The Watsons
By Jane Austen
3/5
()
About this ebook
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born in 1775 in rural Hampshire, the daughter of an affluent village rector who encouraged her in her artistic pursuits. In novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma she developed her subtle analysis of contemporary life through depictions of the middle-classes in small towns. Her sharp wit and incisive portraits of ordinary people have given her novels enduring popularity. She died in 1817.
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Reviews for The Watsons
44 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Has 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!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It’s a pity Jane Austen didn’t finish “The Watsons”. The potential is there for a decent novel, and what it there interested me enough to want to read on.We’re introduced to a number of characters early on, which makes it hard at times to remember who’s who, especially when most are a Mr, Mrs, or Miss Somebody.What I admire most about Jane Austen’s works is the eloquent language, which is very much in evidence here.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 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 won my liking 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 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.
Book preview
The Watsons - Jane Austen
THE WATSONS
By
JANE AUSTEN
This edition published by Dreamscape Media LLC, 2019
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dreamscapeAbout Jane Austen:
Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibilityof the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her use of biting irony, along with her realism, humour, and social commentary, have long earned her acclaim among critics, scholars, and popular audiences alike.
With the publications of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, a short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and another unfinished novel, The Watsons. Her six full-length novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously and brought her moderate success and little fame during her lifetime.
A significant transition in her posthumous reputation occurred in 1833, when her novels were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series, illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering, and sold as a set. They gradually gained wider acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience.
Austen has inspired a large number of critical essays and literary anthologies. Her novels have inspired many films, from 1940's Pride and Prejudice to more recent productions like Sense and Sensibility (1995), Emma (1996), Mansfield Park (1999), Pride & Prejudice (2005), and Love & Friendship (2016).
Source: Wikipedia
The Watsons
The first winter assembly in the town of D[orking] in Surrey was to be held on Tuesday, October 13th and it was generally expected to be a very good one. A long list of county families was confidently run over as sure of attending, and sanguine hopes were entertained that the Osbornes themselves would be there.
The Edwards' invitation to the Watsons followed, of course. The Edwards were people of fortune, who lived in the town and kept their coach. The Watsons inhabited a village about three miles distant, were poor, and had no close carriage; and ever since there had been balls in the place, the former were accustomed to invite the latter to dress, dine, and sleep at their house on every monthly return throughout the winter.
On the present occasion, as only two of Mr. Watson's children were at home, and one was always necessary as companion to himself, for he was sickly and had lost his wife, one only could profit by the kindness of their friends. Miss Emma Watson, who was very recently returned to her family from the care of an aunt who had brought her up, was to make her first public appearance in the neighbourhood, and her eldest sister, whose delight in a ball was not lessened by a ten years' enjoyment, had some merit in cheerfully undertaking to drive her and all her finery in the old chair to D. on the important morning.
As they splashed along the dirty lane, Miss Watson thus instructed and cautioned her inexperienced sister:—
I dare say it will be a very good ball, and among so many officers you will hardly want partners. You will find Mrs. Edwards' maid very willing to help you, and I would advise you to ask Mary Edwards' opinion if you are at all at a loss, for she has a very good taste. If Mr. Edwards does not lose his money at cards, you will stay as late as you can wish for; if he does, he will hurry you home perhaps— but you are sure of some comfortable soup. I hope you will be in good looks. I should not be surprised if you were to be thought one of the prettiest girls in the room; there is a great deal in novelty. Perhaps Tom Musgrave may take notice of you; but I would advise you by all means not to give him any encouragement. He generally pays attention to every new girl; but he is a great flirt, and never means anything serious.
I think I have heard you speak of him before,
said Emma; who is he?
A young man of very good fortune, quite independent, and remarkably agreeable,—a universal favourite wherever he goes. Most of the girls hereabout are in love with him, or have been. I believe I am the only one among them that have escaped with a whole heart; and yet I was the first he paid attention to when he came into this country six years ago; and very great attention did he pay me. Some people say that he has never seemed to like any girl so well since, though he is always behaving in a particular way to one or another.
And how came your heart to be the only cold one?
said Emma, smiling.
There was a reason for that,
replied Miss Watson, changing colour, —"I have not been very well used among them,