Jane Austens brilliant, hilarious and often outrageous early stories, sketches and pieces of nonsense, in a beautiful Penguin Classics clothbound edition. Jane Austens earliest writing dates from when she was just eleven years, and already shows the hallmarks of her mature work wit, acute insight into human folly, and a preoccupation with manners, morals and money. But they are also a product of the eighteenth century she grew up in dark, grotesque, often surprisingly bawdy, and a far cry from the polished, sparkling novels of manners for which she became famous. Drunken heroines, babies who bite off their mothers fingers, and a letterwriter who has murdered her whole family all feature in these very funny pieces. This edition includes all of Austens juvenilia, including her History of England written by a partial, prejudiced, and ignorant Historian and the novella Lady Susan, in which the antiheroine schemes and cheats her way through high society. Taken together, they offer a fascinating and often surprising insight into the early Austen.This major new edition is the first time Austens juvenilia has appeared in Penguin Classics. Edited by Christine Alexander, it includes an introduction, notes and other useful editorial materials.Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 at Steventon, near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. In her youth she wrote many burlesques, parodies and other stories, including a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan....

Binding: Hardback;512 pages; Publisher: TBS-Penguin Random House Wholesale; Classification: FC; Weight: 748 g; Dimensions: 139 x 205 x 43

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