JANE AUSTEN – TEENAGE WRITINGS

Pubblicato in Italia con il titolo Juvenilia. Una raccolta di racconti di una giovane Jane Austen, scritti prima che l’autrice si dedicasse ai suoi famosi romanzi. Una serie di storie, versi, e sketch drammatici divertente e preziosa per tutti i fan dell’autrice.

 
Jane Austen is famous for writing six successful novels that even more than 200 years later are still widely read and adapted. But before becoming a successful novelist, the teenage Jane Austen spent a lot of her time reading, especially fiction and classic literature. From reading Northanger Abbey we know that she loved Gothic novels and that she also enjoyed Samuel Richardson. And she often imitated or wrote a parody of what she read. Three notebooks are left of her early writings, written between 1787 and 1793 and now kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford and in the British Museum.
These three notebooks include stories, fragments, dramatic sketches and verses. They are witty, funny, and entertaining. There is romance and marriage, but also sexual misbehavior, theft, brawling, and even murder. They are written for her family and friends and often they are dedicated to them. I really enjoyed reading this collection of early stories, often laughing out loud. A must-have for all Jane Austen fans!