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Lesley Castle
Jane Austen, one of the nation’s most beloved authors, whose face adorns our currency, surely needs no introduction, but while many are familiar with her groundbreaking novels, few have come across her short parody of the epistolary novel, Lesley Castle.
Written when Austen was just sixteen, these pages are stuffed with the wit and biting satire so associated with her name, and deserves to be as well known as her later novels. This edition also contains an introduction by G.K. Chesterton, with which it was first published.
Written when Austen was just sixteen, these pages are stuffed with the wit and biting satire so associated with her name, and deserves to be as well known as her later novels. This edition also contains an introduction by G.K. Chesterton, with which it was first published.
26 pages, Paperback
Published October 26, 2023
4 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Jane Austen
3,822 books74.3k followersJane 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 26, 2017
I have shelved this book with my novels. It is an unfinished novel, just the beginnings. I suspect the subject just limped along too much. Too commonplace. Though I did laugh out loud, drop my jaw, re-read shocking passages, the novel is definitely juvenile and not really workable, or just not worth pursuing. Some of the characters are entertaining. The strange Margaret Lesley is the most entertaining of the bunch. I read the foreword of the incomplete novel in a collection Lesley Castle. In the foreword Zoe Heller says, "Margaret is purely awful." Dishonesty with herself is the problem.
The other main character Charlotte Luttrell is a clueless chick with a food obsession. A 19th-century foodie. And more.
Enjoyable. I will probably never re-read this piece of juvenalia.
Maybe if she had written these two strange birds into other stories, perhaps.
The other main character Charlotte Luttrell is a clueless chick with a food obsession. A 19th-century foodie. And more.
Enjoyable. I will probably never re-read this piece of juvenalia.
Maybe if she had written these two strange birds into other stories, perhaps.
August 8, 2024
No conocía esta breve novela de Jane Austen, no es la mejor pero sí me fue agradable.
Se nota que fue de sus primeras obras porque creo no estaba tan madura o a la altura de sus grandes novelas, pero sí se nota su esencia, ese estilo que la hace única.
Creo que de haber sido más extensa hubiera sido una historia maravillosa, desconozco si es una obra inconclusa o Jane Austen decidió finalizarla así como está.
Se nota que fue de sus primeras obras porque creo no estaba tan madura o a la altura de sus grandes novelas, pero sí se nota su esencia, ese estilo que la hace única.
Creo que de haber sido más extensa hubiera sido una historia maravillosa, desconozco si es una obra inconclusa o Jane Austen decidió finalizarla así como está.
September 26, 2025
Composed in 1792 when Jane Austen was still only sixteen years old, Lesley Castle is an epistolary novel – a series of letters pushing a plot on as if from a variety of viewpoints, namely the letter writers themselves. It was a common form for fiction which Austen was to customarily use before she switched in her later published works to the stance of an omniscient author.
She dedicated this entertainment, written to be read by members of her immediate circle, to her brother Henry who’d just graduated from St John’s College, Oxford, subtitling it as ‘an unfinished novel in letters’ (though whether its incompleteness was deliberate or came about because she’d not planned a conclusion is not known).
Its title doesn’t refer to a person but to an imaginary Scottish mansion in Perthshire; it’s worth noting that this was long before Walter Scott started publishing his Waverley novels. Though Austen’s story also ranges between London, Sussex and Bristol the initial setting may have been partly inspired by Anne Radcliffe’s 1789 romance The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, in which the action takes place in 15th-century Scotland.
Here live the Lesley sisters – Margaret and Matilda – while their widower father Sir George goes off gallivanting in London society, and with a brother who, while rejoicing in his forename matching his family name, is devastated by his wife Louisa Burton literally ‘doing a burton’ and abandoning him and their two-year-old daughter, Louisa Lesley. To console himself Lesley Lesley goes travelling, beating a path (as one does) to Paris and, ultimately, Naples.
From their isolated castle Margaret conducts a gossipy correspondence with her friend Charlotte Lutterell down in Sussex, but the Lutterell sisters have concerns of their own. Charlotte’s sibling Eloisa was due to marry a Henry Hervey; but he inconsiderately died after a fall from his horse, meaning that Charlotte had to deal with all the food she’d had prepared for the marriage feast, consoling herself by gradually consuming the prepared dishes over the succeeding days. Eloisa herself was thoughtless enough to only care about grieving for her deceased fiancé and not about her sister’s housekeeping dilemmas. We fear therefore that Margaret’s news of Lesley Lesley’s distress concerning his absconding wife is unwelcome competition for Charlotte’s foodie obsessions.
