Lady Susan. Written by Jane Austen. Read by Susan McCarthy, Laurellee Westaway, Melissa Leventon, David Thorn and Bobbie Frohman. Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins. Suggested ages: Adult.

Description: Written in the then fashionable style form of letters between the characters in the book, Jane Austen tells the story of the beautiful widow Lady Susan. Lady Susan has an eye toward re-marrying well, and marrying off her teenage daughter. To achieve her objectives, she spins a tale of Victorian humor and manipulation. In the end, she outsmarts even herself.

Jane Austen’s earliest known serious work, Lady Susan is a short, epistolary novel that portrays a woman bent on the exercise of her own powerful mind and personality to the point of social self-destruction.

Lady Susan, a clever and ruthless widow, determines that her daughter is going to marry a man whom both detest. She sets her own sights on her sister-in-law’s brother, all the while keeping an old affair simmering on the back burner. But people refuse to play the roles assigned them. In the end, her daughter gets the sister-in-law’s brother, the old affair runs out of steam, and all that is left for Lady Susan is the man intended for her daughter, whom neither can abide.

Told through a series of letters between the characters, the work concludes abruptly with the comment: “this correspondence…could not, to the great detriment of the Post Office revenue, be continued any longer.”

The Letters:

Letter 01: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. Vernon

Letter 02: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 03: Lady Susan Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 04: Mr. de Courcy to Mrs. Vernon

Letter 05: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 06: Mrs. Vernon to Mr. de Courcy

Letter 07: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 08: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 09: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan Vernon

Letter 10: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 11: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 12: Sir Reginald de Courcy to His Son

Letter 13: Lady de Courcy to Mrs. Vernon

Letter 14: Mr. de Courcy to Sir Reginald

Letter 15: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 16: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 17: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 18: From the Same to the Same

Letter 19: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 20: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 21: Miss Vernon to Mr. de Courcy

Letter 22: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 23: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 24: From the Same to the Same

Letter 25: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 26: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan Vernon

Letter 27: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Letter 28: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan Vernon

Letter 29: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 30: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. de Courcy

Letter 31: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 32: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan Vernon

Letter 33: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 34: Mr. de Courcy to Lady Susan Vernon

Letter 35: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. de Courcy

Letter 36: Mr. de Courcy to Lady Susan Vernon

Letter 37: Lady Susan Vernon to Mr. de Courcy

Letter 38: Mrs. Johnson to Lady Susan Vernon

Letter 39: Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson

Letter 40: Lady de Courcy to Mrs. Vernon

Letter 41: Mrs. Vernon to Lady de Courcy

Conclusion