Pre-order

Lady Susan

Name: Lady Susan
Brand: Penguin Random House NZ
SKU: 9781529981322
Price: 24.0 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Jane Austen

Series: Brief Encounters

0.0 (0 reviews)

Brief Description

Experience a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Jane Austen, the most elegant satirist of manners, in her wickedly sharp novella of seduction, wit, and deceit. Outrageous, and wickedly funny, Lady Susan introduces Jane Austen at her most scandalous. Recently widowed and dangerously charming, Lady Susan Vernon arrives among... Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order

Releases 20^th October 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order "Lady Susan" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

Found a better price? Request a price match

Lady Susan

$24⁰⁰

AUTHOR SIGNING 4 Aug 2026

Kiritapu Allan visits Book Hero

We were lucky enough to have Kiritapu Allan visit the team at Book Hero while...

SHIRL'S CORNER 4 Aug 2026

Introducing The Art and Craft of Stephen King

I've been a fan of the horror genre since I was young, I remember making...

Reading Before Voting

As we head towards our general election on 7 November, I've realised I'm a lot...

ADAPTATIONS 3 Aug 2026

Story to Screen - 04/07/26

Welcome to this week's 'Story to Screen Report', where Sacha rounds up the biggest news...

NETFLIX ONE PIECE 3 Aug 2026

The Grand Line Awaits! New One Piece Plush Toys

New One Piece Plush Toys have arrived at Toy Hero

Experience a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Jane Austen, the most elegant satirist of manners, in her wickedly sharp novella of seduction, wit, and deceit.

Description

Experience a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Jane Austen, the most elegant satirist of manners, in her wickedly sharp novella of seduction, wit, and deceit.

Outrageous, and wickedly funny, Lady Susan introduces Jane Austen at her most scandalous.

Recently widowed and dangerously charming, Lady Susan Vernon arrives among her relatives determined to secure her own advantage. Through a flurry of letters, alliances shift, affections are tested, and reputations quietly unravel. Lady Susan is Jane Austen's sharp, mischievous portrait of a woman who refuses to behave. Bold, manipulative and irresistibly alive, it reveals Austen at her most daring – and her most amused.

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days.

Series: Brief Encounters

View all

Pre-order

A Gentle Spirit & A Faint Heart

Experience a brief encounter with Fyodor Dostoevsky, titan of Russian literature, in these two searing novellas of love, despair, and the weight of the human soul. Two of Dostoevsky's most powerful novellas of obsession, cruelty, and the fragility of the heart. A pawnbroker paces beside his young wife's body, attempting to piece together the circumstances that led to her suicide....

By Fyodor Dostoevsky

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

An Undesirable Friend

Enjoy a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Natsume Soseki, Japan's greatest modern novelist, in this sly, comic tale of cats, humans, and the absurdities of friendship. From Japan's most famous, classic novelist comes a remarkable gem of wit, irony, and feline observation. A stray kitten, catapulted to literary fame, loudly observes the world of Meiji Japan in all its absurdity. But he's...

By Natsume Soseki

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

A Parish Chronicle

Experience a brief encounter with Halldór Laxness, the Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic author, in this rich, rustic and charming novel. An intimate, magical novel about one enduring church in a rural Icelandic valley—an ode to a quiet way of life now lost to time forever. The resting place of the legendary Viking warrior Egil Skallagrimsson's skull, Mosfell Church is a lonely,...

By Halldór Laxness

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Ape and Essence

Relish a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Aldous Huxley, the visionary author, in his dystopian satire. Huxley's dystopian classic is a nightmare vision of the fate of humanity in a post-nuclear world. After a devastating global catastrophe, a group of scientists arrives in a ruined future shaped by fear, ritual, and violence. Humanity has survived—but at a terrible cost, and not in...

By Aldous Huxley

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

A Souvenir of Japan

Embark on a brief encounter with Angela Carter, weird fiction's most influential pioneer, and her transformative stories of finding oneself in the face of another world. Five stories of desire and discovery set in 1970s Japan, from weird fiction's most influential pioneer - Angela Carter. An Englishwoman muses on her affair with a younger Japanese man. A spurned lover seeks...

