Sanditon
3.3
12
5
1
Paperback
USD
15.47
$15.47
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781538734681 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grand Central Publishing |
| Publication date: | 12/10/2019 |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Sales rank: | 37,821 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.20(d) |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Sanditon
3.3 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
12 reviews.
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It was a fun read that I couldn't put down until the shocking ending. Totally ruined the story for me. I wish I hadn't bought this!
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Reading this fragment of Jane Austen's last novel is sad, because it contains only the bare bones of a story. You can see the building blocks being manipulated, but the structure is only hinted at. The foreword gives some useful background, and a few speculations about what Austen might have been planning, but the entire book is rather thin, interesting only to those who need to read every last word Austen ever wrote. One further note about the cover of the Hesperus edition: a chicken? What does a chicken have to do with anything in this story?
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Note: I read an unfinished edition of Sanditon.Overall, quite an enjoyable experience, but I was distressed by the brevity of the work. While some might find it fun to imagine where Jane would have gone with this one had she been able to finish it, I think letting it stand on it's own is a wise idea. It may be true, as stated in the foreword, that the author was poking fun at what she inaccurately perceived to be her own hypochondria when she wrote about some of the Parker family. While I was quite amused at the antics of the three character who possessed 'nervous sensibilities,' I also found those parts of the novel to be very bittersweet. Miss Austen was fatally ill while she was writing this and didn't realize it. I dove right into Jane Austen's biography by Claire Tomalin as soon as I finished Sanditon, so it genuinely piqued my interest in her life. In general I would recommend this book mainly to lovers of Austen. It won't satisfy the casual reader much.
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While Austen's typical genius and discernment are certainly scattered throughout this work, it suffers somewhat from a want of interest relating to its apparent heroine, Charlotte. The novel's regional aspirations are well-realized, however, and many of the other characters are beautifully drawn. I found this a pleasant fragment to lose myself in briefly on a lazy afternoon, but the want of editing even more than the want of a conclusion certainly tells.
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This is a review of the Hesperus Press edition for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.I am finding it difficult to review this, as not only is the novel unfinished, but to me it doesn't feel like it even really got started. So, while it is interesting to read the beginning of what would have been Jane Austen's last novel, and to speculate where she would have gone with the story, it certainly is only something I could recommend to someone who is either a huge Austen fan or who has an academic interest. This particular edition of the text features an informative introduction, and is a high quality paperback with some handy flaps that can be used as bookmarks. I am sure there must be some deep and meaningful reason for the chicken on the cover but unfortunately I am the kind of person who requires certain things to be spelled out to her. That being said, cute chicken.
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I received this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers; what a pleasant surprise! Jane Austen's books were among the first I read when I started learning the English language. Sense and Sensibility was the first, followed quickly by Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc. But I'd never read Sanditon before. Worse, I'd never even heard of it.The big disadvantage of this book is that it wasn't finished. Jane Austen died after writing only twelve chapters. So, just when the story starts to get into it's stride, it ends. Which leaves you with an unfulfilled feeling. But it's worth the read anyway. It is a true Austen story. Lots of young lady's and gentlemen. Lots of possible love affairs hanging up in the air. Charlotte as a sensible young woman to watch it all. Sir Edward who is out to ruin the poor Miss Clara. The silly Mr Parker and the stern Lady Denham. All the ingredients for a great story. And it's up to your own imagination to figure out how all of it would have developed.
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Jane Austen's final work, which was started when she was ill and, sadly, was not completed before her death. Although only twelve chapters, I enjoyed it as I have enjoyed all of Austen's work. It will have to be up to me to imagine my own ending for the characters.
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Sanditon is the last of Jane Austen novels, written right at the end of her life. As such, it is incomplete and unfinished. This is the reason that I had never read Sanditon before now- this is the end of Austen¿s writings. This just brings home the fact that she will not be writing anything new for me to read.The novel shows amazing promise, and cannot help but leave the reader regretting that the story was never finished. The tone of the novel reads as a conglomeration of her previous novels. The hypochondriacal storyline hints at Persuasion, the varied house party brings Mansfield Park to mind, the quirky characters are similar to Emma, the cutting social critique is similar to Northanger Abbey¿s, and so the novel reads. Though some of the material feels recycled from her other writings, Austen still manages to bring her fresh, breezy style of writing to the storyline. Some of the elements are new to an Austen novel. The story delves into the male psyche more than any other book of hers. Too, Austen¿s approach to ¿health cures¿ usually restricts itself to commentary on Bath, so the exploration of Bath-wannabes of the time is interesting to see. Lastly, it is one thing to stand back in the 21st century and critique women for letting their overactive imaginations lead them to imagine illness. It adds another dimension to read a woman of the time critique her own gender, especially since Austen was genuinely ill herself at the time.The reader will be in no doubt that the story was intended to end happily as all Austen¿s novels do- the secret lovers find happiness, inheritances help out those who need money, Sanditon will succeed as a health resort, and the heroine finds someone to give her the perfect life. The good will end well, and the bad will end in disgrace. However, the reader cannot help but regret the loss of those little plot twists and charming character development that only Austen can create on her way to happily ever after. As to this particular printing, Hesperus printed the edition very nicely. Though it is a paperback, the cover has deep flaps that serve as the perfect bookmarks, and the typeface is the perfect blend between readability and old-fashioned style. Overall, this edition is a nice tribute to the final product of Austen¿s unique imagination.
