I am very keen to read this novel since I learnt it was an epistolary novel as these are my favourite kind of novels, and of course I adore Jane Austen with her subtle dry humour and gently cutting wit. Grab your copy and let’s read it together!
I am very keen to read this novel since I learnt it was an epistolary novel as these are my favourite kind of novels, and of course I adore Jane Austen with her subtle dry humour and gently cutting wit. Grab your copy and let’s read it together!
Lady Susan writes to her brother, Charles Vernon, saying that she will take him up on his kind offer to have her stay at Churchhill and she is looking forward to meeting his wife, though she adds that her leaving her current friends at Langford will greatly disappoint them. She also shares how sad she is to have to part with her daughter, Frederica, who will shortly be going to boarding school. She then writes to her friend, Alicia Johnson, saying she can’t wait to leave Langford as all the women there dislike her because one of the men, Mainwaring, admires her. She is also critical of Frederica, particularly Frederica’s unhappiness at Lady Susan’s plans to have her marry Sir James, and also critical of her brother. Omg, I was completely convinced by the first letter of how much Lady Susan wanted to visit her brother and how affectionately attached she was to her daughter and how nice a woman she seemed…and then her second letter was completely different!! Wow, it demonstrates beautifully the power of language and how it can both flatter and conceal! And also demonstrates how ladies of that time phrased things so politely whilst meaning something else entirely, and I think we’ve lost that kind of flowery formal polite tone now (though maybe that’s a good thing if it was used to conceal so much, tee hee!). I’m not quite sure yet though if Lady Susan is a fairly nice woman who outwardly abides by the rigid overly polite restrictions of society as when writing to her brother but has a more natural mischievous side that she reveals to her trusted friend, Alicia, or is she actually a manipulative two-faced person who adapts herself to who she’s speaking to and what she wants to gain from them?! It will be fascinating to see! But I was particularly shocked at her harsh words about her daughter, that she ‘was born to be the torment of my life’! Though I also noted that Lady Susan commented to her friend that she has been called an unkind mother, which initially seemed quite a strong thing for people to say about her but now I’m wondering if it was justified and there was reason for that criticism of her?! So we’ve learned from these two letters that Lady Susan has been a widow for four months but it seems that she is potentially ready to enter into another relationship. But this begs the question of is Mainwaring single and potentially available, I wonder, or is he married and Lady Susan is therefore happy to enter into an affair with a married man (I wasn’t sure if the Mrs Mainwaring mentioned in the letter was his mother or his wife)? And it seems like Alicia’s husband is Mrs Mainwaring’s guardian, and he also doesn’t like Lady Susan, so I’m thinking there could be trouble ahead for Lady Susan from him too! I am also wondering what Lady Susan’s brother thinks of her and if he did actually issue that invitation for her to stay, as I still can’t quite get over her wildly different way of speaking about him, with her saying to Alicia that Churchhill was an ‘insupportable spot’ and her brother Charles was ‘my aversion’, but her letter to him implying that staying there at his ‘delightful’ home and spending time with him and his family was her greatest wish! Wow, what an intriguing character she is! And I’m already full of admiration for Austen as we have been given quite a lot of information from these first two short letters, which is amazingly clever of her. It also makes me wonder about the challenge Austen faced of what words to keep in and what to leave out, as the letters read as chatty updates whilst also including lots of information for the reader, so it’s a very delicate balance between being informative as well as being succinct as well as being entertaining, and I think that must have taken a lot of skill.
Charles’ wife Catherine writes to her mother saying that Lady Susan will shortly be staying with them, but she adds that she will guard herself against Lady Susan until she can decide if she is genuine in her friendly words. Catherine receives a letter from her brother, Reginald, detailing Lady Susan’s behaviour at Langford and that she shocked the inhabitants there by flirting with two men, and he goes on to say that he will shortly arrive at Churchhill himself as he is keen to meet this memorable woman. Oh, so Charles is actually Lady Susan’s husband’s brother, so is her brother-in-law not her actual brother! And it’s interesting that Catherine feels that Charles was too kind towards Lady Susan and too generous in believing she was sincere after her husband’s death, so Catherine clearly feels very differently to her husband about Lady Susan! It seems like we are perhaps being shown the true picture of Lady Susan’s character with Catherine’s description of her, as ‘inexcusably artful and ungenerous’, and that she has ‘attractive powers’, and has acted with ‘inattention if not with unkindness’ towards her daughter and Catherine even adds that she was thankful that Frederica will be separated from her mother by going to boarding school! Wow, well, there doesn’t seem much chance of any good points to salvage for Lady Susan from that! And I am still reeling a little from Reginald’s letter to Catherine, as not only was his view of Lady Susan valuably illuminating, but omg what a catty man he is, really surprisingly bitchy, tee hee! He painted Lady Susan as an absolute determined flirt, ‘the most accomplished coquette in England’, though his sarcastic admiration of her flirting abilities and remarking on her skill of ‘engaging at the same time, and in the same house, the affections of two men, who were neither at liberty to bestow them’, made me chuckle, tee hee, and I quite look forward to seeing more of him when he also arrives at Churchhill as I imagine he will be very entertaining! But his words confirm that Mainwaring is married, so that makes me wonder if Lady Susan was content just with flirting or would she actually have entered into an affair with Mainwaring if he was willing?! Surely the scandal of that would have stopped her from taking that step…wouldn’t it, or does she not care about her reputation?! And Reginald also seemed to be referring to Lady Susan also flirting with a man who was destined to marry Mainwaring’s sister, so is this Sir James that Lady Susan had said in her letter to Alicia she had tried to interest her daughter in, and if so then was she concealing her flirtation from her friend Alicia, so is she not actually quite as honest with her friend as it first appeared? Reginald also seemed to imply that Lady Susan’s behaviour with this man caused his rejection of his previous girlfriend/betrothed (Mainwaring’s sister), so it does indeed seem to appear that Lady Susan left a path of misery behind her at Langford! I do love the intimacy of letters and how it allows you to gain insight into the writer’s thoughts, though I do appreciate the view that it can be a bit one-sided but in this novel there are letters from different people so we are gaining different points of view. I still can’t quite believe how swiftly my view of Lady Susan has changed, from thinking she was lovely and kind and family-orientated, to then thinking she was quite selfish and two-faced! I’m full of admiration for Austen’s incredibly clever writing to portray such contrasting impressions in a few short letters!
