Lady Susan

Lady Susan may be Jane Austen's least known completed work. It is an epistolary novel, written around 1793-4, and is significant both for its genre and for the character of its protagonist, the scheming Lady Susan.

While the rest of Austin's heroines are decent and sympathetic characters, Susan is amoral and manipulative. Lady Susan is a subtle and clever novel; the protagonist's motivation and her character (or lack thereof) is revealed more in the reactions of the recipients of the letters than by Lady Susan's own words.