This work of Jane Austen is a complete novella in the epistolary form. She never made it into a full sized novel. Some speculate it’s because epistolary novels were out.
Lady Susan is an attractive mid-30’s woman. Much like today, beauty lets you get away with everything. The only people who saw her for what she was were the women of course.
Lady Susan in addition to being attractive is somewhat poor as her husband has died. So she tries to marry her daughter Frederica off to a peer in order to be financially secure. Of course the whole thing is complicated by the fact that her daughter runs away, and of course she is caught trying to seduce a married man. She is aided and abetted by her friend Alicia Johnson. Then she tries to seduce her sister-in-law’s brother. There were enough plot twists and capers for a full sized novel. This book is different from other Austen works, because this one deals with the lives of aristocracy rather than the lower level gentry. The story has an interesting ending; but all’s well that ends well.