Lady Susan writes to Alicia, saying how glad she was that they recently met in London while she was on her way to Churchhill, even though Alicia’s husband would have disapproved of the meeting. She adds that Catherine doesn’t like her but that she plans to charm Catherine by winning the hearts of the children, and also adds that Mainwaring has written to her and she will write back to him under the cover of Alicia. Catherine writes to Reginald saying how charming Lady Susan is to them and how Charles is therefore being fooled into thinking the best of her, though Catherine still remembers how much Lady Susan tried to prevent Charles’ marriage to her and remembers the reports of Lady Susan abandoning her daughter so she reassures Reginald that she keeps these things at the forefront of her mind in order to help her avoid being charmed by Lady Susan. She adds that she suspects Lady Susan has come to stay with them in order to repair her reputation. Tee hee, this is such a naughtily amusing book, it’s almost like a guilty pleasure reading it as there is so much cattiness and bitchiness, and yet it is so very amusing and I find I am chuckling at the cruel behaviour of Lady Susan rather than tut-tutting at her! I know I keep saying it (!) but it really is incredibly clever writing! I was interested (though disapproving, obviously!) in Lady Susan’s view of how to treat men (detailed in her letter to Alicia), with her saying of Alicia’s husband, ‘since he will be stubborn he must be tricked’, and saying of Charles that he is ‘so easily imposed on’, wow, so her methods are trickery and taking advantage of men! Though I feel particularly sorry for poor Charles being treated like this as he seems such a kind man, with Catherine saying that he always tries to think the best of people even though Lady Susan had hurt him by trying to dissuade him from marrying Catherine and also preventing him from buying Vernon Castle when she had to sell it, but Lady Susan clearly sees kindness as a weakness to be imposed on. I feel we are learning so much about Lady Susan from these letters and it almost feels like a detective story with her character and behaviour being slowly revealed to us through hints and clues and references from different people’s letters enabling us to put the full picture together, and the way she charms people to convince them to view her how she wishes to be viewed is very like the murderer does in a detective story, and also her deviousness becoming slowly more obvious to the reader is much like the murderer’s deviousness becomes slowly more obvious in a detective story (such as with Catherine’s view of her as ‘her countenance is absolutely sweet, and her voice and manner winningly mild…what is this but deceit?’). It seems though that some people have been aware of Lady Susan’s behaviour and disapproved of it for some time (with Catherine saying that she is aware of how many years Lady Susan left her daughter alone with servants while she went to enjoy herself in town) so I imagine Lady Susan must find it hard to convince people to see her in a good light, or perhaps this goes to show what an accomplished deceiver she is as she was obviously invited to Langford! And while I am hearing all these bad things about Lady Susan and passing judgement on her myself, a part of me wonders if I ought to actually be admiring her for acting as a man might act in that time, refusing to be the quiet submissive polite lady and instead being determined to enjoy herself!
Lady Susan writes to Alicia, speaking of her plan that Frederica will be so unhappy at school that she will eventually agree to marry Sir James. She also adds that she is enjoying spending time with Reginald now he has arrived at Churchhill and she is planning to make him believe that his sister Catherine was wrong in what she had told him about her. Catherine writes to her mother voicing her concern that Reginald is being taken in by Lady Susan and that he is finding excuses for her previous behaviour which he had earlier spoken disapprovingly of. Hmm, I wonder if Lady Susan will win over Reginald, as previously he seemed to have judged her pretty sternly, as ‘one entitled neither to delicacy or respect’, but I don’t highly rate his chances! It makes me squirm though that Lady Susan is pursuing her domination over Reginald just for ‘exquisite pleasure…to amuse’, not even because she actually likes him. I fear too for Catherine if she is the only one at Churchhill able to view Lady Susan’s ‘dangerous abilities’ with clear eyes, and I also worry that Catherine could then become isolated because of this if her brother and husband and presumably children all continue to think well of Lady Susan. I wonder if Catherine will be strong enough to take on Lady Susan? It’s interesting how the dominant people in this story are the women (Catherine and Lady Susan), and the men are depicted as being prone to being fooled and changeable in their minds and less able to read someone’s character. Oooh, this is shaping up to be a fascinating tale and a fascinating study of human nature! And the writing is just sublime, I particularly love Catherine’s letters demonstrating her beautifully polite and delicate turn of phrase whilst also expressing such spirit and clearmindedness, I think her letters are my favourites. It’s quite hard reading Lady Susan’s harsh words about her daughter though, calling her ‘stupid…tiresome’, and urging Alicia not to bother inviting Frederica to her home whilst she is at boarding school! Poor Frederica, I’m sure the chance of briefly escaping that school to stay with Alicia must be like a godsend and yet her mother wants Frederica to be prevented from having any moments of enjoyment and instead hopes that Frederica will be suffering there at the school and finding it ‘as unpleasant as possible…very humiliating’ and hoping that Frederica’s misery will persuade her to agree to marry Sir James, ‘rendering her (Frederica) thoroughly uncomfortable until she does accept him (Sir James)’, even though she knows that Frederica’s ‘heart revolted’ against the marriage, poor poor girl! I know marriages were made for social gain and money then, rather than solely for love, but still it is hard to witness a mother plotting this for her daughter knowing how unhappy it would make her! Ironically I had a moment of hope that Lady Susan was showing a kinder side when she said to Alicia that she didn’t want to force Frederica into the marriage, but actually this was exactly her intention yet she just wants poor Frederica to feel so hopeless in her present situation at school in order to ‘make it her own choice’! And her voicing this wish that the marriage outwardly appears to be Frederica’s choice made me wonder why this was important to her, but I guess she wants to ensure that others will view her as having acted kindly by not appearing to force Frederica, and this reflects all her actions in this story really, that she outwardly seems to behave as society expects her to, whilst inwardly concealing her plotting and achieving just what serves her best! Oooh, she’s like some super-baddie! I’m wondering if we will hear anything in this story from Frederica, how she feels about her mother, and whether she will stand up to her, and if she will eventually find happiness and independence away from her mother. Although actually, to give her credit, she obviously did stand up to her mother at Langford by refusing to agree to the plan to marry Sir James so she must have a degree of courage and self-assurance to do that, bless her! But (as with Reginald) I don’t much rate her chances, as Lady Susan’s plans for adversely affecting Frederica even extends to her standing in the way of Frederica gaining an education, with her saying to Alicia that Frederica ‘will not remain at school long enough to understand anything thoroughly’, sigh.
