Sandition, by Jane Austen

Another delightful short read by Austen. I can’t say enough about how much I revel in these brief , yet brilliant works. Sandition brought me the light read and humour I desperately needed after the meatier books I last dove into.

Sandition, is the name of a new beach resort village in its coming of age. Because it is a relatively unknown area in need of new residents, travelers and reputable people-the then local entrepreneur, Tom Parker, starts up the story on a tour in search of a physician for his new community. Along the way (and due to a small injury) he must stop for help in a town – and lucky for him, the people are very welcoming and readily available for help. Mr. Parker and his wife, appreciating the warmth and kindness of these accidental hosts, as a gesture of appreciation, offer to take the daughter of Mr. Heywood (the main man who helped and hosted them) a Miss Charlotte Heywood, back with them as a guest in their home in Sandition.

Charlotte is the heroine of this story and everything is pretty much seen through her eyes. In Sandition we meet such colourful characters as the very rich, elderly and twice-widowed, Lady Denham; her niece and nephew by her second husband, her cousin Clara- a beautiful and demure young lady. But- the funniest of all characters are Mr. Parker’s siblings who have endless ailments (all of them purel y made up). One of these, Diane (Parker’s sister) is on a mission to ‘fill up’ the town and in doing so, she is constantly busy and bustling around , leaving Charlotte to wonder if the illness isn’t but an act.

Sadly (for me), the story ends abruptly with the arrival into Sandition, of the dashing Mr. Sidney, Parker’s brother . I say sadly because I was just getting into it- just when the characters started coming together for the meshing of a story line…Sandition has got me wondering how this one could have turned out. The characters are delightful and true to Austen’s originality and good sense of build up to a story that would surely have become another of her great masterpieces. It also saddens me to think that it was during this very year of writing Sandition that Jane Austen passed away. ( )

If you think Jane Austen only wrote about dances, parties, and happy endings, you need to read Lady Susan. She not only openly discusses adultery but even more taboo subjects such as the fact Lady Susan hates her daughter, slanders the poor girl to everyone she knows, and tries to marry her off to her own lover that she stole from another girl. It was sad that the Watsons and Sanditon were never published. Jane died too young. ( )

They may be 'freshman' works, but they're hilarious. ( )

I really liked Lady Susan. Jane Austen once wrote to her niece that she had been able to pick out the adulteress right away at a party she had been to. Was the the basis of Lady Susan? Could have been, but one thing is sure: Susan is nothing like any other character in any Austen novel. Sensual, manipulative, and unapologetic, she moves through the world like a tigress, and events and people must shape themselves around her. Austen started this as a young writer, and it would have been fascinating had she the time nearer the end of her life to take it up again, from the perspective of age. As it is, Susan ends up badly in the short synopsis which takes the place of the second half of the story, which is something of a shame.

The other two stories in this volume are both shorter and more traditional Austen. One tends to see The Watsons as perhaps an early version of Sense and Sensibility, and while it would have been nice if Ms. Austen had managed to write any other book, Watsons does not seem to push Jane's ouvre much.

Sanditon had a bit more potential, with its wistul comparisons of the calm and relaxed late eighteenth century, to the leaps and bounds of the early nineteenth. As they stand, the characters are a bit coarsely drawn; almost caricatures, but they might have been expanded more as Jane thought them through. Neither of the last two fragments can compare to the full stories, though; to my mind it is only Susan that can really be regretted. ( )

Quite wonderful writings in themselves; if only Austen and lived to finish them. Margaret Drabble's introduction and notes are also entertaining.