Lady Susan (Penguin Little Black Classics, 81)

Glittering with Austen’s subversive young imagination, this wickedearly novella features a devious, adulterous anti-heroine.

‘Of what a mistake were you guilty in marrying a Man of his age! – just old enough to be formal, ungovernable and to have the Gout – too old to be agreable, and too young to die.’
The scheming and unscrupulous Lady Susan is unlike any Austen heroine you’ve met in this fascinating early novella.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics’ huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries – including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

About the Author

Jane Austen, the daughter of a clergyman, was born in Hampshire in 1775, and later lived in Bath and the village of Chawton. As a child and teenager, she wrote brilliantly witty stories for her family’s amusement, as well as a novella, Lady Susan. Her first published novel was Sense and Sensibility, which appeared in 1811 and was soon followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Austen died in 1817, and Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818.