By Angela Carter

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Bartleby, The Scrivener

Enjoy a brief encounter with Herman Melville, the great, epic storyteller of Modern America, and his enduring tale of a man who takes refusing to conform to its extreme limits. Herman Melville's enduringly comic and affecting tale of a man who takes quiet quitting to its extreme. A new clerk in a Wall Street lawyer's office causes dismay and confusion...

By Herman Melville

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Behind a Mask

Experience a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Louisa May Alcott, beloved chronicler of girlhood, in this surprisingly dark, subversive novella of deception and desire. This is Alcott as you have never seen her before – gothic, and gloriously unsettling. A young governess arrives at a grand country house and quickly wins the confidence of its family. Humble and modest, Jean Muir seems...

By Louisa May Alcott

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Bewitched

Experience a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Edith Wharton, grande dame of American letters, in these spectral tales of longing, loss, and the uncanny. Edith Wharton's ghost stories whisper of passion, exile, and the things we cannot forget. In an old Dorset house, a couple settle into a life of quiet comfort — until a presence makes itself felt. At a country...

By Edith Wharton

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Cain

Experience a brief encounter with José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning author, in his provocative and philosophical retelling of the biblical story of Cain. Written in the last years of Saramago's life, Cain is a controversial and witty story of a wilful, authoritarian God. After killing his brother, Cain is condemned to wander the earth. As he moves through time, he...

By José Saramago

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age

A trail-blazing, transportive novella that contains all the energy, history and charm of one man's lifetime, this is Bohumil Hrabal's most unique masterpiece. This ebullient, gallivanting novella encapsulates the world vision of the Czech Republic's best-loved author in one tumbling, breathtaking sentence. An ageing man holds court, spinning a single, unbroken stream of stories about his life—loves won and lost,...

By Bohumil Hrabal

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Distant Star

Enjoy a brief encounter with Roberto Bolaño, the 21st century's first, great classic author, and his novella Distant Star—a dark, haunting, yet delightfully magical story of two poets outplaying one another in a sinister endgame of cat-and-mouse. A dazzling, daring tale of poets at the end of the world, Distant Star is Roberto Bolaño's miniature dystopian masterpiece. Alberto Ruiz-Tagle was...

By Roberto Bolaño

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026
Pre-order

Down by the Riverside

Relish a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Richard Wright, trailblazing voice of African American literature, in this devastating story of survival, love and betrayal during a Southern flood. A flood brings not only rising waters but the full force of a brutal, racist world. With the Mississippi flooding, a Black farmer struggles to get his pregnant wife to safety. In the chaos,...

By Richard Wright

Paperback

$24⁰⁰

Pre-order
Out 20 Oct 2026

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529981322

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 July 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 10.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 110g

Pages: 128

Collections

Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Humour Jane Austen Literary Fiction Penguin Books Pre-order Books Pre-order General Fiction Pre-orders Pre-orders by Release Date Series: Brief Encounters

About the Author

Jane Austen was born in Steventon rectory on 16 December 1775. Her family later moved to Bath, then to Southampton and finally to Chawton in Hampshire. She began writing Pride and Prejudice when she was twenty-two years old. It was originally called First Impressions and was initially rejected by the publishers and only published in 1813 after much revision. She published four of her novels in her lifetime, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Jane Austen died on 18th July 1817. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were both published posthumously in 1818.

Also by Jane Austen

View all

Pride and Prejudice

A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Jane Austen's masterpiece with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper and finished with a silk ribbon. When Elizabeth Bennet meets Mr Darcy, she is repelled by his overbearing pride and prejudice towards her family. But the Bennet girls are in need of financial security in the shape of husbands, so when Darcy's...

By Jane Austen

Hardback

$37⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$45⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
Buy to Win

Emma

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet...

By Jane Austen

Paperback

$15⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Buy to Win

Pride and Prejudice

The definitive version of Jane Austen's timeless novel of love's triumph over adversity. When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane,...

By Jane Austen

Paperback

$15⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Emma

A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Jane Austen's beloved novel with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper, and finished with a silk ribbon. Emma is young, rich, and independent. She has decided not to get married and instead spends her time organising her acquaintances' love affairs. Her plans for the matrimonial success of her new friend Harriet, however,...

By Jane Austen

Hardback

$37⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$45⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
Pride and Prejudice (Painted Editions)

Featuring beautiful cover art from artist Laci Fowler, this fine collector’s edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a must-have for book lovers and literature fans. One of English literature’s classic masterpieces—a gripping novel of social class, marriage expectations, and the importance of self-awareness. The Harper Muse Classics: Painted Edition of Pride and Prejudice is perfect for special-edition book...

