Lady Vernon and Her Daughter by Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

This is an expansion of Austen's novel Lady Susan, so for this review to make sense you need to know something about that novel as well.  A lot of my reactions come from the differences between the characters in the two novles.  Lady Susan is Austen's earliest effort at writing but wasn't published until after her death.  It is a novel completely composed of letters.  In it, Lady Susan Vernon is a manipulative flirt who is determined to get herself and her daughter married well.  Marrying well is a legitimate endeavor in Austen's time and novels, but Lady Susan does go about it in an unpleasant manner.  In the original book Lady Susan's letters show her to be an heartless coquette who doesn't care for her daughter or seemingly anyone else. 

In Lady Vernon and Her Daughter, Lady Susan is a very admirable character.  Her reputation as a flirt is undeserved.  She has a good relationship with her daughter, who is also a much better character in this version.  In Lady Susan the daughter Frederica is uneducated and not socially adept.  In this expansion, she prefers nature because of a scholarly bent and is socially timid and inexperienced while still being polite and pleasant.  I prefer Lady Vernon and Her Daughter as far as liking the characters.  The authors try to stay true to Austen, the book contains a great many letters.  Some of the lines and dialogue in Lady Vernon are taken straight from Austen.  It isn't of course as good as Austen (because nothing is!)  The letters interfere with the flow of the narrative somewhat.  Becuase the authors have changed Lady Susan's character, it raises some questions about the story.  I kept wondering why Lady Vernon and her daughter did nothing to correct the misconceptions of those around them.  It is also odd that Lady Vernon would be close friends with Mrs. Johnson, the Manwarings, etc, when she is too good for them in this version.

It was an unusual story as they changed so much from Austen's original character.  It was nice, though, to get a more positive story that felt more like Austen's usual style.  Lady Susan didn't fit Austen's usual heroines.   It's also always fun to get more about Austen's world and characters and these authors do a good job of it.  It is a fairly long book for what it actually contains, but it is worth the time if you're a fairly fast reader.