I'm tagging this as 'fanfiction' - meaning nothing derogatory thereby - because I can't think how better to classify it: it essentially takes the plot of Jane Austen's Lady Susan and retells it in narrative rather than epistolary form.

Something in the blurb had made me assume this was intended as a sequel, but no, it's a straight retelling. Part of me wonders why... but it does delve more tightly into the characters' personal thoughts and feelings, and it adds sub-plots too scandalous to make their way into letters between them.

The author shows something of Austen's insight into character and sharp turn of phrase - in parts. She can't sustain this through the whole book, though. The sentences are much briefer than Austen's, and frequently suffer from run-on constructions. And the attempt to adapt the many points of view that are natural to an epistolary story requires moving smoothly from one point of view to another -- perhaps lacking much example from Austen's other novels which were focused on one character, Todd stumbles here too.

An interesting experiment and enjoyable as an adaptation without in any way supplanting the original. ( )

Janet Todd is a well-known academic who particularly focuses on female authors from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She's also recently published a novel which is a retelling of Austen's early epistolary novel, Lady Susan. I love the original Lady Susan and having heard a little bit about Todd's retelling I impulse-bought it when it was offered as a kindle daily deal.

Lady Susan Plays the Game takes the events revealed in Austen's Lady Susan and expands on them. By retelling the story in 3rd person rather than in epistolary format we're able to explore some of the backstory and spend time with some of the characters who didn't feature as largely in the original letters (I really enjoyed getting to know more about Frederica, Lady Susan's daughter). Being a 21st century novelist rather than an 18th century one (which I think is probably when Austen wrote Lady Susan although it was published posthumously), Todd is able to be a lot more explicit in some areas than Austen could be: Lady Susan's indiscretions are certainly no longer left to the reader's imagination!

It took me a while to adjust to the third person narrative and I have no idea whether I would say Todd managed to capture Austen's style, but I found this to be an enjoyable, humourous read and I enjoyed Todd's take on the characters from the original novel. Unlikely to be a work of great literature but it deserves to have more than one copy catalogued on LibraryThing! ( )