Love and Freindship

arts, books, fiction, drama · EN

Love and Freindship is a captivating melodramatic epistolary novelette penned by the talented Jane Austen at the tender age of fourteen. Although she gained fame for her later novels published in her thirties, Austen was already an active writer by age twelve, often creating epistolary tales like Love and Freindship. This charming work, included in her collection of early writings known as the Juvenilia, is comprised of a series of fifteen letters, primarily narrated by the protagonist, Laura, who shares her remarkable personal history with her friend Isabel’s daughter. With a sharp wit, Austen cleverly satirizes the sentimental novels popular in her time. Notably, her early works, including Love and Freindship, are often published with their original spelling intact, making the titles misspelling all the more striking. Dedicated to her cousin Eliza de Feuillide, who is thought to have inspired several characters in Austen’s later works, Love and Freindship remains a delightful glimpse