Alicia replies to Lady Susan advising her to try and marry Reginald, pointing out that he will be rich when his father dies. Lady Susan replies to her, saying she feels she could indeed persuade Reginald into marriage as he is now very much in her power but that she is in no need of money at the moment so therefore doesn’t need to marry, and that she prefers Mainwaring to him. Catherine writes despairingly to her mother, begging her to appeal to Reginald to leave Churchhill and return home, but this letter results in her father writing to Reginald warning him against Lady Susan and listing her faults and requesting an explanation of how Reginald’s previously strongly held view of her could have been altered so drastically. Awww, I quite admired their father’s letter to Reginald, he seemed a fair man and to be treating his son respectfully even though he is desperate to make his point, saying that he wouldn’t force Reginald to his point of view by threatening to withdraw money from him but was instead appealing to Reginald’s ‘sense and affection’ and adding that a marriage with Lady Susan would sadden him as it would adversely affect the pride he currently feels for his son. Bless him, that is beautifully and tactfully phrased, and I hope it has a positive result. But omg, Lady Susan’s gloating words about her domination of Reginald, achieved through her being cool towards him rather than from any flirting (though this proves how skilled she is at reading people and identifying how to manipulate them!), ‘I have subdued him entirely…the pleasure of triumphing over a mind prepared to dislike me’, poor Reginald, and she doesn’t even like him as much as Mainwaring and would only consider marrying him if she was desperate for money! And poor Catherine too, as Lady Susan seems to take quite as much pleasure in seeing how unhappy Catherine is at the situation and also glorying in how powerless Catherine now is over Reginald compared to herself. And it’s interesting too how she feels that Catherine deserves this for bad-mouthing her in the first place, completely ignoring the fact that all Catherine said of her actions were true, and it makes me wonder how Lady Susan truly views herself, does she not see any wrong in all that she does, even if she could possibly justify it to herself as needing to promote her own wellbeing in a harsh world?!
Catherine’s mother writes to Catherine apologising for her father’s letter, and includes Reginald’s reply to them which praises Lady Susan and explains away the false rumours about her, and also assures them that he has no intention of marrying Lady Susan as they are too far apart in age, and he also states his anger at Catherine for alarming them about this. Catherine replies to her mother, sending back Reginald’s letter and expressing her sorrow that Reginald should be angry at her. She tells her mother that Frederica has tried to run away from school so may now need to come and stay at Churchhill with her mother unless the school can be persuaded to allow her to return, and adds that she does actually feel sorry for Lady Susan with her distress regarding this. Oooh, I’m interested in why Frederica was prompted to run away and what her plans were with this! I do hope she comes to Churchhill so we can find out more about her, as she intrigues me very much. And I was fascinated with Reginald’s letter to his father as it even persuaded me (briefly!) to feel sympathy for Lady Susan! I think it was so effective in this way because Reginald didn’t write in an angry and passionate manner but in a considered and intelligent manner, and I am just in awe of how people phrased things at that time, I love their use of language and tone and I think this novel demonstrates the beauty of well-formulated language and how powerful it can be! I am also as much of a fan of Catherine as ever with this reply to her mother, as she really does try to consider Reginald’s view of Lady Susan and tries to be open-minded and not just dismiss his opinions out of hand, and is mature enough and kind enough and humble enough to consider if she could be wrong and Reginald is correct that she is prejudiced against Lady Susan because of that lady’s opposition to their marriage. I also thought Reginald made a very clever point by using the example of Lady Susan being influenced by false rumours about Catherine which then apparently led to her opposing the marriage, in order to demonstrate that Catherine is now being influenced by false rumours herself about Lady Susan! But at heart (after my brief wobble allowing Reginald’s beautifully crafted letter to make me doubt my view of Lady Susan!), I don’t believe this to be the case, I don’t believe that the rumours about Lady Susan are false, and I don’t believe that Lady Susan was led by rumours against Catherine which led her to oppose their marriage as I don’t think could have been any rumours about Catherine, rather it was just that the marriage didn’t bring any gain to Lady Susan herself which led her to oppose it. I also thought that Catherine made a good point when she said to her mother that her main concern wasn’t whether Lady Susan had told lies to Reginald but was rather the fact that Lady Susan has shared these private things with Reginald, which seem inappropriate to share on so short an acquaintance, as this demonstrates how close Reginald and she have become. I note too that Catherine’s mother isn’t assured by Reginald’s protestations of not considering marriage with Lady Susan (and Catherine agrees that it may not be his present plan but could be his plan in a few months’ time), so is this what will happen, I wonder? Surely not, that would be very dramatic, and I am trying to take heart from Reginald actually stating that this wouldn’t happen, though I fear mothers often know their sons best…! But actually I now remember that Lady Susan said to Alicia that she wasn’t considering marrying Reginald, so as she is clearly the dominant one in their relationship I feel that nothing will happen if she doesn’t wish it! So we just need her to not change her mind on this!
