Lady Susan (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. A Regency Epistolary Romance of Courtship, Ambition, and Female AgencyBy Jane Austen
Length3h 52m
About this audiobook
Jane Austen's *Lady Susan* is a compact epistolary novella centered on its eponymous widow, whose intelligence, charm, and calculated amorality enable her to manipulate relatives, suitors, and social expectations. Through a sequence of letters, Austen presents courtship as a contest of rhetoric and strategy, exposing the economic vulnerability of women and the hypocrisy of a society that prizes female decorum while rewarding advantageous marriage. The work's unusually conspicuous antiheroine, sharp tonal irony, and tightly controlled correspondence anticipate Austen's mature comic novels, while its unfinished, more openly satirical form recalls the eighteenth-century traditions of the letter novel and comedy of manners. Written in the late 1790s, when Austen was developing the narrative techniques and social vision that would define her career, *Lady Susan* reveals her early mastery of dialogue, characterization, and moral observation. Although the novella was not published during her lifetime—it appeared posthumously in 1871—it demonstrates her sustained interest in the tensions between individual desire, family authority, and the limited legal and financial options available to women. Lady Susan's brilliance is both her weapon and her moral danger. Readers of Austen's better-known novels will find here a fascinating miniature of the themes that later received fuller treatment: marriage, reputation, inheritance, and the gap between appearance and intention. *Lady Susan* is especially rewarding for those interested in Austen's darker wit and experimental beginnings, offering an incisive, entertaining, and intellectually provocative portrait of social power in motion.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes.
- The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists.
- A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing.
- An Author Biography reveals milestones in the author's life, illuminating the personal insights behind the text.
- A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings.
- Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (67.3K)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreLiterary Classics, General Fiction
Length3 hrs 52 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 15, 2022
LanguageEnglish
Stolz und VorurteilJane Austen13h 58m4.4 (5.6M)$18 · $0.00
Emma & Mansfield ParkJane Austen35h 16m4.2 (1.5K)$1.99 · $0.00
Die großen Liebes-Klassiker der WeltliteraturJane Austen, Emily Brontë, Leo Tolstoi, Charlotte Brontë, Alexandre Dumas, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Rudyard Kipling, Stendhal, Eugenie Marlitt, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Elisabeth Bürstenbinder259h 15m4.4 (11)$1 · $0.00
Love, Lust and Passion in Regency TimesJane Austen, Fanny Burney, Eliza Haywood, Mary Wollstonecraft, Georgette Heyer, Maria Edgeworth, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Mrs. Olifant, William Makepeace Thackeray, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding399h 17m$1.99 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Including Novels, Personal Letters & Scraps)Jane Austen90h 17m4.7 (1.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen13h 29m4.4 (5.4M)$1.99 · $0.00
The Greatest Feminist Classics in One VolumeJane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Fanny Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rebecca Harding Davis, Louisa May Alcott, Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Henrik Ibsen, Kate Chopin, Grant Allen, Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett, H. G. Wells, Gene Stratton-Porter, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, Ada Cambridge, Mary Johnston, Marietta Holley, Elia Wilkinson Peattie, Virginia Woolf, Zona Gale, Elizabeth von Arnim, D. H. Lawrence, Margaret Oliphant, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Margaret Mitchell, Harriet Martineau, Nikolai Leskov, Margaret Deland, Sojourner Truth, Mary Ware Dennett, John Stuart Mill, Sarah H. Bradford, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller890h 15m4.6 (13)$1.99 · $0.00
PersuasionJane Austen7h 44m4.3 (953.4K)$16 · $0.00
Northanger AbbeyJane Austen6h 59m4.0 (551.1K)$10 · $0.00
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen10h 40m4.4 (5.6M)$10 · $0.00
