·
Whit Stillman has taken Austen’s
never-finished epistolary novella, Lady
Susan, reimagined it as a straight narrative, and added the hilarious new
character of Rufus, Susan’s apologist nephew, who aims to clear Susan’s good
name come hell or high water (even if he is doing it from "the ignoble
abode" of debtors’ prison ). Despite many indications to the contrary,
Rufus insists that Susan is, “the kindest, most delightful woman anyone could
know, a shining ornament to our Society and Nation.” Rufus then appends his
earnest tale with a collection of his aunt’s letters, which he claims have been
altered by Austen to cast the estimable Lady Susan in a bad light.
Impossibly beautiful, disarmingly witty, and completely self-absorbed,
Lady Susan Vernon, is both the heart and the thorn of Love &
Friendship. Recently widowed, with a daughter who’s coming of age as
quickly as their funds are dwindling, Lady Susan makes it her mission to find
them wealthy husbands——and fast.
But when her attempts to secure their futures result only in the wrath
of a prominent conquest’s wife and the title of “most accomplished coquette in
England,” Lady Susan must rethink her strategy.
Unannounced, she arrives at her brother-in-law’s country estate. Here
she intends to take refuge——in no less than luxury, of course——from the
colorful rumors trailing her, while finding another avenue to “I do.” Before
the scandalizing gossip can run its course, though, romantic triangles ensue.