Lady Susan writes to Alicia complaining about Frederica having run away from school after she had written to her informing her that she must marry Sir James. Catherine writes two letters to her mother, the first letter saying that Frederica has been found and has arrived at Churchhill as the school refused to take her back and giving her mother her first impressions of Frederica, including that she is extremely timid, and her view of the relationship between mother and daughter, and the second letter praising Frederica now she has got to know her better and Frederica’s confidence has been nurtured a little by Catherine, and her discovery that Frederica seems to admire Reginald greatly and Catherine’s desire to make him aware of this in order to detach him from Lady Susan and hopefully show preference to her daughter who Catherine feels would suit him far better. Oooh, I’m so pleased that Frederica has arrived, as I was very keen to get to know her through Catherine’s eyes as I do trust Catherine completely, or even to get to know her via a letter written by her to someone (which I’m still hoping for). But my heart bled for Frederica when Catherine said how frightened and unhappy and dejected she was, poor girl! I also noted Catherine’s exasperation with Reginald’s continuing adoration of Lady Susan, commenting on how he seems ‘enslaved’, and also her renewed disgust at Lady Susan, calling her ‘ostentatious and artful’! It is interesting too that Catherine suspects that Lady Susan tries to prevent Catherine and Frederica from talking to each other, I bet she does as she doesn’t want poor Frederica to receive any kindness and gentleness and encouragement, grrr! But I was delighted to see that Catherine and Frederica have managed to spend time together and I liked Catherine’s praise of Frederica as having ‘a gentle affectionate heart’, and particularly her mention that Frederica is fond of books which I feel must make her a nice person, tee hee! I feel huge foreboding at Frederica seeming to be falling in love with Reginald though, oh dear, I imagine her mother would scornfully crush any sign of that and poor Frederica would be hurt dreadfully! And how nasty Lady Susan’s words were to Alicia regarding Frederica, ‘she shall be punished, she shall have him (Sir James)’! Poor poor girl, I do hope a way out is found for her from this marriage! I also found it interesting to see more of Lady Susan’s views in her letter to Alicia on what makes a good man, as she values Mainwaring more than Reginald because Reginald frequently requests explanations from her about the rumours he hears about her, whereas Mainwaring just blindly believes in her and is ‘impressed with the deepest conviction of my merit, is satisfied that whatever I do must be right’, wow, I can see why she would favour him, tee hee, part of me thinks this sounds much like having a pet dog (!), but clearly she only wants a man who will adore her blindly and let her act however she likes, rather than a man who helps her grow by encouraging her to question her behaviour and be accountable for her actions and ensuring she is behaving with care and consideration for others and for herself. Well, it’s her own bed, she has to lie in it!
Lady Susan writes to Alicia, mocking Frederica’s feelings for Reginald. Catherine writes a long letter to her mother detailing the sudden arrival of Sir James and him inviting himself to stay for a few days, though clearly unexpected by Lady Susan, and her realisation of how strongly Frederica dislikes him. She also relays how Lady Susan had sought her out to praise Sir James and state her pleasure at his attachment for her daughter and Lady Susan also saying that she trusts that Catherine and Charles will support her in this matter of the marriage and how much she likes Catherine and values her friendship. Wow, how skillfully Lady Susan took Catherine by surprise by saying how highly she thinks of her and mentioning the ‘real affection’ she feels there is between them! She is in a class of her own at manipulating people, and I can fully understand how Catherine was at a loss with what to say! But grrr, I was annoyed at Lady Susan calling Frederica’s attempts to attract Reginald as being likely to make her look ‘ridiculous…a simpleton’ and her expectation that Reginald would view Frederica with ‘indifference…contempt’, oh poor poor Frederica, I don’t hold out much confidence for her against Lady Susan! And how much I feel for Frederica with Sir James arriving, though it is interesting that this wasn’t planned by Lady Susan and she is annoyed at him for it, presumably because she doesn’t want her attempts to force her daughter into marrying him to be witnessed by Catherine and Charles! But is this one of the first times that things haven’t gone Lady Susan’s way and her plotting has hit a snag? And also is it significant that she perhaps fears Catherine a little, not wishing to have her as a witness, and so does that bode well for Catherine to defeat her in future, I wonder? I am hopeful that Catherine can intervene to save Frederica, particularly as she doesn’t seem to like Sir James herself and can sense Frederica’s severe reluctance to him, and also with Catherine stating to her mother that Frederica ‘must not be sacrificed…must not be left to suffer’. I did chuckle, though, at Lady Susan’s suspicion that the school’s actual reason for refusing to accept Frederica back there was less to do with propriety and more to do with the school’s suspicion that Lady Susan wasn’t going to pay Frederica’s school fees, tee hee! But again, this is another occurrence of Lady Susan’s plans being foiled…are things beginning to unravel for her?!
Frederica writes to Reginald, apologising profusely for the liberty in doing so but explaining that her mother has forbidden her to speak to Catherine or Charles on this matter, and saying she feels that he is the only one who might be able to persuade her mother about the intended marriage with Sir James, explaining that she doesn’t want to marry Sir James and in fact very much dislikes him and is horrified at the thought of marrying him. Lady Susan angrily writes to Alicia saying that Reginald has informed her that it is improper and unkind of her to force Frederica to marry Sir James and that he was very firm about this and even quite angry and was oblivious to her trying to charm him to her viewpoint, and she details her further annoyance that Reginald learnt about the marriage due to Frederica writing to him and them then discussing it further together, and she even wonders if this could encourage Reginald to return Frederica’s affection. Oh wow, there I was hoping we’d have a letter from Frederica, and she’s only gone and written to Reginald, hurrah! I really pitied her though with her desperate appeal for Reginald’s help in her letter. It’s also frustrating thinking how much harder things are for the poor girl because she can’t talk to anyone (as her mother had forbidden her to speak to Catherine and Charles), how I wish she’d just ignore her mother’s wishes but I guess her mother is a very dominating person and Frederica is therefore too fearful to oppose her. And tee hee, I chuckled at Lady Susan’s comment in her letter to Alicia that she could have poisoned Sir James in her annoyance at him arriving there uninvited, she is entertaining with her extremes of expression! But how interesting that Lady Susan feels there might be a slight risk that Reginald could return Frederica’s affection and therefore abandon his adoration of herself, as I feel this might be the first time we’ve seen Lady Susan doubting her own power over men so this seems quite significant! When Frederica wrote her letter to Reginald, I was very much hoping that he would be kind and help Frederica but fearful instead that he would let his admiration for Lady Susan overwhelm his thinking and would act to please her by telling her of her daughter’s letter to him, but I apologise for doubting him! And wow he did act extremely well, far better than I could ever have hoped, by actually telling Lady Susan that she was acting wrongly and being surprisingly assertive doing so, hurrah! I also hadn’t expected him to seek out Frederica to speak to her further on the matter, and indeed had presumed she hadn’t expected that either as it was more his intervention with her mother she was seeking from him rather than any expectation of comfort from him, and I also didn’t imagine he would be that good at comforting Frederica but again apologies to him for this as he did speak to Frederica and clearly listened to her and was guided by what she said, yay, well done Reginald! I am now (in my few-found confidence and optimism with Reginald) hoping that he shows Frederica’s letter to Catherine, as this would allow Catherine to fully understand the situation and be able to offer comfort and support to Frederica but would also remove her puzzlement about Frederica’s reticence with her (due to her mother forbidding her to speak to Catherine about the marriage) as I was worried that this reticence might cause Catherine to doubt Frederica’s character. However, I can’t fully write off Lady Susan’s abilities to turn the situation around again to her advantage as she seems so very skilled at doing so, and I fear her anger too at being challenged as this is something she is clearly not used to and not likely to be willing to accept, with her warning to Alicia of, ‘I shall always detest them both (Reginald and Frederica)’! I wish we also had some of Lady Susan’s true feelings though, which I suspect include not some feelings of shock that her daughter who she has always dismissed as ‘stupid’ actually possesses enough eloquence and confidence to influence Reginald, and I also suspect she feels some jealousy that the power she assumed she had over Reginald was so easily eroded! But I note she doesn’t give any hint of feelings of weakness even with Alicia, or perhaps she genuinely doesn’t feel these!
