Volume the third : now printed from the manuscript

by Jane Austen

Forever immortalized as the author of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen actually produced her first "books" as a teenager. Taking their names from the inscriptions on their covers--Volume the First, Volume the Second, and Volume the Third--these brilliant little collections include the stories, playlets, verses, and moral fragments she wrote likely from the ages of twelve to eighteen.

As a young author, Jane Austen delighted in language, employing it with great humor and surprising skill. She was adept at parodying the popular stories of her day and entertained her readers with outrageous plotlines and characters. Kathryn Sutherland places Austen's earliest works in context and explains how she mimicked even the style and manner in which this contemporary popular fiction was presented and arranged on the page.

Volume the Third, written when Austen was sixteen, includes two stories: "Evelyn" and "Kitty, or the Bower" (or "Catharine"). The manuscript is also held at the British Library. This volume includes text written by her niece, Anna Lefroy, who contributes an addition to Evelyn.

None of her six famous novels survives in complete manuscript form. This is a unique opportunity to own likenesses of Jane Austen's notebooks as originally written--in her own hand.

Learn more about the other books in the In Her Own Hand series: Volume the First and Volume the Second. All three volumes are also available in the In Her Own Hand series boxed set.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Romance, British Literature, Ebooks

133 pages, Unknown Binding

First published April 18, 1790

About the author

Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816), were a modest success but brought her little fame in her lifetime. She wrote two other novels—Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1817—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the unfinished novel The Watsons.
Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as a set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have also inspired many films, including 1940's Pride and Prejudice, 1995's Sense and Sensibility and 2016's Love & Friendship.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only Catherine were complete. :(

[Aea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but not worth a reread - if only Catharine had been finished, I probably would have counted it up there among her finished novels. I was really enjoying it, and am sad that I will never get to read its conclusion. As for Evelyn, it was funny/amusing, but I didn't particularly like it much beyond that -- no characters to attach to or really like, but that's kind of the point, I think, in that story and a lot of her stories in the Juvenilia. They're meant to be fun and absurd, for the most part. Only Catharine and The Three Sisters (in the first Juvenilia) really had likable characters to counteract the unlikable ones.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really have to be a Jane Austen fan to enjoy this book, it's a bit difficult to read (all one paragraph!) but interesting to see what her immature writing was like and see how far she came!

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je termine ma découverte des Juvenilia de Jane Austen avec ce troisième volume.

De très bons récits, lus en anglais (petit challenge de fin d'année), certains m'ont néanmoins marqué plus que d'autres. On y retrouve des intrigues et caractères présents dans les autres romans achevés de Jane Austen.
En revanche, j'ai été très surprise et décontenancée par la brièveté de certains récits et leur fin abrupte !
Je conseille ces Juvenilia pour des lecteurs affirmés de l'autrice, je ne recommande pas de la découvrir avec ces récits.
Néanmoins, comme toujours, un style mordant, ironique, qui emporte et nous permet également de nous attacher rapidement à certains personnages, et au contraire, d'en détester certains ! ;)

[Riley Moffatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

While less entertaining than the first, this juvenilia was also fun! There were only two parts this time and the first was rather funny while the second had a lot of character development that clearly showed Jane Austen on her way to writing her great novels.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read

[Stephanie (Stephanie.the.Bookish) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little difficult to read but if you’re a Jane Austen fan I would recommend it. Though lord I’m glad she got away from some of the things that occurred in Evelyn because people have bad things happen quickly often and then they just seem to brush off the pain easily

[Juli Grasso · Rating 5 out of 5]

All three volumes are just great. A must for all Austen fans.

[Marren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of the two stories Catharine Or The Bower stands out for me. Catherine strikes me as one of the few of Jane Austen female characters who does not breath solely for clothes, high society.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Catherine" is alittle long. Has some amusing moments. Not all that interesting.