Lady Susan | Jane Austen

Although the primary focus of this work is the selfish behaviour of Lady Susan as she engages in flirtations and searches for suitable husbands for herself and her young daughter, the real action shares its importance with Austen's manipulation of her characters' behaviour by means of their reactions to the letters that they receive.

Austen demonstrates the subjectivity of the opinions by presenting them – primarily – in the letters of one woman to another, thereby suggesting the established literary motifs of feminine gossip and jealousy. Readers create their own opinion of Lady Susan, as they would with a real acquaintance.