Catherine writes to her mother with the news that Reginald is now leaving Churchhill, after he has urged her to send away Sir James and to do all she can to prevent Frederica being forced to marry him. However, Catherine then follows this with another letter to her mother saying that Reginald has now changed his mind about leaving and she is fairly certain that he and Lady Susan will now marry. She adds that Lady Susan has told her that she realises now she was mistaken regarding Frederica and Sir James and that she explained to Catherine the reasoning which led to this mistake, and now will not encourage Frederica to marry him, and that Sir James has left Churchhill. Omg, I have gone from delight and relief, to all my hopes being dashed, just like poor Catherine! I was so relieved that Reginald had told Catherine about Frederica not wanting to marry Sir James, after Frederica felt unable to tell Catherine herself. And (before my confidence and optimism in him was destroyed, sigh!) I liked how he praised Frederica to Catherine too, saying that she has a far more superior mind than they realised. And I was also heartened at Catherine’s words to her mother regarding Frederica in her first letter, ‘we have much to do, but it shall be done’, yay, I was cheering her determination to foil Lady Susan’s plans to force the marriage to go ahead! And I was pleased that Frederica had spoken to Catherine about the situation and was open about how miserable she has been over Sir James, and I loved Catherine’s description of herself as ‘a friend always ready to assist you’, and her asserting that Lady Susan had no right to make Frederica unhappy ‘and she shall not do it’, yay again, I do adore Catherine! And (while I was still feeling positive and hopeful!) Catherine had also clearly challenged Lady Susan herself, continually questioning her about how she could have been mistaken over Frederica’s feelings on the matter, so well done again to wonderful Catherine. But clearly even wonderful Catherine isn’t a match for Lady Susan, with how quick-thinking and self-assured she was with her excuses, who else but she could have found a way to blame her deceased husband for spoiling Frederica and not prioritising her education which she said then resulted in Frederica not having the skills to express her wishes coherently and confidently and therefore caused the misunderstanding about the marriage with Sir James to occur, also saying this was the reason she instructed Frederica not to speak to others about the situation as she didn’t want her incoherence to annoy them, and then when challenged further by Catherine she conveniently resorts to tears at having to criticise her beloved husband, and even states that it is her ‘first earthly duty’ to promote Frederica’s happiness and saying ‘I reproach myself for having even, though innocently, made her unhappy’, omg, so clever, this woman is in another league! As it has been all through this book, it is actually fascinating studying her and having her character revealed to us like this, and again I am just amazed at Austen’s writing! And I presume she gave all these explanations to Reginald too, which convinced him back to her side, sigh. So it seems that Lady Susan has won this battle, though at least there is a gain for Catherine and Frederica with Lady Susan sending Sir James away and her assurance that she will no longer plot to arrange the marriage. And one positive thing I can scrape from how swiftly this situation altered from good to bad, was Catherine saying to her mother that Frederica can stay with them at Churchhill if Lady Susan and Reginald do marry, as that surely would be another good thing to come of all this, for Frederica to have Catherine’s care and encouragement. And still with my adoration of Catherine, I am loving how beautifully she expresses herself in her letters, ‘I am so much agitated by delight that I can scarcely hold a pen’ (before her hopes were dashed, of course), what a lovely image, as well as me being amused by her description of Lady Susan as a ‘mistress of deceit’, tee hee! But wow, what a dramatic few pages that was, I feel like I’m still reeling from it all!
