Book Review: Sanditon, Lady Susan & The History of England by Jane Austen

Title: Sanditon, Lady Susan, and the History of England
Author: Jane Austen
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication Date: July 2016 (2011)
Pages: 504
Format: Hardback
Genre: Literary Classics
Source: Bought Copy



A collection containing some Jane Austen's earliest work - her hilarious brief History of England, illustrated by her favourite sister, which is a worthy forerunner of 1066 & All That, to the unfinished Sanditon, the novel of her maturity on which she was working at her death aged 42. (Goodreads Synopsis)

This collection contains several of Austen's childhood stories and some of her later unfinished manuscripts. The early works are full of biting satire, and it's interesting to watch her style develop from story to story. Having recently seen the film Love and Friendship (based not on the story entitled Love and Friendship, but rather on one called Lady Susan), I was interested to read the basis for that, and I see the film stayed pretty true to the writing. I loved the unfinished pieces The Watsons and Sanditon. It's a shame we'll never know how they would have concluded.