Margie Burns

After the turning point in 1809 Austen made fruitful use of her time, to put it modestly. Still, the publication of the other Susan was a setback. When it landed with a damp thud, Austen must have been frustrated on several levels. Leafing through new periodicals, she would see a different two-volume novel that nobody cared about titled Susan, by some other unnamed author, in the sections for new publications--at least four times in April. Then came the tepid reviews, proving conclusively how asquint the boneheaded publishing gods had been. The frustration would be intensified by disappointment, having throughout the first quarter seen what she hoped might be her novel in similar lists. From a striving author's standpoint, it would be particularly frustrating to see her title used by somebody else in pages that would have placed her book within eye-reach of authors she admired--or on the other hand listed with books seemingly begging for satire, including lists of titles and authors peppered with the name ‘Matilda.’ Furthermore, she would have to dive back into the editorial process, as the euphemism goes, to change her heroine's name throughout the manuscript and to re-copy it, as she subsequently did.