Apr 16 2020
Diving into Austen’s Manuscripts: Lady Susan
For the remainder of the semester, we’ll be reading some of Austen’s lesser-known (but still, I think, really interesting) writings. First up is Lady Susan, probably written around 1794 (that is, before Northanger Abbey) but not published until long after her death, near the end of the nineteenth century. Like Love and Freindship and the earliest versions of some of her other novels, Lady Susan is an epistolary novel, written in letters. The original manuscript is located at the Morgan Library, just a few blocks from our campus. You can look over the pages (but probably not read Austen’s handwriting) here.
First page of the manuscript of Lady Susan
As you read, one of the first things you’ll notice is that Lady Susan isn’t anything like the other protagonists we’ve encountered so far. She’s significantly older (with a grown daughter), a widow, and, well, she’s a bad person! Austen has no interest in hiding her faults, which are displayed even in the first couple of pages of the short novel. I’ve said a few times over the semester that Austen experiments with who a heroine might be; Lady Susan might be the most extreme example of this. She may also appeal to those of us who were longing for a deviation from the typical marriage plot (though she’s also very much interested in using courtship to achieve her own ends).
The novel is very quick, and it’s easy to get lost in all of the proper names at first. To help you get your bearings (and just in case you’re interested), I recommend this short trailer for a recent adaptation of the novel (confusingly named not Lady Susan but Love and Friendship):
(The whole film is included with Amazon Prime streaming if you’re interested. I think it’s worth it.)
For Monday, write a comment on this post focusing on a single passage of the novel. Refresh those close reading skills I know you have and really try to focus on the details of the passage, explaining how you read it and how Austen’s choices matter for its meaning. We know from these manuscripts that Austen had quite an attention to detail, refining her sentences and her word choice repeatedly. Think, in your post, about the effects of those choices on the reader (even if the novel likely had very few contemporary readers at all). You might also say a bit about why you’ve chosen the passage you focus on.
Looking ahead: in Wednesday’s Zoom session, we’ll discuss Lady Susan but also get started on an abandoned manuscipt, The Watsons.
11 Responses to “Diving into Austen’s Manuscripts: Lady Susan”
I want to start off by saying how much I enjoyed “Lady Susan”. I found it by far the funniest of the Austen books we have read so far and read the entire thing in one sitting. When I was reading this, I kept remembering one of the comments Prof. Hershinow had said to us when we had just started reading “Emma”, that being that Austen wanted to make her readers dislike the character. I found Lady Susan to be the epitome of a character that can be so easily hated. Austen is much more upfront about how awful of a character she is, even more so than Emma. It is hard to sympathize with her character at all, and yet I found a sort of enjoyment out of disliking her. I kept wondering after each letter, what awful thing she would do or say next.
One of my favorite passages, was at the very beginning with the fourth letter from Mr. De Courcy to his sister, Mrs. Vernon. The two are discussing Lady Susan’s arrival and her flirtatious manner. Mr. De Courcy states;
“As a very distinguished Flirt, I have been always taught to consider her; but it has lately fallen in my way to hear some particulars of her conduct at Langford, which prove that she does not confine herself to that sort of honest flirtation which satisfies most people, but aspires to the more delicious gratification of making a whole family miserable” (211).
As much as I enjoyed De Courcy’s description of Lady Susan I think Austen was at a very early point in the novel, setting up the reader for not only the character of Lady Susan, but the social and even political status of her place in society as a whole. The use of capitalizing the word “Flirt” is deliberate as though this could be an interchangable name for Lady Susan. It defines her identity the same way her name would. Later on in this passage however, “Flirt” changes to “flirtation”. Instead of an identifying factor, now the term is used as a quality and/or characteristic that Lady Susan possesses. The reason for this change is explained by De Courcy’s change in how he is describing her. He states how he himself was interested in her when she was deemed a “Flirt” but after hearing some other information, he is no longer interested in her “flirtation”. The reason for this, as he explains, is because of her new change in interest, what he describes as “the more delicious gratification of making a whole family miserable”. It is clear from this letter how Lady Susan is viewed, even from a man who was interested in her as someone who flirted, but Austen is looking even closer at this passage as a way to describe the expectations and the “do’s and don’ts” that a woman was expected to follow or achieve given her situation. It is presented early on that Lady Susan does not care about what society necessarily thinks of her, her sister-in-law, Mrs. Vernon herself discusses this and thinks very low of the woman. I think Austen is opening up a place within her works for there to be glimpses of what it is like to be in the shoes of one who doesn’t present themselves how society expects them to. The idea of expectations and one’s presentation to society is clearly very important at this time and it was interesting to see how the rest of the book played out from the reader’s knowledge that this woman is not like anyone else in the book, and is looked down upon and yet doesn’t seem to care when all of the other characters cannot stop talking about her.
