Frederic and Elfrida (Eris gems)

“From this period, the intimacy between the Families of Fitzroy, Drummond, and Falknor daily increased, till at length it grew to such a pitch, that they did not scruple to kick one another out of the window on the slightest provocation.” Jane Austen’s juvenilia are widely admired both for their auguries of her future greatness and for the spirit of madcap surrealism that marks them out from her other work. Written when Austen was still an adolescent, Frederic and Elfrida is a witty and inventive parody that brilliantly sends up the conventions of romantic fiction.