Our book group choice for December 2023 is Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Forget matchmaking heroines and dashing suitors. Step into the daring world of Lady Susan, Jane Austen’s unpublished masterpiece where morality dances a waltz with desire.
Meet Lady Susan Vernon, a captivating widow whose beauty is matched only by her cunning. Driven by financial desperation and an insatiable appetite for power, she weaves a web of glittering flirtation and ruthless scheming. Her targets? A wealthy fool for a husband, and her own daughter as pawn in a twisted game of social conquest.
Through a whirlwind of scandalous letters, witness Lady Susan’s machinations as she:
- Charms married men with whispered secrets and smoldering glances.
- Manipulates her naive daughter into an unwanted marriage.
- Fights tooth and nail against rivals who threaten her carefully laid plans.
But in this game of hearts and fortunes, can passion truly blind, or will virtue rise from the ashes of deception? Lady Susan is a sharp, unconventional Austen experience. It’s a novel that challenges expectations, exposes societal hypocrisy, and celebrates the power (and danger) of a woman who defies the rules.
Ready to be captivated? Dive into Lady Susan and discover a side of Austen you never knew existed. Just be warned: you might never see romantic entanglements the same way again.
Discussion Questions
- Lady Susan is an epistolary novel, how did you find this device in carrying the story and why did Austen write it in this way?
- It was a very formal polite society in C18th, but could show feelings in letters. This discrepancy between public and private allows people to manipulate others, both by using the forced in-person politeness and manipulation through the letters. Here they are presented in a novel for entertainment, did you enjoy the manipulations and do you think a modern-day has more in-person honesty and would that prevent this book from happening today?
- Is Lady Susan an unlikable and cruel character who is punished at the end of the book? Or is she a modern-day heroine, trapped by the limitations placed on women at that time who succeeds in getting a rich husband at the end?
- How is the lack of freedom for women at the time shown in the novel, and could you call this a feminist novel?
- What do you think of the men in the book?
- What do you think of Lady Susan’s treatment of Fredericka? Are they alike? And what is Fredericka’s purpose in the narrative?
- Love in the novel has a very transactional nature, everyone is concerned about what they can get out of it, family standing, money, devotion. Does anyone love anyone? Or is this an accurate reflection on the purpose of marriage in the C18th?
- The book was published after Austen’s death, but were you aware it was written when she was just 19 years old? Does the novel show her talent, why did she discard it? Feel free to speculate as to why it wasn’t released in her lifetime.
- Not everyone has read Austen before: which of her books would you recommend as the best example of her work?
- To whom would you recommend this book? Why?
Individual Ratings
Anthony's Rating 
Hayley's Rating
Willow's Rating 
DKB's Rating
Kelby's Rating
EmmaJ's Rating
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Sue's Rating
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Jo's Rating