Jane Austen began writing in her early teens, filling three notebooks with her fiction. The characters of these stories have a jaunty, never-failing self-devotion. They perpetually lie, cheat, steal - and occasionally murder. In these short or unfinished pieces, Austen exhibits her sense of the preposterous in life and fiction with tough-mindedness and robust humour, and without inhibition. In addition to prose fiction and prayers, this collection contains many of Austen`s poems, written to amuse or console friends, and rarely reprinted. Texts are based on manuscripts, including the three notebooks, affording a distinct edition with a number of new readings. This edition includes: introduction; textual note; bibliography chronology; explanatory notes. Edited by Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray with an introduction by Margaret Anne Doody.