This was a very unbalanced book in terms of quality - there were sections (rare ones) that I would have given 5 stars to. Lady Susan is a brilliant character study in letters, and the history of England is genuinely funny (very much akin to 1066 and all that). The trouble is, there's a lot more in the book that is simply OK or just downright bad. I think a lot of the collection probably has more academic interest, for those actually studying Austen, than much in the way of entertainment value for someone (like me) who just wants to read a good book by a well-regarded writer.