Love and Freindship
Jane Austen
Read by Cori Samuel
Love and Freindship [sic] is a juvenile story by Jane Austen, dated 1790, when Austen was 14 years old. Love and Freindship (the misspelling is one of many in the story) 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.
Summary revised from Wikipedia by Cori Samuel. Music from Schubert's Fantasy in C Major, at musopen.org. (1 hr 9 min)
Chapters
| 1 Letters 01 | 28:06 | Read by Cori Samuel |
| 2 Letters 11 – 13 | 22:52 | Read by Cori Samuel |
| 3 Letters 14 – 15 | 18:46 | Read by Cori Samuel |
Reviews
Hilarious!
haj
Jane Austen was a genius at age 14, and this proves it. Excellent reading by Cori Samuel.
love and friendship
??
bra va GREAT BOOK
Young Jane was a genius
Barbie Chyqa
The narrator was 5/5 and made this silly little book fun to listen to. Jane Austen's future genius at observing the world around her and making a compelling narrative from it showed even at a young age. But this book is clearly written by a young person. Female friendships are formed by sharing secrets the minute you meet. Any information is absorbed through fainting. Parents die when they're not in sight. Men exist to make bold proclamations of love or do something low brow like steal from unsuspecting young women, after which they're conveniently jailed or die in horrid accidents. Women go on adventures and lie and steal and matchmake, and when caught call to the power of their gentler nature. Then in the end they die or retire in romantic little villages with a nice annual income. There's also a lot of emphasis on the perils of fainting, so I think that habit really bothered Jane.
What can I say?
Paul Busman
An unknown (to me) Jane Austen? I swooned, multiple times, in multiple locations. I went instantly mad. I came down with a cold that confined me to bed for a month or two, which luckily did not devolve into rampant consumption. I lost any sense and sensibility I might have had, with no sign either of pride nor of prejudice. Let me employ all my powers of persuasion to urge lovers of Jane Austen to enjoy this early, highly sarcastic work.
Enjoyable
CB
This is a fun story to listen to, if you like to hear a young woman's version of how she imagines a lady's life might unfold. It has all the flare of Jane Austen mixed with a child's look at an adult world. Anyone with a sense of humor will at least smile at this work.
Love, and Friendship
Gilbert Woten
I have enjoyed the adventure of the three letters, the dramatic, and emotional path of words elegantly placed in history, finding myself in a romantic little place in Scotland, anxious over time to return back to letter one.
Hilarious
Rai
This one had me laughing throughout the whole story. Not that it was intended to be humorous, but the things that happen are so random. Knowing this was written by a 14 year old helped my perspective. Reader did beautifully!
cpassley
this was a lovely piece of work that was wonderfully read. kudos to the reader. starting here on my jane austen binge. looking forward to seeing... listening to her grow through her writings.