This is certainly one of Austen’s more shady novels, in that everyone just loves to gossip in all of their letters. It’s never a “how are you my dear”, but instead a “I couldn’t believe she did that, my word!” I say that to say, however, that I love it. Austen seemed to be having a little fun here, and switches up the character dynamics a lot here, more so than she’s done in Northanger Abbey or Emma. For one I’d say Lady Susan, as dislikeable as she is, holds a bit of power over the De Courcy’s–in that she is constantly able to influence their moods, or in Reginald’s case, their mindset. I point to a particular passage where Lady Susan says
“I cannot easily resolve on anything so serious as Marriage, especially as I am not at present in want of money, and might perhaps till the old Gentleman’s death, be very little benefitted by the match. It is true that I am vain enough to believe it within my reach,–I have made him sensible of my power, and can now enjoy the pleasure of triumphing over a Mind prepared to dislike me, and prejudiced against all my past actions” (Page 220).
Honestly, as conniving as she may be, Lady Susan is pretty badass. For me at least, she represents a different side of Austen’s protagonist in that she is the one who maintains power in many of the situations she finds herself in. She’s closest to Emma in nature, but I believe Lady Susan takes it a step further. For example, she admits to her vanity in this passage but only because she suggests that she could marry Reginald if she so chooses to, yet she decides against it simply because she doesn’t want to. In that case, she seems to be taking some pride in her vanity–a quality which differs from some of Austen’s other protagonists. Not only that, but she is very much aware of her vanity, something which I don’t think someone like Emma would willingly admit to unless called out by another character. Furthermore, Lady Susan has the power in this dynamic between her and Reginald, this is evidenced by the fact that she herself simply determines that she doesn’t need a man to elevate her status. Not only that, but in being aware of the power she holds over Reginald, she uses it to, as she says, triumph over “a Mind prepared to dislike me, and prejudiced against all my past actions” (Page 220). Not only does she have a choice over how she chooses to live her life, but she can also manipulate those around her to see her as the ideal woman. Although Mrs.Vernon sees right through her, for the most part, there is nothing she can do about the influence Lady Susan has over Reginald. I like what Austen does here in that she’s given us a protagonist who is no longer married, and is happy to be just that.
I really like this short story and as for Lady Susan’s character I would like to say that I found her to be likeable in an unlikeable way. The way in which she treats her daughter is terrible and it is the only thing I can really fault her for. The character of Federica is really the only character that I can feel sorry for but the rest of the character I have feel less bad for. The fact that there are tons of rumors about Lady Susan’s escapades before and after her marriage and still get manipulated by her is hilarious if not confusing. Catherine Vernon says this much in a letter on page 218. She writes “The tendency to excuse her conduct, or to forget it in the warmth of admiration vexes me.” I sincerely attribute their decisions to poor judgement. Her character to me is quite interesting because it shows what happens post-marriage. In a way we are seeing a women attempting to survive. Her husbands estate was seized and she is essentially homeless moving from place to place. Her only real hope of a future is to marry a man of means. While she attempts to charm men into engagement I can’t really feel bad for them because if the roles were reversed men would manipulate women in the same way. We have seen men in the past such as Henry in Mansfield park do it as well. What also is interesting about the story is the candid way in which everyone speaks. The letter structure affords the characters the ability to speak without worrying about social conventions. This leads to much of the comedy as every character voices their desire to have Lady Susan fail in her endeavors. The last thing That I would like to note is that I find it curious that Federica is never featured in any of the letters. Was that a deliberate choice by Austen? It would have been interesting to hear from her as many Lady Susan’s schemes involve her daughter. Nonetheless I enjoyed the novel and delighted in the ending that showed Lady Susan getting her comeuppance in the end.
