The Watsons (1871)

The Watsons probably would have been an excellent novel. But as a fragment, it is probably of greater interest to scholars and completists than as a book. Everything you expect and want from Jane Austen is there--except a middle and an ending. Not her fault, but also not very satisfying to just read a bunch of exposition that does not develop anywhere. ( )

The Watsons is an abandoned novel of about 17,500 words written in Austen's largely "silent" period after Sense and Sensibility and Price and Prejudice but before Mansfield Park and Emma and Persuasion. The protagonist in this novel, Emma Watson, is very likable. Like Fanny Price, she's someone who was raised away from her birth family by a rich relation--except she had expectations of being an heiress, which were disappointed by her rich aunt marrying again, throwing her back to her original family. Her family is respected enough to be able to mix with the best families, including a Lord interested in Emma, and comfortable enough to have a servant, but in the circles they run around in are considered "poor." Only nineteen, Emma has a lot more confidence than Fanny Price, and a lot less snobbishness than her namesake Emma Woodhouse. She endeared herself to me when she goes to the rescue of a ten-year-old boy stood up at a dance. I'm only sorry there wasn't more, and we had to leave Emma soon after a ball parting from her brother and his wife. I'm sure that if Jane Austen had been able to complete this novel, I'd be rating it five or four stars as an equal to Pride and Prejudice or Emma. As it is, as an uncompleted novel, this is for hardcore Jane Austen fans only. I guess you can count me as among them. ( )

This is one of two unfinished books by Austen. There's no ending, but the first half of the story introduces us to Emma Watson, a young woman who was raised by her wealthy uncle and aunt. Her uncle dies and her aunt remarries and she's sent back home to live with her ailing father and siblings. She's been estranged from her family for so long, it's a hard transition. Her two sisters are desperately trying to find husbands. Emma on the other hand realizes the importance of marrying someone you love and respect, instead of someone who just has wealth.

It's hard to judge a book that's half finished, but Austen did tell her sister how she intended to end it, so there's that. It reminded me a bit of Mansfield Park, but Emma was a bit easier for me to stomach than Fanny. I would say this one is a must for any true Austen devotee, but definitely not before reading all of her completed works. ( )

Has all the makings of a good Austen novel, although the fragment that exists does have a slightly flawed, unedited and abrupt quality to it. I received the misguided impression from Amazon's reviews that this version had the ending completed by Kate Atkinson, which is why I wanted to read it (I am a big fan of Atkinson's). But note that this edition is just the incomplete fragment written by Austen (as you can tell as soon as you see the size of the book), with a fairly irrelevant foreword by Atkinson. Such a shame! It would have been fun to have an ending, even if it wasn't Austen's version! ( )