whose introduction to the 1932 edition of Jas letterers is included in the Le Faye edition is ,I think, the editor of the volume to which you and Le Faye refer,Barbara.

I too find it incredible that these letters were so dismissed when they first appeared in that edition, but the times were different and so were attitudes.And so perhaps were the expectations.

As Chapman says ( a little defensivley,IMHO!)

....It would not have been consonant with the sisters temperament , or with their way of life, to exchange letters of sentiment or disquisition. It would not have suited Jane Austen's sense of propriety to charge her sister sixpence ( or thereabouts) for opinions on religion or politics, on life or letters, whihc were known already, or would keep.But news would not wait and news must always give satisfaction

I suppose, if one wanted, to paraphrase Sir Walter Scott " bow-wow" strain type letters, full of invective about the politics of the day, then one would be disappointed in the content of JA's letters.

But as her novels only subtly mentioned great events( they are there if we care to search for them) then why would we expect her intimate letter to be any different?

Dismissing them would be to miss an awful amount of wit and very intimate social history,IMHO.

Interesting, isn't it?