Love and Friendship and Other Early Works

Love and Friendship and Other Early Works presents Jane Austen's youthful fiction at its most exuberant, mischievous, and satirical. The title piece parodies sentimental novels with fainting, declarations, absurd coincidences, and wildly exaggerated feeling. Across the early works, Austen tests voice, form, social absurdity, and comic timing while making fun of literary conventions she knew very well.

Love and Friendship and Other Early Works is ideal for readers who want to see the young Jane Austen in motion. These writings are not polished like Emma or Persuasion, but they are full of speed, mockery, and fearless invention. Readers interested in parody, juvenilia, sentimental fiction, family comedy, and Austen's comic apprenticeship will find a spirited collection.