But whatever is this? Sir George – at 57 surely beyond such things now – has married Charlotte’s close acquaintance Susan Fitzgerald, who to her delight is now styled Lady Lesley; on hearing this Margaret reflects that as a result of this second marriage the dissipated Sir George will have a second family, thus considerably diminishing the Lesley fortunes and the sisters’ future economic prospects.
The Lutterell sisters, meanwhile, have decamped to Bristol, the insensitive Charlotte hoping that her bereaved sister’s glum spirits will rapidly improve in the healthy air of the Bristol Downs. Meanwhile she seems to expect the servants back in Sussex to dutifully demolish what still remains of the feast. (We may assume this task won’t be too much of a trial for them.)
To her friend Charlotte may describe the new Lady Lesley as “short”, yet Sir George’s wife (who has been reluctantly dragged up from London to visit her husband’s bleak baronial castle) naturally has a different view of Margaret and Matilda, of their stature, their culture and their country:
The preface by Chesterton included here is the one offered when Love & Freindship [sic] and Other Early Works was first published in 1922; it was here that he commented favourably on “the gaiety of these various travesties and trifles” from Austen’s juvenilia, though I do question his judgement when he adds that “I for one would have willingly left Lady Susan in the wastepaper basket”. Unfortunately for us he doesn’t deign to specifically mention Lesley Castle in his commentary; but really and truly it is up to us to consider where Austen, if she’d a mind to, might’ve taken matters or whether in fact she did well to leave us to furnish our own conclusions to her neverending story.
Either way, you have to admire how the 16-year-old managed to satirically skewer contemporary mentalities that were variously vacuous, mercenary, insensitive, ignorant, frivolous or, indeed, any combination of the foregoing, and inventively present them much as an entomologist displays his specimens for the public’s curious gaze.
She dedicated this entertainment, written to be read by members of her immediate circle, to her brother Henry who’d just graduated from St John’s College, Oxford, subtitling it as ‘an unfinished novel in letters’ (though whether its incompleteness was deliberate or came about because she’d not planned a conclusion is not known).
Its title doesn’t refer to a person but to an imaginary Scottish mansion in Perthshire; it’s worth noting that this was long before Walter Scott started publishing his Waverley novels. Though Austen’s story also ranges between London, Sussex and Bristol the initial setting may have been partly inspired by Anne Radcliffe’s 1789 romance The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, in which the action takes place in 15th-century Scotland.
“I already heartily repent that I ever left our charming house in Portman Square for such a dismal old weather-beaten castle as this. You can form no idea sufficiently hideous of its dungeon-like form. It is actually perched upon a rock, its appearance so totally inaccessible that I expected to have been pulled up by a rope; and sincerely repented having gratified my curiosity to behold my daughters . . .” — Letter the Sixth.Lesley Castle is, as we learn, two miles distant from Perth, and though our author never visited Scotland I like to imagine that it may’ve been similar to Huntingtower Castle which is similarly situated within Perthshire, though perhaps with the forbidding appearance of Roche Castle in Pembrokeshire.
Here live the Lesley sisters – Margaret and Matilda – while their widower father Sir George goes off gallivanting in London society, and with a brother who, while rejoicing in his forename matching his family name, is devastated by his wife Louisa Burton literally ‘doing a burton’ and abandoning him and their two-year-old daughter, Louisa Lesley. To console himself Lesley Lesley goes travelling, beating a path (as one does) to Paris and, ultimately, Naples.
From their isolated castle Margaret conducts a gossipy correspondence with her friend Charlotte Lutterell down in Sussex, but the Lutterell sisters have concerns of their own. Charlotte’s sibling Eloisa was due to marry a Henry Hervey; but he inconsiderately died after a fall from his horse, meaning that Charlotte had to deal with all the food she’d had prepared for the marriage feast, consoling herself by gradually consuming the prepared dishes over the succeeding days. Eloisa herself was thoughtless enough to only care about grieving for her deceased fiancé and not about her sister’s housekeeping dilemmas. We fear therefore that Margaret’s news of Lesley Lesley’s distress concerning his absconding wife is unwelcome competition for Charlotte’s foodie obsessions.
But whatever is this? Sir George – at 57 surely beyond such things now – has married Charlotte’s close acquaintance Susan Fitzgerald, who to her delight is now styled Lady Lesley; on hearing this Margaret reflects that as a result of this second marriage the dissipated Sir George will have a second family, thus considerably diminishing the Lesley fortunes and the sisters’ future economic prospects.
