Jane Austen's Letters by: Austen, Jane/Deidre Le Faye (editor)
Hardcover. London, The Folio Society, 1st thus, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, printed silk bound boards with gilt buckram title stamp to spine. Housed in a red cardboard slipcase. 642 pages. Collected and edited by Deirdre Le Faye. Index. Color frontispiece. Color plates which illustrate objects, people, places mentioned in the letters or associated with Jane Austen. Her letters afford a unique insight into the daily life of the intimate and gossipy, observant and informative--they read much like the novels themselves. They bring alive her family and friends, her surroundings and contemporary events, all with a freshness unparalleled in modern biographies. Most important, we recognize the unmistakable voice of the author of such novels as Pride and Prejudice and Emma. We see the shift in her writing from witty and amusing descriptions of the social life of town and country, to a thoughtful and constructive tone while writing about the business of literary composition. Clean, bright copy.