The Watsons, Jane Austen
The Watsons, Jane Austen
List: $15.00 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.50

The Watsons

Author: Jane Austen

Narrator: Geoffrey Giuliano, The Crush

Unabridged: 1 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/03/2022

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Family Life


Synopsis

The Watsons is an abandoned novel by Jane Austen, probably begun about 1803. There have been a number of arguments advanced as to why she did not complete it, and other authors have since attempted the task. A continuation by Austen's niece was published in 1850. The manuscript fragment itself was published in 1871. Further completions and adaptations of the story have continued to the present day.

The timeframe of the completed fragment covers about a fortnight and serves to introduce the main characters. Mr. Watson is a widowed and ailing clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, the heroine of the story, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But after her aunt contracted a foolish second marriage, Emma has been obliged to return to her father's house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her sisters, Penelope and Margaret. One particular focus for them is Tom Musgrave, who had paid attention to all of the sisters in the past. This Emma learns from her more responsible and kindly eldest sister Elizabeth.

About Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, to the Reverend George Austen and his wife, Cassandra Leigh Austen, in the village of Steventon in Hampshire, England. Though her mother was from a family of gentry, Jane's father was not well off, and the large family had to take in school boarders to make ends meet. The second youngest of the Austens' eight children, Jane was very close to her elder, and only, sister, Cassandra, and neither sister ever married. Both girls were educated at home, as many were at that time.

From a young age Jane wrote satires and read them aloud to her appreciative family. Though she completed the manuscripts of two full-length novels while living at Steventon, these were not published. Later, these novels were revised into the form under which they were published, as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, respectively.

In 1801, George Austen retired from the clergy, and Jane, Cassandra, and their parents took up residence in Bath, a fashionable town Jane liked far less than her native village. Jane seems to have written little during this period. When Mr. Austen died in 1805, the three women, Mrs. Austen and her daughters, moved first to Southampton and then, partly subsidized by Jane's brothers, occupied a house in Chawton, a village not unlike Jane's first home. There she began to work on writing and pursued publishing once more, leading to the anonymous publication of Sense and Sensibility in 1811 and Pride and Prejudice in 1813, to modestly good reviews.

Known for her cheerful, modest, and witty character, Jane Austen had a busy family and social life but very little direct romantic experience. Her last years were quiet and devoted to family, friends, and writing her final novels. In 1817 she had to interrupt work on her last and unfinished novel, Sanditon, because she fell ill. She died on July 18, 1817, in Winchester, where she had been taken for medical treatment. After her death, her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published, together with a biographical notice, due to the efforts of her brother Henry. Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on March 15, 2024

for many years, i knew about this book, and owned this book, and desperately wanted to read this book, and yet i was unable to make myself do so. because it was crucial to my well-being and ability to remain a human person that i was able to pretend that i haven't read everything jane austen ever wro......more

Goodreads review by Maja on May 04, 2019

OH YES, ANOTHER AUSTEN FIX, JUST WHAT I NEEDED! ✨ Popsugar Reading Challenge 2019✨ ✨✨A book published posthumously✨✨ When researching for this years Popsugar Reading Challenge there was no doubt in my mind that I had to read one of Jane Austen's posthumous novels, because she is a favourite author of......more

Goodreads review by The Books Blender on September 09, 2018

C'è poco da fare: Jane Austen è una specie di sigillo di garanzia! Ogni sua opera è affascinate e avvincente e coinvolgente… anche quelle incompiute! Ho apprezzato moltoLady Susan, romanzo particolare nel 'palinsesto' della Austen in quanto scritto sotto forma di epistolario. La protagonista è dive......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on January 29, 2022

Die Watsons 2,5/5 Lady Susan 3,5/5 Sanditon 4/5......more

Goodreads review by Rosh ~catching up slowly~ on February 13, 2025

I am a Jane Austen completist, having read all six full-length novels authored by her (some of them being reread multiple times): Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. However, one novel (or rather, novella) that almost always escapes publ......more