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Lively, intelligent protagonist: 
Awkward, arrogant suitor:
Satisfying resolution:
Jane Austen never finished ‘The Watsons’. (She didn’t name it that either.)
Awkward, arrogant suitor:
Satisfying resolution:
Jane Austen never finished ‘The Watsons’. (She didn’t name it that either.)
‘The Watsons’ concerns the story of Emma, who – having been adopted in childhood by her rich aunt and uncle - returns to her birth family. Here she finds three unmarried sisters, and a sick father.
A couple of chaps are on the scene, of course: a proto-Darcy-esque Lord Osborne, and the cad Tom Musgrave.
However Emma is understandably preoccupied with her family’s poverty.
“Female economy will do a great deal, my lord, but it cannot turn a small income into a large one.”
However Emma is understandably preoccupied with her family’s poverty.
“Female economy will do a great deal, my lord, but it cannot turn a small income into a large one.”
Austen probably composed ‘The Watsons’ in Bath in 1804-5, when she was in her late twenties. The manuscript contains 68 pages of closely written and revised text. In it, we see her neat hand; her character development; her finely crafted plotting.
So why didn’t she complete it?
So why didn’t she complete it?
One theory is that real life began to imitate art all too closely. In 1805 Austen’s own father died, plunging the small female family into greater poverty.
It wasn’t until 1871 that Jane’s nephew titled the work, and published it.
It wasn’t until 1871 that Jane’s nephew titled the work, and published it.
The Bodleian secured the original manuscript in 2011, with help from many generous funders, including @HeritageFundUK, the Friends of the National Libraries, the Friends of the Bodleian, and @JaneAustenHouse https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/2011/2011-jul-14
In 2018 the unfinished book was adapted into a critically-acclaimed play by Laura Wade. It became a philosophical comedy in which the characters become mutinous and question their destinies.
Incidentally - for another fresh take on period drama: actor Cat White (who played Miss Osborne in the production) is fundraising for a film about Dido Elizabeth Belle, an 18th century mixed race heiress who grew up at Kenwood House, London: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/clementines/farewell-she-goes
To find out more about ‘The Watsons’, by one of England’s greatest writers, watch this video with Prof Kathryn Sutherland.
https://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/treasures/the-watsons/
Read Austen’s early short works:
https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/Discover/Search/#/?p=c+5,t+Jane%20Austen,rsrs+0,rsps+10,fa+,so+ox%3Asort%5Easc,scids+,pid+9e416479-53f1-480f-ac97-de44dd5e7e59,vi
https://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/treasures/the-watsons/
Read Austen’s early short works:
https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/Discover/Search/#/?p=c+5,t+Jane%20Austen,rsrs+0,rsps+10,fa+,so+ox%3Asort%5Easc,scids+,pid+9e416479-53f1-480f-ac97-de44dd5e7e59,vi
Further resources:
https://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/treasures/the-watsons/
https://janeausten.ac.uk/manuscripts/qmwats/b2-1.html
https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190828093200/https://genius.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/exhibits/browse/the-watsons/
https://bodleianshop.co.uk/products/bodleian-library-treasures-paperback
#JaneAusten #Regency #PeriodDramas
https://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/treasures/the-watsons/
https://janeausten.ac.uk/manuscripts/qmwats/b2-1.html
https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190828093200/https://genius.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/exhibits/browse/the-watsons/
https://bodleianshop.co.uk/products/bodleian-library-treasures-paperback
#JaneAusten #Regency #PeriodDramas
