that is illustrated by Juliet McMaster. I think she could be called a Jane Austen scholar.

She has a nice essay in the back which is aimed the nominal audience of this book, children. She believes that Jane was 12 when she wrote this story. She talks about the differences between her mature novels and her Juvenalia, since the first are more restrained and the second more rowdy. Here's a little of what she says about the story:

"The young Jane, I think, was reacting against the restrictions placed on women's behavior in her day. Her joke is to make Cassandra break all the rules. For instance, refined ladies were supposed to have delicate appetites; but Cassandra devours half-a-dozen ice creams at one sitting. Women weren't meant to go about with their heads uncovered ...; but Cassandra, once she has used her bonnet to pay her bill, still walks confidently through the streets. Women weren't meant to travel unescorted; but Cassandra takes an impulsive trip to Hampstead and back. And women generally needed looking after. At the climax of Cecilia, a novel that Jane knew very well, the heroine gets into such difficulties over paying a hackney-coachman that she actually goes mad. But Cassandra manages her troublesome hackney-coachman with great aplomb."