The Lutterell sisters, meanwhile, have decamped to Bristol, the insensitive Charlotte hoping that her bereaved sister’s glum spirits will rapidly improve in the healthy air of the Bristol Downs. Meanwhile she seems to expect the servants back in Sussex to dutifully demolish what still remains of the feast. (We may assume this task won’t be too much of a trial for them.)
To her friend Charlotte may describe the new Lady Lesley as “short”, yet Sir George’s wife (who has been reluctantly dragged up from London to visit her husband’s bleak baronial castle) naturally has a different view of Margaret and Matilda, of their stature, their culture and their country:
“I wish my dear Charlotte that you could but behold these Scotch giants; I am sure they would frighten you out of your wits. […] Those girls have no music but Scotch airs, no drawings but Scotch mountains, and no books but Scotch poems—and I hate everything Scotch.”And so it goes on: in these ten epistles Austen wittily captures the catty remarks, the insensitive responses, the false assumptions and the cultural prejudices; but this being a spoof Gothic romance we also learn of prospective suitors hoving into view, for the ‘sensible’ Eloisa in Bristol as well as for Margaret’s sister Matilda when the enlarged Lesley clan finally decide to re-enter the whirl of London society. And now there’s late news of Lesley Lesley (remember him?) in Naples when— but no! I must leave the inconclusive dénouement to the intrigued, if thus far innocent, reader.
The preface by Chesterton included here is the one offered when Love & Freindship [sic] and Other Early Works was first published in 1922; it was here that he commented favourably on “the gaiety of these various travesties and trifles” from Austen’s juvenilia, though I do question his judgement when he adds that “I for one would have willingly left Lady Susan in the wastepaper basket”. Unfortunately for us he doesn’t deign to specifically mention Lesley Castle in his commentary; but really and truly it is up to us to consider where Austen, if she’d a mind to, might’ve taken matters or whether in fact she did well to leave us to furnish our own conclusions to her neverending story.
Either way, you have to admire how the 16-year-old managed to satirically skewer contemporary mentalities that were variously vacuous, mercenary, insensitive, ignorant, frivolous or, indeed, any combination of the foregoing, and inventively present them much as an entomologist displays his specimens for the public’s curious gaze.
December 9, 2025
Sadly unfinished this book has truly been a laugh out loud, at least in parts, experience. I’m not sure I laughed because those passages were just simply funny or at my astonishment of the letter writers undeniably gauche thinking but probably by both.
One of those passages was that of Henry’s anticipated demise which meant that his upcoming marriage would not take place and his future sister in law’s, who had been making the arrangements, being somewhat put out over all the food that was intended for the wedding feast but now must be eaten as soon as possible or thrown away!
There is also towards the end a most biting comment by Miss Lesley about her friend’s looks and that she had reason to wish that it would be easier if she herself were as plain! Wow, talk about biting satire! It’s no surprise that Jane Austen became so good at and renowned for this particular style of writing at the age of about sixteen she was already truly making her mark.
I thoroughly enjoyed this rather wonderful book.
As I’ve said before I love these small but mighty books that Renard Press publishes. It’s one of the amazing Renard Press classic stories brought to the reader for a very reasonable price of £5 and worth every penny. In a beautiful cover it is well made and can be a great way to introduce readers to an author they don’t know. For those readers that do know an author they are often some of the less well known writings they may not have had an opportunity to read previously.
One of those passages was that of Henry’s anticipated demise which meant that his upcoming marriage would not take place and his future sister in law’s, who had been making the arrangements, being somewhat put out over all the food that was intended for the wedding feast but now must be eaten as soon as possible or thrown away!
There is also towards the end a most biting comment by Miss Lesley about her friend’s looks and that she had reason to wish that it would be easier if she herself were as plain! Wow, talk about biting satire! It’s no surprise that Jane Austen became so good at and renowned for this particular style of writing at the age of about sixteen she was already truly making her mark.
I thoroughly enjoyed this rather wonderful book.
As I’ve said before I love these small but mighty books that Renard Press publishes. It’s one of the amazing Renard Press classic stories brought to the reader for a very reasonable price of £5 and worth every penny. In a beautiful cover it is well made and can be a great way to introduce readers to an author they don’t know. For those readers that do know an author they are often some of the less well known writings they may not have had an opportunity to read previously.
July 25, 2025
I can't just give every Jane Austen book 5 stars just because it's written by her, ok??!!
Because objectively, there's really nothing to this little book except an out of place forward by G.K. Chesterton that praises a completely different story and a series of 10 sketches that Austen may have eventually turned into a novel.
