Austen's hilarious early stories and sketches, complete with her delightfully quirky spelling habits, are now collected in one gorgeous clothbound volume. This includes "Lady Susan," the basis for Whit Stillman's feature film "Love and Friendship," starring Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny. Jane Austen's earliest writing dates from when she was just eleven years old and already shows the hallmarks of her mature work. However, it is also a product of the times in which she grew up—dark, grotesque, often surprisingly bawdy, and a far cry from the polished, sparkling novels of manners for which she became famous. Drunken heroines, babies who bite off their mothers' fingers, and a letter-writer who has murdered her whole family all feature in these highly spirited pieces. This edition includes all of Austen's juvenilia, including her "History of England" and the novella "Lady Susan," in which the anti-heroine appears.