Thursday, December 22, 2011

Lady Susan

1793-4
Jane Austen
Lady Susan
B

A series of letters to and about the title character, a charming, immoral society woman.  This is as humourous as Love & Freindship but not as exaggerated. Eighteen-year-old Austen makes her anti-heroine and the other characters more plausible.   Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway's Lady Vernon and Her Daughter (2009) is a poor attempt to put the novel into straight prose.  By trying to make Lady Susan sympathetic, the mother-daughter authors are compelled to throw out much of the earlier material and in fact their lady is very forgettable.  Better stick with the vivid original.

3 comments:

  1. We will just agree to disagree on this one - thought that Lady Vernon and Her Daughter was the best - maybe one of two or three - best of the Austen adaptations. The original Lady Susan written around 1794 was very lively but also more like 1700s writing and nothing like Austens six major novels. I liked how they brought it back into Austen-land. And i loved Sir James Martin who was a nonentity in the original

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  2. I have to go with Luci on this one. I also put Lady Vernon at the top of my 'Jane Austen readalikes'. Also think they did the best job of bringing a smaller 18 century work into the Austen fold. The original Lady Susan Vernon was interesting but unlikable and Austen never really had unlikable people as her main character - ok, maybe Emma gets on your nerves but other than that Lady Susan is more a Mary Crawford side character than a title character
    Barbara

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  3. I appreciate the feedback, even if you both disagree with me. It was Lady Susan being such an anti-heroine that appealed to me. I haven't read much Austen spin-off fiction, but my favorite is the continuation of "Sanditon," which I'll discuss when and if I get up to 1975. :-)

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