Pubblicato in Italia con il titolo Lettere di Jane Austen. Una raccolta di lettere che mostrano scorci di vita quotidiana nella vita di Jane Austen.
In Regency times, writing letters was one of women’s primary duties and Jane Austen was a keen writer of letters. However, after her death, most of her letters were destroyed by her sister Cassandra to protect her reputation (this is also the theme of a novel by Gill Hornby, Miss Austen, now also a BBC series, not yet arrived in Italy).
Luckily, there is still a collection of letters that give us a picture of Jane Austen, her character, her witticism (in a letter to her sister Cassandra, regarding Mrs Knight’s desire of leaving her wheel, she says: “if she persisted in giving it, I would spin nothing with it but a Rope to hang myself”.) Most of the letters are written to her sister Cassandra, but there are also letters to her brothers and her friend Martha Llyod in which she recounts, in detail, everydays’ events, people she meets, balls she attends, stories she’s written. We get insight into her feelings about the publication of her novels, especially Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice: “No, indeed, I am never too busy to think of S&S. I can no more forget it, than a mother can forget her sucking child.”
Selected Letters is an intriguing and entertaining insight into the life of an author that 250 years after her birth still is widely read!
