How soon it is at an end! - I wish it could come all over again!
Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon
by Jane Austen
Genre: Period Romance
About: A collection of Jane Austen's unpublished works. Lady Susan is written through a series of letter correspondents, The Watsons is her more traditional heroine tale and Sanditon is a comical novel set by the sea.
The Good
Jane Austen was a genius when it came to dialogue and characters. In all three of these stories, there are engaging characters and witty lines. The most enjoyable story by far was The Watsons. It is very reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice as well as her other works, so in some ways it feels like a early draft of many of those ideas that she was later to refine and publish into history. That said, I still would have loved to have read The Watsons in its entirety - even with the note of how the story would have ended for our heroine doesn't save much of the disappointment at not being able to read those later scenes. The cast of characters here were great, with some to love and others to laugh at, and the plot moved by the fastest in comparison to the other two stories. I really fell in love with Emma Watson and enjoyed the bond she was beginning to make with her sister Elizabeth - I cared about both of them and wanted to see their stories finished.
The Bad
I really disliked reading Lady Susan. I could appreciate the boldness of having an adulterous as a main character and Lady Susan has all the wit you could want for a Austen heroine, but she's entirely without heart. I couldn't find myself caring about her story. Matters weren't helped by the cast of characters surrounding Lady Susan, either. There's no-one to like here. Everyone is either too moral or too immoral. And the letter writing style does not suit Austen's talents. We get the letters from various characters but they don't offer any new or interesting viewpoint. Everyone knows exactly what's going on. There are no misunderstandings. Besides from Reginald, no-one is fooled by Lady Susan and the plot is just very pointless with conflict created, I suppose, for Lady Susan's amusement and her perverse pleasure in causing trouble.
The Somewhat Iffy
Sanditon has a lot of ridiculous characters and is amusing to read, but it doesn't quite feel like a novel. The heroine is very detached from the story. We can guess that Charlotte was possibly to have a romance with Mr Sidney Parker, but she seemed to be there more to observe the actions of others rather than be involved in too much of the plot. There was also a familiar note of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax between Sir Edward and Clara, and I suspect there would have been more of that to be had between the other young people flocking to Sanditon. The secret engagement storyline wasn't my favourite in Emma or Sense and Sensibility and I doubt I would have liked it any better in this novel.
Overall
If you love all of Jane Austen's published novels, then you probably would appreciate these works too. However, as a huge Austen fan myself, I hesitated to read these in the first place as Austen herself chose not to pursue publication with Lady Susan and she didn't complete The Watsons or Sanditon. Of the three though, I can only see myself re-reading The Watsons for enjoyment sake.
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