Lady Susan writes to Alicia, praising herself for how she managed the recent difficult situation with Reginald and Catherine, though saying that she is still determined that she will be victorious and force Frederica to marry Sir James. She adds that she will soon see Alicia in person, as she intends to come to London and to also bring Frederica as Sir James is currently in London. Alicia replies urging Lady Susan to come to London on her own and leave Frederica at Churchhill, and reminds her friend of her own belief of how beneficial it would be for Lady Susan to marry Reginald and therefore cautioning her against aggravating him and his family by forcing Frederica to marry Sir James. Alicia also includes her scorn at Mainwaring’s wife’s belief that her husband should be loyal to her. Well, I am trying to be grateful to Alicia for her guidance to her friend, which benefits Frederica, and I did chuckle at her urging her friend to ‘think more of yourself and less of your daughter’, what, omg, Lady Susan only ever thinks of herself, tee hee! But the way Lady Susan writes to Alicia about Reginald with the scorn in which she views him and the pride with which she describes her power over him, ‘how delightful it was to watch the variations of his countenance while I spoke…there is something agreeable in feelings so easily worked on’, I could almost pity the man if I wasn’t so disappointed in him for back-tracking the way he did and being taken in by Lady Susan yet again! However I am beginning to think that Lady Susan isn’t such a good judge of character as she thinks she is, as she thought that Reginald was ‘proud’ in daring to oppose her and that Catherine showed ‘insolent triumph’ when speaking to her about Frederica, when actually both were acting only with care and concern for Frederica rather than with any wish to promote themselves or act with spite, she had judged them based on her own motives for action, so is her mistaken self-belief in her ability to read people a weakness of hers that someone could use to their advantage? And my heart has sunk again with Lady Susan’s words that she is still planning to force Frederica to marry Sir James, though is she being driven to achieve this (with its huge difficulties now more people are involved) by stubbornness and the determination not to be beaten, so is she in fact being guided wrongly by her strong feelings and again could this a weakness that someone could use to their advantage? Hmmm, I am just beginning to see a few hints that Lady Susan may not be as strong as she thinks and may have a few chinks in her armour which could be exploited by the right person…! Oooh, this book is soooo fascinating!
Catherine writes to her mother saying that Reginald is now leaving Churchhill, but she suspects he is following Lady Susan to London and now fears that their marriage is inevitable. She adds however that she has succeeded in ensuring that Frederica stays with them in Churchhill rather than going to London with her mother. Alicia writes to Lady Susan, querying what she will do about Mainwaring, who is still in London and still pining for her. Alicia also adds that she is now not able to meet with Lady Susan while she is in London, due to her husband cancelling his plans to go to Bath and his strong dislike of Lady Susan. Lady Susan replies to Alicia saying she has arrived in London and has met with Mainwaring and has been reminded of what a better man he is compared to Reginald, even though she has agreed to marry Reginald due to the fact he will inherit when his father dies but she adds that she will try and delay the marriage for as long as possible and will also put off Reginald’s arrival in London while she continues to see Mainwaring. Oh dear, Catherine clearly is right that Lady Susan and Reginald will marry, sigh, even though she clearly doesn’t love him and is only considering marrying him for his inheritance. Poor Reginald, his foolishness over Lady Susan exasperates me but I feel sorry for him being punished for that foolishness for the rest of his life by being married to a woman who views him so scornfully and is only marrying him for his money so will doubtless be careless of him and hurt him, I imagine his love for her will enable him to explain away her bad treatment to him for a while but not for that long, and then he will be frequently hurt and unhappy! Though the fact that Lady Susan intends to delay their marriage until closer to Reginald’s father dying and him inheriting, gives me a bit of hope that something may occur in that time to alter Reginald’s feelings. I did have to guiltily chuckle at Lady Susan’s exasperation at Alicia’s husband (I really shouldn’t condone her behaviour by laughing, but she is so very witty!), that he is ‘too old to be agreeable, too young to die’! Though it has just struck me as wonderfully clever of Austen to have engineered it that Alicia and Lady Susan can’t now meet in London as obviously we wouldn’t have the letters between them if they were meeting in person, how cleverly she has overcome that difficulty which would endanger the format of this epistolary novel! And lovely lovely Catherine, with her saying to her mother that ‘we overruled her’ by ensuring that Frederica stayed at Churchhill, and I was heartened by this ‘we’ too meaning that she and Charles worked together to stand up to Lady Susan, as them being united against her implies more strength which could hopefully be useful if they challenge her further in the future. I was also heartened by Catherine’s praise of Frederica too, saying that she is completely confident that Frederica’s moral principles wouldn’t have been compromised under any influence from her mother and her mother’s friends if she had been forced to go to London, that is high praise and a comforting sign of how highly Catherine regards Frederica. And as an aside, I keep thinking wistfully of Catherine’s details of her and Frederica’s plans for how to spend their time together at Churchhill, ‘our books and conversations, with exercise, the children, and every domestic pleasure’, oooh, how idyllic that sounds and how I’d love to join them myself!
Lady Susan writes to Reginald stating they must delay the announcement of their engagement and not be together for several months because she is cautious of being disapproved of by society and by his family for considering marriage again so soon after her husband’s death. Lady Susan then writes to Alicia saying that Reginald has gone against her request and has arrived in London, and she begs Alicia to keep him occupied at her house (as he will deliver this letter to Alicia) as she has told him she is unwell but actually she needs to prepare for Mainwaring’s arrival that evening, and she further begs Alicia to convince Reginald of the impropriety of him being seen with Lady Susan. Oh wow, I am full of admiration for Lady Susan’s letter to Reginald, how artfully she writes and yet with all the appearance of not being artful, it was an incredible piece of work as she answered all of his possible objections and made it seem that her decision was just out of consideration for his relationship with his family and that she was selflessly putting this ahead of her own feelings of being desperate to see him, ‘we have been hurried on by our feelings…require a delicacy and cautiousness of conduct…the conviction of having divided the son from his parents would make me, even with you, the most miserable of beings’! And she even includes a request that he doesn’t reproach her for this decision because she is already low in spirits at not being able to see him, ‘I cannot bear reproaches, my spirits are not so high’ wow, so she is therefore trying both to get his agreement with her decision but also to avoid him arguing with this decision for fear of upsetting her, all the time whilst she has also engineered this just so she can spend time with Mainwaring! There honestly is no-one to touch her for connivance and deviousness with supreme tact, she is just a genius! However, even though I was full of admiration at her skill, clearly it didn’t work on Reginald as he arrived anyway, tee hee, poor Lady Susan, yet another thing that is not going the way she so diligently planned! But she seemed to raise her game beautifully again with how quickly she acted by sending Reginald to Alicia’s, with Mainwaring due to arrive at hers shortly, wow, she is having to juggle these men, it would give me a headache but she seems to deal with it all very calmly and in her usual quick-thinking way!
