Heartwarming / Jane Austen

• In a writing from her Juvenilia, Lesley Castle, the story follows the two rather vain and harmless Miss Lesley, their shallow father, their vainer and harsher stepmother, and their funny Spock-friend Charlotte Luterell, who suffers from Lack of Empathy. The young Miss Charlotte Luterell explains how her sister stopped complimenting her about her cooking, and made a snarky remark (probably out of vexation) when she (Miss Charlotte) retaliated and stopped complimenting her (Miss Luterell) about her music. She then prides herself of having struck her with a Stealth Insult, which must have hurt horribly because her sister had just lost her boyfriend. Nothing cute here, but:
  • The two next letters are a Perspective Flip, with the very depressed eldest sister of Miss Charlotte Luterell thanking her friend Mrs Marlowe for her correspondence, and feeling sad that her sister suddenly and unexpectedly let her down to spend most of her time writing to two of her friends. Her letters are devoid of mock-sentimentality, thus indicating that Jane Austen portrays her fairly sympathetically and that her sadness is sincere.
  • Mrs Marlowe then answers, and tells her how sorry she feels. She then makes some conscious efforts to cheer her up, tries to be understanding and to respect her pain, and apologizes all the time because she isn't as light-hearted when writing the letters as she would like to be.