Letters of Jane Austen

These are the private letters of Jane Austen, the genius behind Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park. Collected from her correspondence with her beloved sister Cassandra and her nieces Anna and Fanny, they offer something no biography can: direct access to Austen's mind. Here she is wickedly funny about the people she meets, pragmatically discussing her brothers' various careers and financial struggles, and occasionally, precious and rare, reflecting on her own work. She abbreviates her novels with casual ease: S and S, P and P, MP. We see her reading, writing, gossiping, managing a household, and surviving the small dramas of provincial life with the same sharp intelligence that would reshape the English novel forever. Her wit cuts in one sentence and her tenderness toward her sister breaks your heart in the next. For anyone who has loved her fiction, these letters unlock the woman who created it.