Alicia hurriedly replies to Lady Susan saying that while she was out of the house Mrs Mainwaring arrived and was complaining to Alicia’s husband (who is also Mrs Mainwaring’s guardian) about Lady Susan having been with Mainwaring every day since her arrival in London, and to make this even worse Reginald arrived at the same time and so heard all of Mrs Mainwaring’s complaints. Lady Susan replies, saying she has now successfully sent away Mainwaring and is confident of Reginald believing whatever she tells him. Omg, the drama and twists and turns with this story and Lady Susan’s life, though I can’t help chuckling at how everything seems to be unravelling for her! And omg, Reginald now knows that Lady Susan has been seeing Mainwaring and also that Mainwaring was actually there with her at the very time he was sent to Alicia’s, even though she is confident at her ability to explain this to Reginald I don’t see how even she can explain this away! And also I’m sure that Alicia’s husband who detests Lady Susan is undoubtedly bad-mouthing her to Reginald and cautioning him against marrying her! And I chuckled to imagine her having to swiftly send Mainwaring away too whilst trying not to offend him by this, though if anyone has the self-assurance and quick-thinking to deal with these disasters and to sail through them unscathed and with reputation intact, then it is undoubtedly Lady Susan! But I do wonder what Reginald will do, can he possibly believe her assurances yet again, surely even he wouldn’t be that foolish, especially with all the evidence that Mrs Mainwaring and her guardian must surely have placed before him. I wonder if Lady Susan will perhaps aim to convince Reginald that Mrs Mainwaring has a vendetta against her and is lying in order to harm her? There is definitely no hope for Reginald though if he does believe what Lady Susan says! I can’t wait to find out!
Reginald and Lady Susan write several letters to each other, him declaring that he now sees her for what she is and despises himself for being tricked by her, and breaking off their engagement, and she trying to explain things away but not succeeding in convincing him. Alicia writes to Lady Susan sympathising with the broken engagement with Reginald, and advising Lady Susan to instead marry Sir James, though warning her that Miss Mainwaring has arrived in London determined to marry Sir James herself. Alicia also adds that the Mainwarings are to part. She then concludes her letter by saying that she won’t be able to continue writing to Lady Susuan due to her husband threatening to punish her by moving them away from London if she continues the friendship. Lady Susan replies assuring Alicia that she now despises Reginald and is more pleased than ever with Mainwaring and urges her friend to do all she can to increase Mrs Mainwaring’s distress as this may harm that lady’s health and bring on her premature death which would then leave Mainwaring free to marry herself. She adds that she is still determined that Frederica will marry Sir James. Hmmm, I note that Lady Susan’s retaliation to losing this situation is to be spiteful and to look for other victories by wishing hurt on others, such as wishing for Mrs Mainwaring’s death and being determined again to force Frederica to marry Sir James, which is a significant indication of her character I feel, this drive to be victorious somewhere else when she loses one battle. As I say, she is a very fascinating character! I wonder if she will ever admit that her actions and decisions have caused her own disappointments, as at the moment she seems to blame the failure of her plans on ‘the caprices of others…I have been too easily worked on’, so the only possible self-responsibility being that she was too amenable to others, which is hysterical as she clearly has no intention of being amenable to others, tee hee, but I guess this displays her weakness again that she cannot judge her own behaviour clearly as well as not being able to judge others’ behaviours, or perhaps she phrased it like this so as to not lose face with Alicia, and equally her saying that she now despises Reginald may just be to save face too. I can’t help feeling a little sorry for her that she has lost the friendship of Alicia, as she really is looking quite alone in the world now without Reginald and Frederica too, though if she always kept some barriers up and some falseness even with Alicia then perhaps it wasn’t that much of a friendship? I can imagine her as someone who wouldn’t fear being alone though, she seems very self-reliant and completely confident in her own decision-making rather than needing to run things past other people, perhaps she just views others as a hindrance requiring her efforts to either cajole or appease, so maybe she would view life as easier on her own? Although then, I wonder how much she actually enjoys the challenge of cajoling and appeasing people and the thrill of satisfaction she gains from doing so! But anyway, Reginald, wow, I am still so shocked that he wasn’t talked round by Lady Susan! I could barely believe his words to her that ‘the spell is removed…my understanding is at length restored’ and he now feels ‘the most mortifying conviction of the imposition I have been under’, even stating his recognition of her ‘perverted abilities’! I really didn’t expect that of him, so I apologise to him! I was relieved that he didn’t agree to meet with Lady Susan though, as even though he seemed to now be fully enlightened as to her true character I still wouldn’t have doubted her ability to sweet-talk him around in person! And after pitying him for his foolishness, I am now pitying him slightly for his harshness to himself for being that foolish, as he was played by a supreme player so (although I was annoyed at him at the time) I do feel it wasn’t him being overly weak but Lady Susan being extremely skilled at manipulation! I had to chuckle at how Lady Susan had the last word though and managed to skillfully protect her reputation right to the end by not admitting any wrong-doing herself regarding Mainwaring, with her saying to Reginald that she realises his change of heart towards her was due to his parents not wanting him to marry a woman with no fortune! She really is amazing!
Catherine receives a letter from her mother saying that Reginald has arrived at home and has announced that it is all over between him and Lady Susan, and she urges Catherine and her husband and children and Frederica to come and join them. Catherine replies stating her happiness, though adding that Lady Susan concealed the rupture with Reginald when she recently visited them and took away Frederica. Awww, how kind that Catherine’s mother invited Frederica to visit with the rest of the Vernons, and I loved her words, ‘I long to see her…Frederica runs much in my thoughts’, and I can understand why Catherine is such a kind and considerate person with her having such a kind and considerate mother. And lovely Catherine again, with her making a point of speaking privately to Frederica before she was taken away by her mother, to assure her that she and Charles would be ‘always her friends’, and saying that they must write to each other often and that Frederica should tell her if she is in any distress, so even though I feel sad for Frederica that she has had to go with Lady Susan and fearful of what may happen to her regarding the marriage to Sir James, I do feel slightly less fearful for her now knowing that she has the friendship and support of Catherine. I also chuckled at Catherine’s mother saying that ‘this is the most joyful hour he (Reginald) has given us since the day of his birth’, tee hee, quite a dramatic statement there! But again, I am staggered at Lady Susan’s self-assurance with her appearing so cheerful and unembarrassed when she met with Catherine and not giving any hint of the situation with Reginald! What an ability she has to wear a mask, but I guess she just believes (and it has doubtless been proved to her many times) that if you approach a difficult situation with confidence then you will be believed.