I really like this short story and as for Lady Susan’s character I would like to say that I found her to be likeable in an unlikeable way. The way in which she treats her daughter is terrible and it is the only thing I can really fault her for. The character of Federica is really the only character that I can feel sorry for but the rest of the character I feel less bad for. The fact that there are tons of rumors about Lady Susan’s escapades before and after her marriage and the men in the story still get manipulated by her is hilarious if not confusing. Catherine Vernon says this much in a letter on page 218. She writes “The tendency to excuse her conduct, or to forget it in the warmth of admiration vexes me.” I sincerely attribute their decisions to poor judgement. Her character to me is quite interesting because it shows what happens post-marriage. In a way we are seeing a woman attempting to survive. Her husband’s estate was seized, and she is essentially homeless moving from place to place. Her only real hope of a future is to marry a man of means. While she attempts to charm men into engagement, I can’t really feel bad for them because if the roles were reversed men would manipulate women in the same way. We have seen men in the past such as Henry in Mansfield park do it as well. What also is interesting about the story is the candid way in which everyone speaks. The letter structure affords the characters the ability to speak without worrying about social conventions. This leads to much of the comedy in the story as every character voice their desire to have Lady Susan fail in her endeavors. The last thing That I would like to note is that I find it curious that Federica is never featured in any of the letters. Was that a deliberate choice by Austen? It would have been interesting to hear from her as many Lady Susan’s schemes involve her daughter. Nonetheless I enjoyed the novel and delighted in the ending that showed Lady Susan getting her comeuppance in the end by marrying the James Martin and having her daughter potentially getting with the man she was trying to woo.
please note that the comment I just posted is a edited version of my previous comment.
At first reading, a novel in the form of letters was a bit new to me and I think it’s a very cool way to get your message across. Jane Austen “Lady Susan” was very much a good one. I read a portion every day and I can just say “wow”. I found Lady Susan unlikeable/unappealing while manipulating or controlling the people around her. Adding to that, Frederica Veron ( daughter) who she treats absolutely terrible in many ways as she drops her off to a boarding school I believe, forcing her to find love, and just mentally breaking her down. As a young adult, I am more related to that experience but not as severely.
The passage (Letter 24) that I highlighted was
“Frederica never does justice to herself; her manners are shy and childish, and besides she is afraid of me. During her poor father’s life, she was a spoilt child; the severity which it has since been necessary for me to show has alienated her affection; neither has she any of that brilliancy of intellect, that genius or vigor of mind which will force itself forward.” “Say rather that she has been unfortunate in her education!” “Heaven knows, my dearest Mrs. Vernon, how fully I am aware of that; but I would wish to forget every circumstance that might throw the blame on the memory of one whose name is sacred with me.”
As you can see Frederica is very much opposed to the match etc.
Another example can be shown as
“Good God!” she exclaimed, “what an opinion you must have of me! Can you possibly suppose that I was aware of her unhappiness! that it was my object to make my own child miserable, and that I had forbidden her speaking to you on the subject from a fear of your interrupting the diabolical scheme? Do you think me destitute of every honest, every natural feeling? Am I capable of consigning HER to everlasting: misery whose welfare it is my first earthly duty to promote? The idea is horrible!”
Before writing this, I decided to conduct some research on Lady Susan. Looking up some background research on the nature of the story, the author who wrote it, and the method in which the story was told. Like many of Jane Austen‘s book this story takes place in the genre of realism. But unlike her books the story, it uses an epistolary style. Meaning that it’s told by using letters as a method of narrating the history and the character development. Personally, I think this is a brilliant choice for a story because it gives us a view into the characters without necessarily just narrating them in the third person again and again. Because of that, I think this is one of Jane Austen’s better works not just because of the creative way of telling the story but because the characters themselves are interesting. One character I find the most interesting is a Lady Susan herself. Susan Vernon is the protagonist of the story and that fact is very strange because most of Jane Austen’s protagonist that I’ve read so far are not as cunning or as vicious as her. She wants to marry out her daughter to whoever she views as worthy which according to her is a man who is in a high position of society and wealthy. But she shows such a little respect to people that it makes it difficult for the reader to want to root for her.
