Before Pride and Prejudice, before Sense and Sensibility, there was a fourteen-year-old girl with a wicked pen. In 'Love and Freindship' — misspelling intact — Jane Austen turns her razor-sharp eye on the sentimental novels of her day, following the breathless Laura through stolen elopements, convenient fainting fits, arrests for debt, and heroines who 'run mad' at the slightest provocation. Every absurdity of the genre is lovingly, ruthlessly skewered, and the result is one of the funniest things Austen ever wrote. This edition presents the COMPLETE, UNABRIDGED original text exactly as the young Austen set it down, framed by a new introduction that places the tale in its literary moment and reader's notes that illuminate the jokes, the references, and the genius to come. Short enough to read in an afternoon, sharp enough to think about for years. Part of The Founding Texts Library.