By Jane Austen

Hardback

$55⁰⁰

In Stock
Ships today
Buy to Win

Mansfield Park

Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality...

By Jane Austen

Hardback

$36⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$40⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
Jane Austen Boxed Set

This complete set of Jane Austen novels makes a beautiful decoration for any home library. Jane Austen's stories of clever women, elusive love, and social mores have struck a chord with millions of fans who consider her work compelling, heartwarming, and essential. Adapted time and again for screen and stage, these enduring classics remain as enjoyable as ever. This elegant,...

By Jane Austen

Paperback

$113⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$125⁰⁰~~

(1)

In Stock
Ships today
Sense and Sensibility

First Impressions - Indulge your inner romantic with a new Puffin Classics collection of Jane Austen novels. Left destitute after their father's death, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood must navigate love, marriage, and societal expectations to ensure their security and happiness. But romance isn't easy, and soon Elinor finds her good sense tested by her charming brother-in-law, while Marianne's romantic sensibility...

By Jane Austen

Paperback

$20⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$23⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
Buy to Win

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a timeless tale of love, society, and the importance of first impressions. Set in the rural English countryside, the story centres around Elizabeth Bennet, a sharp-witted and independent young woman, and her tumultuous relationship with the wealthy and seemingly aloof Fitzwilliam Darcy. Through a series of misunderstandings, social blunders, and personal revelations, Elizabeth...

By Jane Austen

Hardback

$34⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$40⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
Buy to Win

Jane Austen: The Complete Works

Jane Austen: The Complete Works collects the complete works of Jane Austen in clothbound classics, brought together for the first time in a Coralie Bickford-Smith-designed box set. Sense and Sensibility | Pride and Prejudice | Mansfield Park | Emma | Northanger Abbey | Persuasion | Love and Freindship Few novelists have conveyed the subtleties and nuances of their own social...

By Jane Austen

Box Set

$207⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$230⁰⁰~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Buy to Win

Emma

The new paperback series - Penguin English Library 'I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.' Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than...

By Jane Austen

Paperback

$22⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$24⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
Pride and Prejudice

First Impressions - Indulge your inner romantic with a new collection of Jane Austen's classic novels celebrating 250 years since her birth. With a foreword by Ali Hazelwood, author of The Love Hypothesis and Love, Theoretically 'Lizzy and Darcy's relationship will be a high roasting-to-flirting ratio, and it will be perfect.' - Ali Hazelwood Elizabeth Bennet must get married -...

By Jane Austen

Paperback

$20⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$23⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today

More from General Fiction

View all

The Wedding People

'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...

By Alison Espach

Paperback

$23⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

(3)

In Stock
Ships today
Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)

Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...

By Sarah J. Maas

Set

$124⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$155⁰⁰~~

(6)

In Stock
Ships today
The Goal

Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...

By Elle Kennedy

Paperback

$24⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Red Rising

The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...

By Pierce Brown

Paperback

$22⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

(1)

In Stock
Ships today
The Score

Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...

By Elle Kennedy

Paperback

$24⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
New Release

The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]

The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...

By Sarah A. Parker

Hardback

$59⁹⁹

In Stock
Ships today
Dylan's Pick

Theo of Golden

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...

By Allen Levi

Paperback

$28⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$34⁹⁹~~

(5)

In Stock
Ships today
Golden Son

ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....

By Pierce Brown

Paperback

$24⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Voracious

From USA Today bestselling author and TikTok sensation comes the gripping, steamy dark romance series that everyone is talking about!'Filled with TENSION, HEARTBREAK and ELECTRIC CHEMISTRY. This one will tear your heart right out of your chest before tossing it back in and sewing you up' No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Brynne Weaver'Leigh Rivers is THE QUEEN OF...

By Leigh Rivers

Paperback

$22⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...

By Andy Weir

Paperback

$23⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$24⁰⁰~~

(4)

In Stock
Ships today
The Mistake

Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Mistake now for the perfect second chance romance! He's a player in more ways than one . . . College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants....

By Elle Kennedy

Paperback

$24⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
New Release

On Mystic Lake

One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...

By Kristin Hannah

Paperback

$31⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$38⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.