The Collected Letters of Jane Austen: the illustrated edition with an introduction by Sarah Woolsey

This illustrated edition of The Collected Letters of Jane Austen offers readers a unique glimpse into the personal life and everyday musings of one of literature's most beloved authors. Curated, arranged, and annotated, this book presents a selection of letters that Austen penned to family and friends. As a kind of autobiography or memoir, we come to know more about Austen’s heart and eye. Contemporary drawings and historical artifacts curated by Lula Crowder complement the correspondence. Sarah Woosley’s introduction to an 1892 edition of this book lends an extra historical layer to the collection.<br/><br/>These pages are not only highly entertaining and informative documents of Victorian life, but readers of Austen’s opus will discover many connections between the people and events depicted in her letters and the fictional characters like Darcy and Emma we have come to know and love. Just like her novels, these letters are as timely as ever; readers will appreciate the continued relevance of Austen’s astute and often hilarious social analysis to understanding life in the 20th century.