13 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if love arrives at the door, friendship takes minutes, and common sense never gets an invitation?
Laura has a tale of misfortune to tell, and she means to make every feeling count. At her friend Isabel's request, she writes to Isabel's daughter, Marianne. Her story begins with Edward, a cold, wet stranger at her parents' cottage in Wales. Love follows at once, with marriage close behind.
In Jane Austen's Love and Freindship, grand emotions leave little room for practical thought. Laura and her equally dramatic friend Sophia scorn money while needing it, and refuse to work or plan. Written when Austen was a teenager, this short novel in letters turns sentimental romance into a fast, gloriously silly comedy.
What you’ll discover
- A wonderfully vain storyteller Watch Laura describe herself as a heroine while failing to notice her own vanity.
- Romance without the brakes Meet Edward, whose sudden arrival sends love and marriage racing past ordinary caution.
- Friendship at full volume Follow Laura and Sophia through extravagant feelings, selfish choices, and a readiness to faint.
- Feeling versus common sense Enjoy a parody that exposes the absurdity of scorning money while depending on it.
- Austen before the novels Discover the teenage wit behind a tale written to amuse her family.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like sharp, silly comedy, parody of romantic novels, funny letters and a first look at the playful side of Jane Austen as a teenager.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Grand feelings become comic material
- Laura mistakes feeling for good judgment
- Romantic independence leaves practical needs unanswered
- Selfish schemes borrow the language of virtue
- Displayed sorrow pushes kindness aside
- Letters reveal what their writers conceal
- A historian openly favors her side
- Ordinary forms bend into absurdity
- Actions expose the truth beneath pretense
Who’s who
- LauraThe narrator of Love and Freindship, who tells Marianne her life story and counts herself perfect, sensitive and always misunderstood.
- SophiaLaura's instant friend, all feeling and languor, who finds the striped sky distressing and plots with Laura against sensible people.
- EdwardLaura's husband, who marries her on the night they meet and prides himself on never obeying his father.
- Charlotte LutterellA practical letter writer in Lesley Castle who cares more about cooking than courtship and mocks her sister's sorrow.
- Margaret LesleyA Scottish girl who tells Charlotte how handsome she and her sister are and then falls in love with a stranger.
- Lady LesleySir George's young second wife, who finds the castle dismal, the stepdaughters too tall and everything Scottish tiresome.
- EloisaCharlotte's sister, whose wedding dinner is cooked and then cancelled, and who writes sorrowful letters to a new friend.
- Lady GrevilleA rude, rich woman in A Collection of Letters who delights in insulting Maria Williams about her poverty.
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Love and Freindship
by Jane Austen · 1922
Laura and Sophia faint on sofas, steal banknotes and meet long-lost cousins in Jane Austen's teenage satire.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Jane Austen is thus a mistress of much deeper emotion than appears upon the surface.”
In short
A loud knock sounds at a cottage door, and Laura, her father and her mother spend a whole scene agreeing that someone is knocking. This scene appears in Love and Freindship, which Laura tells in her own words, sure that every word of her own praise is true.
Love and Freindship at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 10 min1 h 45 min fast, 2 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 30,800 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1922by Jane Austen
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A heroine tells her own spotless story
Love and Freindship opens with two short letters. Isabel asks her friend Laura to tell Isabel's daughter Marianne the story of her life. Laura agrees, and the rest is her account.
Laura is the perfect heroine, at least in her own opinion. Her father was born in Ireland and lived in Wales. Her mother was the daughter of a Scottish peer and an Italian opera girl. Laura was born in Spain and schooled in a French convent. The mixture reads like a list of ingredients from a sentimental novel, and Austen means it to.
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Which edition is right for me
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1922
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 25 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Austen, Jane. Love and Freindship. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-freindship.
Austen, J. (2026). Love and freindship. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-freindship (Original work published 1922)
Austen, Jane. Love and Freindship. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-freindship.
@book{austen2026love,
author = {Austen, Jane},
title = {Love and Freindship},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/love-and-freindship},
note = {First published 1922}
}
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What is Love and Freindship about?
It is a comic story told in letters by Laura, who marries a stranger the night they meet and travels with her friend Sophia from crisis to crisis. The book also includes Lesley Castle, a mock History of England and short comic pieces.
When did Jane Austen write Love and Freindship?
The story bears the date June 1790, and Austen wrote it during her teenage years. It was written to amuse her family and was not published in her lifetime. It belongs to her early notebooks, known as the Juvenilia.
What does sensibility mean in this book?
It means being deeply moved by feeling and showing it, through tears, fainting and grand speeches. Austen's characters treat it as the highest virtue, and the comedy lies in how little real kindness it requires of them.
The author
Jane Austen
1775–1817 · English novelist
Jane Austen was an English novelist born in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1775. She lived in Bath, Southampton and Chawton, and died in Winchester in 1817. Her novels included Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815). Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appeared after her death.
“Beware of swoons, dear Laura.”
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