“Where pride and stupidity unite there can be no dissimulation worthy notice, and Miss Vernon shall be consigned to unrelenting contempt; but by all that I can gather Lady Susan possesses a degree of captivating deceit which it must be pleasing to witness and detect.”
With a description like this I’m personally really looking forward to reading the story because this is a kind of protagonist that I haven’t read before in a Jane Austen novel. A character that openly expresses the kind of negative traits that you see in a villain that we’re supposed to root for as a protagonist is really fascinating. As to why she’s written this way I’m not sure of yet but I’m sure that as I progress into the book more details about the characters will be revealed and I’ll gain a better understanding as to why Jane Austen wrote Lady Susan the way she is.
It was hard picking just one passage to focus on, because they were all so telling (well, yes, it’s a story) but I mean they were all worthy of close readings. Lady Susan is highly entertaining, the drama she brings is one I would thoroughly enjoy in a social setting, but as a person she is quite horrible. That said, it was hard to dislike her. Her treatment of her daughter, her love of society, her enjoyment in toying with young men, it seems like qualities in someone who wasn’t ready to be married and settle down to its responsibilities. Lady Susan drew strong parallels for me with “The Coquette, or The History of Eliza Wharton” by Hannah Webster Foster. It’s a character that wasn’t ready for or wanted the traditional role of women, which was to marry and settle, she wanted to be free and have fun, and that led to her becoming a coquette. It doesn’t justify her cruelty, but I think it explains her desire to manipulate people into having a certain image of her. She wants to control how people see her; she doesn’t want to just be cast into a mold. Ironically, that’s just what happened.
The passage I chose occurs in letter 12, from Sir R.D. Courcy to his son, Reginald, in which he lists all Lady Susan’s wrongs: “Her neglect of her husband, her encouragement of other Men, her extravagance and dissipation were so gross and notorious, that no one could be ignorant of them at the time, nor can now have forgotten them….we know that she did, from the most selfish motives, take all possible pains to prevent his marrying Catherine,” (223).
I picked this passage to show how Austen labels Lady Susan as a threat, from Sir Reginald’s perspective, not only to his family, but the entire social structure. Lady Susan is literally destabilizing, by neglecting her husband, the structure of the family unit, and by encouraging other men—Manwaring—she is tearing apart alliances and sending a woman back to her family. By squandering her money she is showing disregard for wealth, which is what all women must marry for, and by trying to prevent the marriage of her brother-in-law, she was trying to shape his future, which she had no business doing. She is uncontrollable, selfish and, most dangerous of all, clever enough to get what she wants. She’s referred to as the Mistress of Deceit, and that scares people because they cannot trust her to adhere to her place in society.
I’ll start by saying that I think this was a really fun read, and possibly the funniest of Austen’s works that we have read thus far. The constant stress and drama that Lady Vernon brings into the environment is clever and hilarious. Although Lady Susan is just an absolutely awful person, I think that is what makes her such an interesting character and what makes the novel equally interesting as well. I would imagine that Jane Austen had a lot of fun writing Lady Susan.
It was hard narrowing down which passage I wanted to focus on, but I decided on passage from Letter 11 where Mrs. Vernon is speaking to her mother, Lady De Courcy, about trying to get her brother Reginald away from Lady Susan.
“How sincerely do I grieve that she ever entered this house! I always looked forward to her coming with uneasiness—but very far was it from originating in anxiety for Reginald. I expected a most disagreable companion for myself, but could not imagine that my brother would be in the smallest danger of being captivated by a woman with whose principles he was so well acquainted, and whose character he so heartily despised. If you can get him away, it will be a good thing.”
This passage, and really the entire letter, are a great example of Lady Susan’s power dynamic with Reginald, and in some ways Mrs. Vernon as well. The power that Lady Susan seems to have over Reginald and his mindset is driving his sister mad, seeing as she never expected that to happen when Lady Susan arrived to their home. I love the language in this passage, and I feel like Austen does a great job of really expressing how dire Mrs. Vernon feels the situation is for her brother, and how desperate she is to get him away from Lady Susan.