The conclusion of the book states that Catherine and Frederica had to stop writing to each other as Lady Susan was inspecting Frederica’s letters. Catherine therefore went to London to talk to Lady Susan about Frederica, and found her agreeable to Frederica staying with them again. Three weeks after Frederica’s departure from London, the Vernons learnt that Lady Susan had married Sir James. It is also stated that Frederica and Reginald’s engagement will be shortly announced. Yay, a lovely happy ending, but phew what a lot of twists and turns to get there! But wow, I can hardly believe that Lady Susan married Sir James, I hadn’t expected that, and I’m intrigued with her reasoning for this. I would have loved there to be one last letter from her explaining this decision, was she driven by the fear of being alone, or was it that Mainwaring rejected her like everyone else had, or was it that the gossip about her and Mainwaring made it too risky to continue the relationship and she felt she could only preserve her reputation by being respectably married, or is she planning to continue to see Mainwaring whilst married to Sir James?! And does she repent of any of her actions (though I suspect not!)? But I guess she had no-one to write a letter to as she can no longer write to Alicia, though would she even be honest in her feelings to Alicia? I was thinking she could have conveniently written to Mainwaring which would have given a hint as to what her future plans were regarding him and probably also her reasons for marrying Sir James as she would have had to explain this decision to him in order to keep him on side (eg, the marriage was perhaps just to preserve her reputation), but perhaps Austen felt this would then stretch the pattern she had followed throughout the book with the writers she had chosen to feature by suddenly introducing Mainwaring as a correspondence when he had never been one before? But I personally would have forgiven that as I just didn’t want this book to end, tee hee, I just want more and more letters and for it to continue forever! But I guess Austen perhaps dealt with my questions above with her observation that people would never know if Lady Susan was happy in the marriage because her word could not be believed, and that she feels that Sir James deserves everyone’s pity. And I wasn’t displeased that the last letter was from Catherine, as I really grew to like her, and perhaps it is some kind of poetic balance that she had the final word as she was kind of the antidote to Lady Susan and was her polar opposite, so perhaps it emphasises that good has triumphed over evil, with Catherine (representing good) having the last written word rather than Lady Susan (representing evil) having the last written word. And indeed, Catherine was as much of a fascinating character to me as Lady Susan was, and I was as much in admiration of her determination and resilience and kindness as I was in admiration of Lady Susan’s deviousness and adaptability. I did like the examples of Austen’s typical humour right to the end too, with her saying that the necessary breaking-off of the correspondence between Catherine and Frederica (due to Lady Susan reading the letters) was ‘to the great detriment of the Post Office revenue’, tee hee, and that the person she pitied the most was Miss Mainwaring for having wasted such a lot of money on dresses in order to tempt Sir James!
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading this short story! It was really quite gripping seeing the characters unfold, and also fascinating to be able to nosily see what had been concealed in some letters and revealed in others, and I also loved the humour and the surprises and shocks at the behaviour of Lady Susan. I can’t help wondering who Austen based the character of Lady Susan on though, surely not one of her family or friends or neighbours?! It also reminded me of the loveliness of writing letters and the personal nature of this, and makes me think I should write letters more. And this book also reinforces my preference for epistolary novels and my wish to champion this format, as I am aware that one fault people state with epistolary novels is that they are inevitably one-sided but I think Austen dealt proficiently with this by having letters from several different people, plus one of my favourite things whilst reading this novel was that I could tackle the one-sidedness there was by the joy of analysing and speculating on every letter in order to look at it from every angle and to search for other sides to the story, as demonstrated here with all my comments and speculations on what is really a short novel, I feel I have written as long a review as I would have done if it had been a large novel, tee hee, and this was because the epistolary format of the novel allowed all that space for beautiful tantalising speculation, as well as Austen’s skilful writing of course which gave the reader hints on the characters that we could think about further! She is a genius writer!
I am tempted (as I always am when finishing one Austen novel) to re-read all of her other wonderful novels, but I am now particularly tempted to re-read some more of those lesser known novels (as I feel the Lady Susan novel is perhaps slightly less well known than her other more famous novels). So I will begin with The Watsons which I think she wrote not too long after she wrote Lady Susan (although I note that The Watsons isn’t completed, which might be very frustrating!). I see her short story Love and Friendship is also in the form of letters (continuing with my love of epistolary novels) so I’d like to re-read that too. I have also recently read Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon, so I will aim to put my review of that book on this site soon. And continuing with my love of Jane Austen, I have been meaning for a while to buy Deirdre LeFaye’s book Jane Austen’s Letters (and the letters theme ties in nicely with my newly ignited love of letters from the Lady Susan book). I was also at times put in mind of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel when I was reading Lady Susan, as I remember I changed my mind quite drastically about Rachel just as changed my mind quite drastically about Lady Susan, so it would be interesting to read that book again and compare the clever writing of both these authors and how they both achieved that. And I am keen to keep up my love of epistolary novels, and have a few of them waiting enticingly on my shelves to be read, such as Death on the Downbeat by Sebastian Farr, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield, and I have also picked up an absolute treasure of a book dating from 1901 called An Englishwoman’s Love-Letters (which is stated on the front of the book that it is anonymous but I see after googling that the author is Laurence Housman). On my googling for other suggestions of epistolary novels, I also came across Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer which is a fantasy epistolary novel set in a magical world in Regency times, and I’m always a keen fan of magical books plus the Regency times reminds me of Jane Austen plus it’s epistolary, this book feels a definite win! Also The Documents in the Case by Dorothy Sayers popped up with my hunt for epistolary novels to try, and I adore her Lord Peter Wimsey books (though sadly he isn’t in this book). But I think I’d better stop googling for epistolary novels now as I already have plenty of books to be going on with!
