『레이디 수잔』의 세계―제인 오스틴의 과도기 소설

Abstract

The readers of Lady Susan find the book puzzling because there exist in it a large amount of elements foreign to the readers familiar with Jane Austen’s six major novels. This derives mainly from the novel's extraordinary heroine and the world she creates with her lively energy, unsurpassed selfishness, and brilliantly deceitful schemes. The peculiarity or the foreignness of the book can be attributed to the period Lady Susan was written, which is in transition between Austen’s early and later works. It also means that the work is in between the lively, irresponsible and amoral world of Juvenilia and the controlled, responsible and moral world of later works. Based upon the detailed analysis of the world the heroine creates, this paper tries to assess the position Lady Susan occupies in Jane Austen’s literary career.