/Lady Susan/ is quite an intriguing read, especially since the plot happens to be more complex through the exchange of letters between the different characters. Lady Susan Vernon is unlike the protagonists of any of other Austen’s novels, especially in the fact that she is a widow and an ‘unkind mother.’ I thought it was interesting to read Lady Susan’s input on the label that she is familiar with. To Alicia Johnson, perhaps her only real friend presented in the text, she writes: “I have been called an unkind Mother, but it was the sacred impulse of maternal affection, it was the advantage of my Daughter that led me on.” (208) I wonder what the inspiration behind the character of Lady Susan was for Austen, as her relationship with her daughter is quite fragmented from a typical mother-daughter relationship. She describes her daughter by writing: “Frederica, who was born to be the torment of my life, chose to set herself so violently against the match.” (208) I wonder whether Austen is depicting a more complex message through Susan’s resentment towards her own daughter: clearly, she fell under the societal expectations of an early marriage and the pressure to bear a child. It had left her as a bitter widow. I think Frederica’s letter to Mr. Courcy stood out to me. It was her way to exert control over her fate in trying to avert a marriage to Sir James, a man she objectively detests. In response to this discovery, Lady Susan expresses: “And she, with her little rebellious heart and indelicate feelings to throw herself into the protection of a young Man with whom she had scarcely ever exchanged two words before.” (241) I wonder if Lady Susan felt contempt towards her daughter for being intelligent enough to resist the prospect of marriage. To me, she is quite the opportunist when it comes to marriage—and this is made evident with her desire to marry her daughter off to a wealthy man. This is confirmed when Lady Susan comments upon the state of Alicia’s husband: “To have you confined, a Nurse, in his apartment!—My dear Alicia, 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 agreeable, and too young to die.” (255) Clearly, Lady Susan is showing a great lack of respect for her friend’s husband. She is not the classic romantic, but rather, a woman who views a husband as a vessel for perhaps a better life.
Lady Susan is definitely a change of pace for Austen, with a protagonist who differs immensely from those in her other novels and it its entirely comprised of letters. I really enjoyed this novel, I found its gossiping nature and comedic undertone to be extremely entertaining. At first glance, figuring out the character dynamics was somewhat difficult, which is not new for me in reading Austen’s novels but, I appreciated that Austen did not just focus on the perspective of Lady Susan in the novel; the reader gets Catherine’s view, Reginald’s view, and Frederica’s view, making for a very rounded character dynamic. What I find most intriguing about Lady Susan’s character is her acceptance, and almost comfort, of her own flawed morality. Lady Susan’s disposition became gleamingly clear to me on just the second and third page of the novel. She writes to her partner in crime, Alicia Johnson about her daughter Frederica:
“Sir James did make proposal to me for Frederica- but Frederica, who was born to be the torment of my life, chose to set herself so violently against the match, that I thought it better to lay aside the scheme for the present. – I have more than once repented that I did not marry him myself, and were he but one degree less contemptibly weak I certainly should, but I must own myself rather romantic in that respect, and Riches only, will not satisfy me (208-209).”
This is where you really begin to see how open Lady Susan is about her brutal gossiping. She gossips about not only men she lacks respect for but, her own daughter! She goes from telling Mrs. Johnson about her insinuated affair with a married man, Mansward, and being discreet with such flirtation, being she is only four months a widow, to judging her daughter’s choices and character. It is clear that Lady Susan is a woman of confidence, and unlike many women of her time, she sort of runs the show by being a skilled puppet master. She says, Sir James made a proposal for Frederica but, Frederica was very much against it. Austen’s word choice here is vital in understanding the protagonist’s perspective; she says her daughter is “the torment of her life” and describes the interest to marry her daughter and Sir James as a “scheme”. These are incredibly ruthless elucidations in regards to a mother speaking of her daughter’s circumstances, and to portray a marriage proposal to her daughter as her own devious scheme displays her egocentric nature. And she doesn’t stop there- she then implies she could marry Sir James if she wanted to but, although he is good enough for her daughter to marry, for her he is unworthy- Lady Susan needs more than just wealth from a man. I think this passage sets up the readers perfectly for what is to come from Lady Susan, and Austen’s word choice is essential in establishing that.