Laura agrees to write to Marianne and detail her life experiences to "satisfy the curiosity of Marianne" and to teach her useful lessons (Poplawski 183). Laura initially disagrees with Isabel's assessment that she is safe from "misfortunes" simply because of her advanced age (Austen 516). This consists of a reply from Laura to Isabel. This initial letter sets up the rest of Austen's narrative through Laura's letters to Marianne.
Isabel argues that because Laura is turning 55, she is past the danger of "disagreeable lovers" and "obstinate fathers" (Austen 516).
Isabel asks Laura to tell the "misfortunes and adventures" of her life to Isabel's daughter Marianne (Austen 516). This presents a glimpse into the life of Laura from Isabel's perspective. They contain, among other works, Love and Freindship, written when she was 14, and The History of England, written at 15. These still exist, one in the Bodleian Library and the other two in the British Museum. While aged 11–18, Austen wrote her tales in three notebooks. The young Austen signals her audacity by turning the figure of the predatory male seducer into a highly unconventional (and middle-aged) seductress.Love and Friendship is a juvenile story by Jane Austen, dated 1790. In his fiction, resourceful young women record their efforts to resist the advances of scheming libertines. In her youth, Austen, along with many of her contemporaries, was a fan of Samuel Richardson, who turned epistolary novels into a high art. Many novels of the late 18th century were, like Lady Susan, written entirely in letters. The young Austen was experimenting with an unusual variation on a conventional form. Indeed, the book’s problem – as the tyro author must have soon seen – is that the monstrous, calculating protagonist is the only really engaging character. The letters penned by the other characters are not half as much fun. The young Austen clearly felt a frisson in having a protagonist who, in the privacy of her correspondence, openly scorned codes of propriety and morality. Alicia is unfortunately married (for money, naturally) to the gouty and morally upright Mr Johnson, a man who is “too old to be agreeable, and too young to die”. We know all this because the novella is written entirely in letters, and we have before us the missives written by Lady Susan to her equally cynical and pleasure-loving confidante Alicia.
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