Page:Austen Lady Susan Watson Letters.djvu/20

 the end her two intrigues clash and are wrecked in the collision. “Lady Susan” ultimately takes herself up by marrying the man she intended her daughter to marry. Her daughter marries the man her mother hoped to secure for herself. The plot is worthy of a French novel. Although the theme is to a degree repulsive, the reader feels that the writer has a moral reason in showing deceit captured in its own snare. The coldness of the narrative precludes any imputation against the extreme respectability of the author. Being merely an exercise, the characters are little better than lay figures, but are described with that minute observation, shrewd sagacity and insight that the author devotes to all of her sternly practical heroes and heroines.

“Sense and Sensibility,” like “Lady Susan,” was at first composed in the form of letters. Jane Austen was doubtless following the example of Richardson, whom she regarded with unbounded admiration. One of the defects of this method, in addition to its awkwardness for narration, is illustrated by “Lady Susan,” in which the wicked woman is made to write letters revealing her own character and designs with an openness which, under a paternal government, might get her into trouble.