Love and Freindship (Audio)

Love and Freindship (the way ‘Friendship’ was spelt at that time) is clearly a parody of romantic novels Austen read as a child. This is clear even from the subtitle, “Deceived in Freindship and Betrayed in Love,” which neatly undercuts the title.

Written in epistolary form, it resembles a fairy tale as much as anything else, featuring wild coincidences and turns of fortune, but Austen is determined to lampoon the conventions of romantic stories, right down to the utter failure of romantic fainting spells, which always turn out dreadfully for the female characters.

In this story one can see the development of Austen’s sharp wit and disdain for romantic sensibility, so characteristic of her later novels.

The first section of Love and Freindship is a funny, rambling tale told through letters. Imagine what a soap opera written by Austen would be like, and you will have it.

The preface to this work states they have not corrected the spelling, punctuation or odd capitalization Austen used in her time.