Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Sal Robinson, Assistant Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, takes us into Jane Austen's world with the manuscript of Lady Susan, the only surviving complete draft of any of her novels. All of the manuscripts of Austen's novels were probably destroyed after serving as printer's copy, and neither she nor her family retained any of the earlier, rough drafts of the four novels published during her lifetime or the two novels published posthumously.
The manuscript of Lady Susan is a fair copy in Austen's hand, almost free of corrections or revisions. There is no conclusive evidence for the date of composition, but Austen probably wrote Lady Susan in 1794–95. Two of the 158 pages of this manuscript are watermarked 1805, suggesting that she transcribed her earlier draft (which does not survive) between 1805 and 1809, perhaps for possible publication. Austen appears to have left the novel untitled. This manuscript of Austen's epistolary novel (a novel in the form of a series of letters) was first published in 1871 by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh in his Memoir of Jane Austen.
This manuscript can be seen in our current exhibition "A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250" on view from June 6 to September 14, 2025.
Video by SandenWolff.
Sal Robinson, Assistant Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, takes us into Jane Austen's world with the manuscript of Lady Susan, the only surviving complete draft of any of her novels. All of the manuscripts of Austen's novels were probably destroyed after serving as printer's copy, and neither she nor her family retained any of the earlier, rough drafts of the four novels published during her lifetime or the two novels published posthumously.
The manuscript of Lady Susan is a fair copy in Austen's hand, almost free of corrections or revisions. There is no conclusive evidence for the date of composition, but Austen probably wrote Lady Susan in 1794–95. Two of the 158 pages of this manuscript are watermarked 1805, suggesting that she transcribed her earlier draft (which does not survive) between 1805 and 1809, perhaps for possible publication. Austen appears to have left the novel untitled. This manuscript of Austen's epistolary novel (a novel in the form of a series of letters) was first published in 1871 by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh in his Memoir of Jane Austen.
This manuscript can be seen in our current exhibition "A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250" on view from June 6 to September 14, 2025.
Video by SandenWolff.
