Lady Susan, the Watsons, Sanditon

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by award-winning actress Emilia Fox who is best known for her starring role in the long running BBC drama Silent Witness. She has also won acclaim for her performances in Strangers, Pride and Prejudice and Delicious. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Margaret Drabble.

These three short works show Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary styles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings. The early epistolary novel Lady Susan depicts an unscrupulous coquette, toying with the affections of several men. In contrast, The Watsons is a delightful fragment, whose spirited heroine Emma Watson finds her marriage opportunities limited by poverty and pride. Written in the last months of Austen's life, the uncompleted novel Sanditon, set in a newly established seaside resort, offers a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and speculators, and shows an author contemplating a the great social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution with a mixture of scepticism and amusement.

Margaret Drabble's introduction examines these three works in the context of Jane Austen's major novels and her life, and discusses the social background of her fiction. This edition features a new chronology.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. Austen began writing at a young age, embarking on what is possibly her best-known work, Pride and Prejudice, at the age of 22. She was also the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.


'In [Sanditon] she exploits her greatest gifts, her management of dialogue and her skill with monologue. The book feels open and modern ... as vigorous and inventive as her earlier work'
Carol Shields

Lady Susan was my favorite

Lady Susan:

Told in letter form like “Love and Friendship”, Lady Susan is Austen’s Anna Karenina, though that may not be entirely fair to Karenina. Lady Susan intentionally flirts with engaged and married men, stringing along eligible a young man without the intention to marry him, and is so very self-obsessed that she uses her daughter for personal gain. It all comes at a great cost to her daughter who the audience rather likes. Because of the letter-writing format, it was difficult for follow at first. But Austen actually completes this short story, and the reader is satisfied in its ending.

The Watsons:

This story was one of her unfinished tales about Emma Watson (no joke) whose father was a clergyman. One of six children, Austen ropes in so many connections that it’s difficult to keep all of the characters straight. Particularly since this story has no ending, I found it forgettable and unremarkable.

Sanditon:

Sanditon is a charming little fishing village trying to transform itself into the next up and coming seaside getaway. Charlotte Heywood is persuaded to visit after a happenstance introduction with the principle characters responsible for transforming Sanditon to a seaside resort. She meets fascinating people during her visit that were amusing in the classic Austen fashion. I found this story fragment fascinating and memorable as the descriptions of the village were so lively and vivid. It is, however, uneventful and ends without satisfaction.

Of the three, Lady Susan was, by far, my favorite since the story was completed so well and the characters were more developed. Even the letter-writing format worked in its favor!

Too bad we will never know the full story of Sandi

I found Lady Susan to be quite boring, for such a juicy, drama filled premise.

I felt that the Watsons was a pointless story. Either that or I have missed the point.

Sanditon started interestingly enough. It's too sad that Jane Austen never got a chance to finish it :(

The audiobook narrator was ok.