The manuscripts that survive from Jane Austen's maturity offer a unique insight into her life as a creative writer. This volume collects together, for the first time, all the literary manuscripts from Austen's adult years (with the exception of the cancelled chapters of Persuasion, in this edition printed with the finished novel), together with letters discussing the art of fiction, and her record of responses to her novels. Included here are the novella 'Lady Susan', the novel fragments of 'The Watsons' and 'Sanditon', poems and charades, and the comic 'Plan of a Novel . In an Appendix are...

Belinda (1801) tackles issues of gender and race in a manner at once comic and thought-provoking. Braving the perils of the marriage market, Belinda learns to think for herself as the examples of her friends prove singularly unreliable.