Jane Austen 
Love and Freindship (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) 
and Other Early Works

Jane Austen wrote the delightfully silly
Love and Freindship and Other Early Works in her teenage years to entertain her family. With its endearingly misspelled title, the collection of brief experimental sketches reveals the making of one of the best-loved authors of British literature.



In ‚Love and Freindship‘ and ‚Lesley Castle, ‚ Austen parodies the sentimental and Gothic novels of love at first sight, clandestine elopements, long-lost relatives, fainting, fatal riding accidents, adultery, and castles. In ‚The History of England, ‚ Austen confirms that the only thing children learn in their classrooms are a few dates and some inconsequential, but usually scandalous, details about the personal lives of monarchs. Fundamentally, though, the stories demonstrate the lively mind and ready wit of a teenage girl living in the late eighteenth century.

Über den Autor

In 1801, George Austen retired from the clergy, and Jane, Cassandra, and their parents took up residence in Bath, a fashionable town Jane liked far less than her native village. Jane seems to have written little during this period. When Mr. Austen died in 1805, the three women, Mrs. Austen and her daughters, moved first to Southampton and then, partly subsidized by Janes brothers, occupied a house in Chawton, a village not unlike Janes first home. There she began to work on writing and pursued publishing once more, leading to the anonymous publication of Sense and Sensibility in 1811 and Pride and Prejudice in 1813, to modestly good reviews.
Known for her cheerful, modest, and witty character, Jane Austen had a busy family and social life, but as far as we know very little direct romantic experience. There were early flirtations, a quickly retracted agreement to marry the wealthy brother of a friend, and a rumored short-lived attachment — while she was traveling — that has not been verified. Her last years were quiet and devoted to family, friends, and writing her final novels. In 1817 she had to interrupt work on her last and unfinished novel, Sanditon, because she fell ill. She died on July 18, 1817, in Winchester, where she had been taken for medical treatment. After her death, her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published, together with a biographical notice, due to the efforts of her brother Henry. Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Author biography courtesy of Barnes & Noble Books.