Honestly, I wouldn't want future fans to publish every. single. thing. I ever wrote with my own hand. Some things are just mind doodles for ourselves alone... If we don't stop this madness, the next generation will likely see, "The Penguin Book of Jane Austen's Grocery Lists" or some such nonsense...
(Who am I kidding? Of course I would devour Jane's grocery lists!!!)
Because objectively, there's really nothing to this little book except an out of place forward by G.K. Chesterton that praises a completely different story and a series of 10 sketches that Austen may have eventually turned into a novel.
Honestly, I wouldn't want future fans to publish every. single. thing. I ever wrote with my own hand. Some things are just mind doodles for ourselves alone... If we don't stop this madness, the next generation will likely see, "The Penguin Book of Jane Austen's Grocery Lists" or some such nonsense...
(Who am I kidding? Of course I would devour Jane's grocery lists!!!)
April 19, 2025
omg i would’ve read 200 more pages of this!! so funny!!
December 31, 2024
Jane Austen walked so Victoria Wood could run
August 4, 2011
Jane Austin wrote Lesley Castle when she was just 16 but she never finished it. I think she wrote herself into a corner and didn't yet have enough experience to write herself out of it. Or maybe she just lost interest. Regardless, it is a fine book. The characters are drawn a little broadly. They are over the top with superficialness and they are hilarious. Lesley Castle is a series of letters discussing concerns of divorce, adultery, remarriage and elopement.
The book opens with the sudden death of a young man the day before his marriage to one of the characters in the book. The bride-to-be is devastated, but the letter writing sister is only concerned about what to do with the food. It's already prepared and she doesn't want it wasted. The young man's death is dismissed in a couple of sentences, but the worry over the food goes on for a couple of letters. With each letter, the writers are revealed to be ever more shallow and mindless. Austin's genius is already apparent and I wish she had finished this book.
Also included in this volume is The History of England, a parody of Oliver Goldsmith's History. He did the better job, but there are flashes of wit in Austin's version.
The final story in the volume is Catharine. The book flap says this is Austin's "crowning achievement of Austin's early writings." The main character is better drawn than the one in Lesley Castle, and the you can see how her ability and talent are starting to develop.
I really enjoyed this book.
The book opens with the sudden death of a young man the day before his marriage to one of the characters in the book. The bride-to-be is devastated, but the letter writing sister is only concerned about what to do with the food. It's already prepared and she doesn't want it wasted. The young man's death is dismissed in a couple of sentences, but the worry over the food goes on for a couple of letters. With each letter, the writers are revealed to be ever more shallow and mindless. Austin's genius is already apparent and I wish she had finished this book.
Also included in this volume is The History of England, a parody of Oliver Goldsmith's History. He did the better job, but there are flashes of wit in Austin's version.
The final story in the volume is Catharine. The book flap says this is Austin's "crowning achievement of Austin's early writings." The main character is better drawn than the one in Lesley Castle, and the you can see how her ability and talent are starting to develop.
I really enjoyed this book.
April 7, 2015
A short, engaging read. Quite enjoyed the portrait of the Lesley sisters by Lady Lesley herself.
"Matilda and Margaret Lesley are two great, tall, out of the way, over-grown, girls, just of a proper size to inhabit a Castle almost as large in comparison as themselves. I wish my dear Charlotte that you could but behold these Scotch giants."
The acerbic witticism of this incomplete story has impelled me to read other epistolary writings by Austen.
"Matilda and Margaret Lesley are two great, tall, out of the way, over-grown, girls, just of a proper size to inhabit a Castle almost as large in comparison as themselves. I wish my dear Charlotte that you could but behold these Scotch giants."
The acerbic witticism of this incomplete story has impelled me to read other epistolary writings by Austen.
October 25, 2017
Very clever and funny to read. This piece of work is a great representation of how silly women can be and in a variety of ways. Though, some are less silly than others; some are more considerate and discerning. I feel that Mrs. Marlowe is that character in this novel. Can't helping wishing Jane Austen could've finished this one, but I still enjoyed reading it. :-)
September 18, 2018
This is an unfinished novel and I'm so disappointed that it is! I just loved reading about the characters and I also loved that one friend got letters from both sides of a new family
November 12, 2021
Quite good for someone of that age.
June 19, 2022
Love Jane Austen, even this 30 page unfinished novel, there is so much character and intrigue.
July 2, 2023
3,5 stars rounded up to 4.
July 25, 2025
3 stars. I didn’t find this one quite as amusing, or hugely interesting, because it was a little more serious than the first story. But it was funny, and I wish it had been finished after all!
October 13, 2024
we don’t talk enough about how jane austen is actually a comedian above all else
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews