This books lies somewhere between the juvenalia and the great works, and I hadn’t read it since I was a teenager. These are the joys of having the Complete Works on your Kindle! It’s an enjoyable, straightforward read, and it’s fun to trace the early outlines of the Austen mind. Here’s a charming little bit, right near the end, after hte central couple have got together:
The anxiety, which in this state of their attachment must be the portion of Henry and Catherine, and of all who loved either, as to its final event, can hardly extend, I fear, to the bosom of my readers, who will see in the telltale compression of the pages before them, that we are all hastening together to perfect felicity.
God she’s a great writer.