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Another `continuation¿ or `completion¿ of a Jane Austen work in progress, though Marie Dobbs¿ take on Sanditon, which Austen began six months before her death in 1817, falls short of the original chapters, in my opinion. No author can successfully imitate Austen¿s style or humour, and granted, the finished six novels in her compact oeuvre are limited in plot and players, but Dobbs doesn¿t develop one likeable or sympathetic character and the story, such as it is, merely follows the direction of Emma and Northanger Abbey.The first eleven chapters penned by Austen introduce the cast and set the scene. A carriage overturns in a small town on the Sussex coast, and the gentleman travelling within seeks medical assistance for a threatened sprained ankle. He is Mr Parker of Sanditon, a seaside village, with his wife, Mrs Parker. They meet a kind farmer by the name of Mr Heywood, who takes the beleaguered travellers home to meet his family of a wife and fourteen children. In return, the Parkers offer to transport the whole Heywood family on with them to Sanditon, which Mr Parker likes to promote as a bathing place and modern health resort. Mr Heywood declines on his own part, but accepts for his eldest daughter, Charlotte, who becomes the Parkers¿ house guest. When the three of them finally reach Sanditon, Charlotte finds not a populous location like Brighton or Eastbourne, but instead a small community by the sea, being slowly transformed into an up and coming holiday destination by Mr Parker and his co-sponsor, Lady Denham. There she meets Mr Parker¿s brothers, Sidney and Arthur, and his two hypochondriac sisters, Susan and Diana. Lady Denham¿s hateful relations are also on the scene, including the pompous and ridiculous Sir Edward and his sister Miss Denham, plus a distant cousin, Clara Brereton, who is on probation as Lady Denham¿s companion. And a veritable influx of summer guests are promised to arrive at Sanditon any day, but there might be some confusion as to numbers.And then, after presenting all of Sanditon¿s inhabitants to the reader and hinting at a secret romance between two of the characters, Jane Austen died. Marie Dobbs picks up on mid-paragraph, but loses the irony and sharp wit of Austen¿s writing in almost the same chapter. Instead of letting the characters make fools of themselves, Dobbs mocks them through the penetrating observations of her snotty heroine, Charlotte. Austen¿s Sir Edward spends half a page expounding on romance novels, but Dobbs cuts to the chase, and condemns him for using `nonsensical words and inappropriate quotations¿. Charlotte herself turns from a laughing Elizabeth Bennet into a prudish Fanny Price, and seems ill-matched with the only decent suitor of the set, Mr Parker¿s brother Sidney, who is himself an unappealing combination of Frank Churchill and Henry Tilney. The rest of the characters are little more than caricatures, from the fussy Parker sisters to the Misses Steele ¿ sorry, wrong novel ¿ Beaufort, staying at the hotel. I don¿t mind comic relief, if the characters are actually amusing, or at least pleasant, but I didn¿t even like the heroine of this novel. The only pair I was actually happy for was Arthur Parker and Miss Lambe, who at least didn¿t mess around and deserved their happiness.The direction of the story is fairly predictable, and painfully slow to get to the point ¿ which is fine when reading Austen, but not a pale imitation. There are pages of dialogue about toast and seaweed, all in the proper language but not really helpful to the plot and tedious to read. The romances are signalled from the beginning, and the lovers too flat and pathetic to care about. I think Dobbs was struggling with so many names and relationships, because nobody really makes the grade in the end. How I wish Austen could have finished her own novel, or at least written a few more notes before she died.
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I am so glad this is just a short story. I found it to be quite dull. Poor Charlotte is surrounded by annoying and irritating people. I am hoping with the arrival of Mrs Griffith and the young ladies Charlotte will get to know someone kind and interesting, but perhaps we will never get to know.
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Great style and wit that matches Jane. A wonderful read than had me laughing out loud. Better than the completion of Sanditon called Charlotte by Julia Barrett.
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