Love and Friendship

Description

Love and Friendship is one of the early works of Jane Austen and presents the misfortunes of a young woman and her husband, who listened only to the voice of their hearts and married hastily, without having the consent of the groom’s father.

In telling the story of the two, who fell in love at first sight, deciding to face the disapproval of the young man’s relatives, especially his father and aunt, who aspired to a much better union for him, the writer uses the epistolary style. The novel is a collection of letters, most of them written by Laura, the heroin, and addressed to Marianne, the daughter of her best friend, Isabel.

The letter opening the book is from Isabel to Laura, the former asking the latter, now 55 years old, to share a bit of her life experience to her young daughter, Marianne, so that the latter may learn the valuable life lessons coming from the story the easy way, not the hard way, as Laura herself did.

The heroin kindly accepts, so she begins to write to Marianne, describing for her the circumstances that led to her meeting her future husband, a very handsome young man named Edward Lindsay, and also telling about their hasty decision to marry after only a few days. In Edward’s case, although it is implied that he also loved Laura very much, the decision was also motivated by his desire to defy his father, who planned to marry him with the rich Lady Dorothea.

The young couple goes to London, living in the house of Augustus, a friend of Edward, who also disobeyed his family when he married Sophia, the woman he loved. Although, in the beginning, everything seems to be perfect, a series of tragic events turn the peaceful life of the two happy couples upside down.

“Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!”

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