PersuasionJane Austen7h 12m4.3 (933.3K)$10 · $0.00
Mansfield ParkJane Austen14h 23m4.0 (461.9K)$10 · $0.00
Sense and SensibilityJane Austen10h 28m4.2 (1.5M)$16 · $0.00
Love & FreindshipJane Austen1h 15m3.7 (13.6K)$6 · $0.00
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen19m4.4 (5.4M)$14 · $0.00
Die beliebtesten Liebesromane der Weltliteratur (15 Klassiker in einem Buch)Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Leo Tolstoi, Charlotte Brontë, Alexandre Dumas, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Rudyard Kipling, Stendhal, Eugenie Marlitt, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Elisabeth Bürstenbinder259h 12m4.3 (12)$2 · $0.00
#EnemiesToLovers Classics CollectionJane Austen, Fanny Burney, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Lucy Maud Montgomery, George Eliot, William Shakespeare, Lady Sydney Morgan, J.M. Barrie, Samuel Hopkins Adams, E. M. Hull193h 8m$1.99 · $0.00
EmmaJane Austen17h 43m$1.99 · $0.00
Mansfield Park (Les Trois Cousines) - L'édition intégrale: Le Parc de MansfieldJane Austen11h 49m$1.99 · $0.00
Toutes les Œuvres Majeures de Jane Austen (L'édition intégrale)Jane Austen68h 56m$1.99 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
These Precious DaysAnn Patchett11h 14m4.5 (45.2K)$29 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 50m4.6 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust16h 8m4.5 (10.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lessons in TruthH. Emilie3h 50m4.6 (1.4K)$4.70 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m4.5 (6.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 36m4.5 (75K)$3 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
The North American IndianEdward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge6h4.5 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Uncensored 13 Chapter Version + The Revised 20 Chapter Version (Annotated)Oscar Wilde16h 12m4.5 (2.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
Grimoire Of The Everyday WitchIsadora Lys / Virginia Santos5h 35m4.5 (3.9K)$9 · $0.00
Winnie-the-PoohAlan Alexander Milne2h 52m4.5 (401.1K)$3 · $0.00
Sitting PrettyRebekah Taussig7h 33m4.5 (18.9K)$26 · $0.00
The Poetic Edda & The Prose EddaSnorri Sturluson, Saemund Sigfusson9h 34m4.5 (4K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Satires & Essays of Mark Twain (Annotated)Mark Twain23h 21m4.5 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesLucy Maud Montgomery11h 10m4.4 (1.3M)$8 · $0.00
The Posthumous Memoirs Of Brás CubasMachado De Assis7h 39m4.4 (120.4K)$5 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
Glen AffricKarine Giebel22h 51m4.5 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
The Book Of NegroesLawrence Hill15h 45m4.5 (107.3K)$33 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Lieutenant Hornblower (Annotated)C. S. Forester11h 41m4.5 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
Vanity FairMakepeace Thackeray35h 5m4.0 (158.7K)$2 · $0.00
Lady SusanJane Austen2h 23m3.7 (70.1K)Free
Jane Austen - The Complete Novels (Special Edition)Jane Austen78h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$8 · $0.00
Lady SusanJane Austen2h 27m3.9 (73.7K)$2.30 · $0.00
Lady SusanJane Austen2h 26m3.8 (59.8K)$3 · $0.00
Lady SusanJane Austen2h 25m3.8 (63.7K)$2.30
Lady SusanJane Austen2h 33m3.8 (65K)$15
Vanity Fair (Annotated)Makepeace Thackeray35h 14m4.1 (145.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
Vanity FairWilliam Makepeace Thackeray32h 46m3.9 (156.7K)$2.30
New Grub StreetGeorge Gissing21h 58m4.0 (9.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Luck of Barry Lyndon (Historical Novel)William Makepeace Thackeray13h 17m3.7 (4.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Augustus Carp, Esq., by Himself: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man (Annotated)H. H. Sir Bashford6h 43m3.9 (1.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
Piping Hot! (Pot-Bouille)Émile Zola13h 7m4.0 (4.4K)$2 · $0.00
Vanity FairWilliam Makepeace Thackeray33h 33m3.8 (242.6K)$1.80 · $0.00
The Way We Live NowAnthony Trollope37h 10m4.2 (20.2K)$21 · $0.00
The EgoistGeorge Meredith21h 25m3.7 (8.5K)$21 · $0.00
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela AndrewsHenry Fielding1h 18m3.6 (1K)$2.30 · $0.00
The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. (Annotated)William Makepeace Thackeray13h 16m3.8 (3.9K)$1.20 · $0.00
Elmer Gantry (Annotated)Sinclair Lewis19h 30m4.5 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00