Austen, Jane "Sanditon" - 1817
I've had this fragment of a novel on my TBR pile for a while already. I never was sure whether I really wanted to read it. I have read "The Watsons" and "Lady Susan" and Andrew Davies have just made this into a mini-series. He has already made other great series and movies from Jane Austen's novels and several other classics, so I'm almost certain it's a good one.
But I wanted to read it first. It is a very promising beginning of another Austen novel, the characters well depicted, the scenes worked out beautifully, you can tell that there are going to be a few problems along the way that need solving. It is lovely to read how she made fun of certain traits in people and I'm sure there was more like that to come. What a shame she wasn't well enough to tell her sister what her plans were for the story.
Do I really want to hear the end from someone else? Oh, Jane, why couldn't you live longer? It would have been great to have a hundred of your stories.
From the back cover:
"Written in the last months of Austen's life, Sanditon features a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and speculators in a newly established seaside resort, and shows the author contemplating a changing society with scepticism and amusement. It tells the story of Charlotte Heywood, who is transported by a chance accident from her rural hometown to Sanditon, where she is exposed to the intrigues and dalliances of a small town determined to reinvent itself - and encounters the intriguingly handsome Sidney Parker."
I too am reluctant to read unfinished work, especially by an author I love. I just had a thought though while reading your review. What if the reader went ahead and wrote the rest of the story?
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good idea. But each one on their own. And then maybe compare it. I don't like for others to come up with ideas about what could have happened. Do you ever read follow-ups written by another author than the original one?
DeleteI think that urge to write follow-ups is mostly an act of respect for a loved author. But they are never as good or the same at all.
DeleteProbably not. And I keep wondering whether the author would have liked that outcome. So, yes, no stories like that for me.
DeleteI really loved the TV-series, but was so disappointed when I read there would not be another season. Considering how tv-shows always continue with new seasons even when there is no manuscript, I find it a big disappointment. However, being a fan of Jane Austen, except for Mansfield Park, I will read Sandition this year.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. And since they already added a lot to the unfinished story, they might as well carry on right? I still don't know whether I want to watch the story or not.
DeleteInteresting that you don't care for Mansfield Park. My least favourite Austen novel is Northanger Abbey.