Posted by A-M on June 15, 1997 at 23:48:31:
JA was a fabulous and naughty writer. I'm currently reading her juvenilia, and it shows her sense of humour unfettered. The 6 popular novels she wrote are so constrained compared with her unfettered writings from her youth. Obviously when she took on a project for the purpose of publishing it she made it sufficiently respectable for consumption by the general public.
Up till now I had expected JA to have been like Elinor Dashwood or perhaps Anne Elliott. Now I think that she was like Elisabeth Bennett, and perhaps even less restrained than that popular lady. I now have no problem imagining JA playing tricks on people and having a good belly-laugh about it.
Has anyone else read her early stuff? What do you think about them?
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