Love and Friendship: and Other Early Works (Jane Austen Collection) Paperback – September 8, 2018

This is a collection of short stories, drama, humor, and other works written by Jane Austen at least a decade before her major novels. It is a series of letters and other works that Austen wrote, and they show a free spirited Austen, quite unlike her formula books that came later. As a read this is not what one would call great literature, but it is worthwhile to see a young Jane Austen writing without constraints, and writing as a young woman years before her fame.As background information, I have read all of Austen's novels and I have read various analyses of Austen's work. Jane Austen's formula for success was to write a novel about of a financially disadvantaged young woman who meets and marries a wealthier man. The exception is her novel "Emma" where the protagonist has her own means. There are no axe murderers in an Austen novel or any nasty elements. Her stories take place in small English towns and they all have a variety of characters including a few willful women and usually one male rogue."Pride and Prejudice" is Jane Austen's finest novel. That book is the perfect balance of story, prose, structure, and interesting characters. It evokes many emotional responses in the reader. That novel is among the greatest novels of all time on par with for example Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" or Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina." From a strictly literary point of view, "Mansfield Park" is the most complicated and sophisticated literary work penned by Austen. Many like "Emma" as well.The present work pre-dates her success and one can view it as her practicing her craft or simply developing as a writer. She will surprise most with the amount of humor that she manages to inject into the stories. The stories are short, some less than a page. Also, she has written bits of drama and humorous pieces which are included. I liked her brief humorous descriptions of the various kings and queens of England.Most Austen fans will think the pieces to be very interesting but short. In any case, we see a completely different Austen here, and she writes with few self imposed limits. It is nothing like her later writings which tend to follow a formula.As a note, the text is available free on line at the Gutenberg Project, and since it is so short it can be easily down-loaded.

Love and Friendship is definitely not my favorite Jane Austen book. This is her early work and is a group of letters. I had a hard time wanting to read it so I could finish it and move on to something else.

This book is from the childish hand of a very young Jane Austen. It's difficult to decipher and not nearly as witty as it would like to be; it is nothing at all like her later works. caveat emptor

Just strange and could get into the "humor" of it.

Disclaimer-- I did not purchase this but instead listened to it as an audiobook from Librivox.By all means, read Love and Friendship, but be aware that it is the very early work of a far less mature Austen. Even more importantly, be aware that it was meant to be a SATIRE and sendup of the many truly awful genre of which Austen so ably wrote as she matures. In a sense, it is intentionally awful, which is what makes it fun! For any of the reviewers who have given it bad marks, you might try listening to an audio version, free from Librivox.org. The reader I listened to was first-rate and helped me enjoy the humor of this book.I haven't yet read the other short works but will download the Kindle version and definitely do so.

This is a terrible edition of Jane Austen's early works. There are no page numbers, the editing is extremely questionable, and the formatting is awful. Do not support this kind of cheap printing, this book is made terrible by the way it's been put together.

The worst book editionn Ive seen ever.

I purchased this book for my husband who really enjoys Jane Austin books. I found this book when I was searching on Amazon for books by this author and did not know it existed until then. The book arrived promptly, securely packaged and is excellent value for money. I would definitely buy from this seller again.

Early Jane Austen.... too much ludicrousness for my taste. Ms Austen most definitely improved in her later writings.

Just as expected. Thank you