In the mid-1990s, theaters were filled with movies inspired by Jane Austen’s novels. In 1995 alone, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Clueless (a modern take on Emma) came out. Those who would rather see a more faithful adaptation of Emma didn’t have to wait long; a version starring Gwyneth Paltrow was released in 1996.
The movies didn’t completely dry up after that, but they did slow down. So when Love and Friendship was released in 2016, Austen fans gobbled it up.
Love and Friendship is based on Lady Susan, an epistolary novella that Austen probably wrote around the age of 19. The movie’s title is a little confusing, because Austen wrote another epistolary story titled “Love and Friendship” in her mid-teens.
“Love and Friendship”
If you’re an Austen fan and have not yet treated yourself to her minor works, I highly recommend them. “Love and Friendship” shows her wit — it’s not yet polished but still uproariously funny. The story begins with two short letters exchanged between Isabel and her friend, Laura. Isabel asks Laura a favor: Would she write to Marianne, Isabel’s daughter, and share the story of her misfortunes? Laura agrees. The rest of the story is a series of letters, all from Laura to Marianne, about her trials and tribulations as a romantic heroine. The 15-year-old Austen doesn’t hold back; Laura’s history is ridiculous from the start. “My Father was a native of Ireland & an inhabitant of Wales,” Laura begins. “My Mother was the natural Daughter of a Scotch Peer by an italian Opera-girl–I was born in Spain & received my Education at a Convent in France.”
“Love and Friendship” contains the kernel of a character type that Austen developed in a more sophisticated way in Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility: a heroine who is too caught up in romance to be sensible. The story reaches the height of ridiculousness when Laura and a friend, Sophia, observe a tragic carriage accident.
Sophia shrieked & fainted on the Ground–I screamed and instantly ran mad–. We remained thus mutually deprived of our Senses some minutes, & on regaining them were deprived of them again–. For an Hour & a Quarter did we continue in this unfortunate Situation–Sophia fainting every moment & I running Mad as often.
The next day, Sophia falls violently ill. As Laura nurses Sophia, her unfortunate friend advises her to “beware of fainting-fits .. Though at the time they may be refreshing & Agreeable yet beleive me they will in the end, if too often repeated & at improper seasons, prove destructive to your Constitution. … Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint–.”
“Love and Friendship” is a quick, fun read that treats readers to a glimpse of Austen’s developing sense of humor.
Lady Susan
Lady Susan is more mature and more serious than “Love and Friendship.” Here the letters fly back and forth between several different characters, unfolding the story of a selfish woman who manipulates others to get what she wants. In many ways, she is very different from Austen’s other main characters. Even at her most mean-spirited, Emma Woodhouse is a far better person than Susan Vernon; Emma, after all, has a good heart, even when she is being thoughtless and rude. Lady Susan is nothing short of a villainess who bewitches most of the men around her. The mother of a daughter of marriageable age, she is also older than Austen’s heroines, including Anne Elliott.
But Lady Susan does have the financial desperation that many women in Austen’s novels face. As a widow, she is forced to depend on friends and relatives to keep a roof over her head. Her story begins as she is evicted from one house after “engaging at the same time… the affections of two Men who were neither of them at liberty to bestow them.” The joy of a good epistolary work is that you get to see things from the points of view of different characters. Austen accomplishes that well here. Readers observe Lady Susan from her own point of view and through the eyes of others as she plays with yet another man’s affections and tries to force her daughter to marry the wealthy but dim Sir James Martin. Austen created many delightful characters. Wicked Susan Vernon is definitely among them.
Love and Friendship
Love and Friendship stays true to Lady Susan while making the necessary changes for an epistolary story to work as a movie. Although some of the plot is still propelled by letters, there are many face-to-face encounters that did not occur in Austen’s novella. The movie even brings in an additional character at the beginning so that Lady Susan will have someone with whom she can share thoughts that would otherwise be revealed in letters to her friend, Alicia Johnson.
The movie’s Susan Vernon is every bit as manipulative as her counterpart in the novella, but as we see her in action, it becomes clear just how she can to win men over — even sensible men who have been warned about her — “without the charm of Youth.” I never found myself wanting her to succeed in her plots, but it was easy to see how she might be able to do so, despite the best efforts of those who saw through her.
While Lady Susan may be charming, my favorite character was Sir James Martin. In the movie we see him in his full glory. He is perpetually cheerful and unbelievably simple. I have to bite my tongue to keep from sharing my favorite example of Sir James’ astonishing (yet somehow endearing) stupidity. I want readers who have not yet seen the film to enjoy the surprise. Watch the movie, and you’ll know exactly which scene I’m thinking of.
If you have read Austen’s major novels but haven’t gone as far as to seek out the rest of her writing, I encourage you to do so. While there’s far more to her minor works than “Love and Friendship” and Lady Susan, those two pieces are delightful examples of her youthful humor and her adeptness at creating characters. And if you love Austen in particular or period pieces in general, you should not miss Love and Friendship.