Austen's brilliance on her way to write her well known later masterpiece, so I recommend this book to other Austen's fans.
    • 5/5
      I'm extremely happy to have read this little book of letters, great concept. As I was reading, Lady Susan reminded me of a movie I'd watched called Lillie played by Francesca Annis made in 1978. I would recommend this book to lovers of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and Historical/Regency Fiction.
    • 4/5
      Lady Susan is either the first or the last of Jane Austen's books to read. For someone new to Austen, it might be a good introduction since it is short and has a very spicy character in the form of Lady Susan herself. On the other hand, the epistolary format might throw off some readers and it was a little tricky at first, keeping track of who was writing to whom since the letters are coming from several different characters.If you would like to read Jane Austen's works in chronological order, I recommend beginning with Lady Susan.
    • 3/5
      Received a copy as part of this month's Bookclub selection. The publisher has given us two light-hearted books with purple covers for Spring time reading. I read most of Austen as a teenager but am not a fan of her now. I basically find her bantering between the sexes and stories of women looking for a man to be "fluff". This story was no different in my mind. I was delighted to see this short novella written in the epistolary fashion though, as that is one of my favourite forms to read and the letters helped speed along the read while also causing Austen's usual bantering between sexes to be told in a one-sided narrative that helped me to not become vexed with the characters so. I did not like any of the characters in the book, but only felt sorry for the neglected and emotionally abused daughter Frederica. An OK story from an author I do not appreciate, as the masses do.
    • 3/5
      I'd never read an epistolary novel prior to Lady Susan, although I understand it was once a popular format. The he-said she-said back and forth did suit the story well enough, but I missed real narrative prose and the format felt limiting. That said, the characters were compelling and the writing solid.

      Lady Susan herself really interested me. She has remarkable depth. I couldn't stand her, but she's quite real enough (classic Enneagram type 2 villain). I took issue only with her overly candid letters to her friend. Someone like Lady Susan should be a true believer in all of her own deceits, making it really difficult to come clean, even to a close friend.





    • 4/5
      Jane Austen wrote this when she was twenty, and it is easy to see the makings of a fine novelist. The characters lack the complexity of her later novels, and the ending is a bit abrupt, but it was fun to read.
    • 3/5
      Shock! Horror! I read another book by Jane Austen, and rather enjoyed it. I'll have to give up my reputation of being a sceptic, I think. It's not a genre I usually enjoy, but Austen's writing is easy to read and not hard to get absorbed in. Lady Susan is somewhat different than Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice -- it's an epistolary novel, so it relies on Austen's ability to create voices for her characters, really.

      At first I thought I wasn't going to get along with it very well. The first few letters, it was hard to tell who was writing to who, for me. I didn't think the characters and voices were all that distinct. But giving it a chance worked out. The most distinct character is, of course, Lady Susan herself -- not that she is the most likeable. In a way, she's an unreliable narrator, but even she can't really conceal what she's actually up to. The reader certainly isn't deceived by her for very long. The other characters in the novel mostly just react to her, so they aren't quite as distinct, but they're well-meaning and not unlikeable.

      The abrupt end of the novel was disappointing, though. I had to wonder if Austen got tired of trying to write it through the more difficult method of letters and decided to just end it with a wave of the godly author's hand (TM). The conclusion is pretty unsatisfying because of it.
    • 2/5
      Liked the letter based format but otherwise it bored me.
    • 3/5
      This was fun and it reminds me that at times we try to box Jane Austen in too much. This book is so much about poking fun at the system. About turning things on their side and seeing if it changes how we view them. I found this a fast, and surprisingly funny, read.
    • 5/5
      Very well written. A series of letters between various characters making an enticing story.
    • 4/5
      Susan Vernon was a beautiful, quick-witted widow, but we soon learn through the letters exchanged by the characters in this clever little gem that she was manipulative and conniving, especially when it came to men. It was easy to laugh at the gossip and scandals that follow Lady Susan until her schemes border on cruelty toward her innocent daughter.Lady Susan was written early in Austen's career; however, it wasn't published until fifty-plus years after her death. For the most part, a fun introduction to Austen's later works.
    • 4/5
      Had not read this short, epistolary novella before. Every sentence was thoroughly enjoyable Jane Austen. But it doesn't compare to any of her best novels or even to any of her worst novels. Only one character is particularly interesting, the title character of Lady Susan, who is heartless and selfish in an eerily modern manner (complete with affairs with married men and flirtations with younger men). I could imagine her daughter being interesting, but we only glimpse her indirectly and from a distance. And everyone else feels mostly like a stock Regency character.
    • 3/5
      While this should not be anyone's first Austen, it is another look at Austen's world, full of entertaining characters and the usual Regency romance problems. However, the best recommendation for reading it is that it clearly illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the epistolary form. I found Lady Susan far more interesting than Austen's other villianesses largely because her letters gave me an insight into her own view of herself. However, Austen was at a lose of how to end the novel using letters and abandoned them, writing a summary conclusion instead.
    • 3/5
      This one was a little harder for me to follow. I think it was the format that threw me off. Overall though, I still liked it.
    • 4/5
      Lady Susan is the earliest of Austen's novels, and in my opinion the weakest. (Really a novella, it's only 23,021 words.) It was written in 1794 when Austen was still in her teens. I found it hard to get into at first. Unlike her other novels, this is an epistolary novel told almost entirely in 41 letters, not third-person narration. The story feels thin compared to her other works as a result, although about halfway through we got more of a sense of scenes, with actual dialogue.It's not that I don't find it worth reading. This novel is very different in tone than Austen's other novels--her titular heroine is a villain--a catty and malicious adulteress trying to force her daughter Frederica into a marriage of convenience. But if I weren't an Austen fan, I doubt I'd have persisted in reading it far enough for the fascination of Lady Susan's machinations to take hold, although take hold they did. The ending nevertheless feels abrupt to me.I understand Phyllis Ann Karr did a third person narrative adaptation of the story. Particularly since she's an author I've liked, I'd love to read that. Sadly it's long out of print.
    • 5/5
      Jane Austen's ability to write about a character so indifferent to the feelings of those around her is quite remarkable. While making a character so cruel, she also made me utterly despise Lady Susan and she ended the book on a relatively happy note. Lady Susan was great read!
    • 5/5
      Another ebook download from Project Gutenberg with my favorite cover depicted above. This was a great read and way better than Pride and Prejudice! I know, I seem to be bucking the Jane Austen trend here on LT, but I found the concise manner of a story written in a series of letters between some of the characters in the story to be a strong writing style for Austen, and one that I prefer. Okay, so the ending is not in epistolary format, it is in the form of a conclusion of the author, but she does admit to why the story ends in this manner and I will agree that carrying the epistolary format to the very end was a bit of a problem. There is some speculation that [Lady Susan] was written in 1794 but not published until 1871. This is a rather brilliant epistolary novel focused on the recently widowed Lady Susan, who schemes her way - through flirtations and leveraging connections made - as she hunts for a husband for herself and one for her 16-year-old daughter, all the while continuing to maintain a relationship with a married man. From a character examination perspective, this story provides great insight into the Vernon family - Lady Susan's relations through her dead husband - and their thoughts and feelings, as well as those of Lady Susan's intimate friend and 'accomplice in crime' as it were, Alicia Johnson, Lady Susan and her daughter Frederica. An excellent examination of a woman of the time period who will stoop to anything to get what she wants, within a narrow scope of reason and social moral virtues. This is the book where I can now appreciate why there are so many Jane Austen fans out there!
    • 4/5
      Beautiful language. I love Austen and epistolary novels. A really good one.