Lesley Castle (Dramatic Reading)

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)

Lesley Castle is a melodramatic epistolary novelette written by Jane Austen when she was sixteen years old. Although the novels Austen became known for were not published until she was in her thirties, she was an active writer from the age of twelve, frequently composing epistolary works such as Lesley Castle. Austen eventually compiled 29 of her early writings in three notebooks that became known as the Juvenilia and that she called “Volume the First”, “Volume the Second”, and “Volume the Third”, including Lesley Castle in “Volume the Second”.
Lesley Castle is set contemporaneously to Austen’s writing and consists of a series of ten letters by five characters, all of whom are women of high society living in Great Britain. In this short work, Austen employs a mock serious tone to humorously critique her peers on subjects such as self-absorption and jealousy. Austen acknowledged in a prefatory note that she left Lesley Castle unfinished; it includes several interconnected storylines, but no overarching plot or clear conclusion. - Summary by David Purdy

Jane Austen: Michelle Purdy
Henry Thomas Austen: Jake Malizia
Margaret Lesley: Michele Eaton
Charlotte Lutterell: Kelly S. Taylor
Susan Lesley: Magda Wilde
Eloisa Lutterell: Amatullah Talks
Mrs. Marlowe: Joanna Michal Hoyt
William Fitzgerald: David Purdy
Mr. Lesley: Tomas Peter
Narrator: WillForbis

Genre(s): Dramatic Readings, Epistolary Fiction, Satire

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Letter the First Group 00:07:34
Play 02 Letter the Second Group 00:09:19
Play 03 Letter the Third Michele Eaton
WillForbis
00:07:51
Play 04 Letter the Fourth Kelly S. Taylor
WillForbis
00:08:30
Play 05 Letter the Fifth Michele Eaton
WillForbis
00:02:54
Play 06 Letter the Sixth Group 00:10:26
Play 07 Letter the Seventh Group 00:09:57
Play 08 Letter the Eighth Amatullah Talks
WillForbis
00:04:07
Play 09 Letter the Ninth Joanna Michal Hoyt
WillForbis
00:04:25
Play 10 Letter the Tenth Group 00:08:55