Thanks so much, Nancy, Diana, Ellen, and Arnie! This is terrific, very useful info. Am collecting all your replies below, in case there are others wondering what to purchase to dig into the complete letters of Jane Austen.
I have certainly read all of the letters available in the online Braeburn (sp?) edition, and several other partial collections. And I very well remember the reading of the letters you all did on Janeites about 10-12 years ago. I kept up as well as I could, but was just building my business then and had little spare time. I did very much enjoy what I was able to read at that time (thanks to those who helped direct the reading and commentary there).
Thanks again!
Dorothy
Nancy:
They do seem to be selling more selective letters. RW CHapman's Letters are
available for $30 on ebay, Some are on Project Gutenberg.
Diedre Lefaye's book is available for half that.
Diana:
Dorothy, you can get a nice copy of Jane Austen's Letters edited by Deirdre Le Faye for under $10 on abebooks.com <>. We read through the whole thing here on Janeites a few years ago - maybe ten? - and I remember it did take something like three years to work through all of them, but it was one of the best things I ever did online! If you read even a couple a day, you'll get there!
Ellen:
Yes we did a group read of Austen's letters, I did an attempted
(overdone) close reading of all the letters, each and everyone. I
remember that Diane Reynolds did likewise, and maybe Arnie on his own
or chimed in. Others accompanied us, but most people not that
consistently. You will find on my Austen reveries blogs all the many,
many postings, maybe in the hundreds. Here's what's left on my blog ,
intermixed with other postings probably
Unfortunately, I never thought to make a "Austen's letters" or "Jane
Austen's letters" tag or category in all that time. The best you can
do is search for "Jane Austn' letters," which is what I did above.
Would you believe it. That's how non-transactional I am, how little
outwardly, or socially thinking, when I write much of the time, or
used to be (since Jim's death I've changed)
Arnie:
I wholeheartedly recommend extended study of Austen's surviving Letters,
they are a priceless resource for better understanding her personality.
Weren't you a member back in 2011-2012 when we had an extended group read
of the Letters all the way from #1 to the last one? Alas, the archive is
long gone, but I have 50+ posts in my blog (sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com <>)
from that time period that are about the Letters, including my quoting
liberally from discussions in Janeites. As usual, many passages in her
Letters were subject to vigorous disagreements as to their meaning.
As Nancy indicated, Le Faye's Letters (3rd or 4th edition, there is NO
difference between the 2 in terms of content) should be acquirable at a
very moderate cost online, and that is still the best resource out there by
far, as long as you take Le Faye's editorial decisions (especially her
silences where there should be helpful comments, about matters Le Faye
seems to have preferred not to emphasize) with a huge grain of salt. For a
proactive reader willing to search out the relevant history directly
online, the Letters are a treasure trove.
