Austenprose – A Jane Austen Blog

By the Seaside with Sanditon begins right here on Austenprose on March 15th with an introduction and list of characters. To prime readers for the group read that starts the next day, Tuesday, March 16th, here is the group reading schedule and some great reading and listening sources for participants. 

Group Reading Schedule 16th – 20th of March 2010 

Sanditon, by Jane Austen 

Tuesday, March 16th – Chapters 1-4

Thursday March 18th – Chapters 5-8

Saturday March 20th – Chapters 9-12 

Online e-text: 

University of Virginia Library 

Print editions:  

Sanditon, by Jane Austen 

Unlike most editions of Sanditon in print, this edition of Jane Austen’s last unfinished novel is entirely in the spotlight and a book unto itself. Just the right size to slip in your handbag, briefcase or backpack, the portability of this slim volume means you never need be without the convenience of quick reference. Publisher’s description: Following a chance meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Parker, Charlotte Heywood accompanies them to their home in Sanditon, which her excitable hosts promise will be the future epicenter of society summers. On arrival, our heroine finds herself confronted with a very new and all but deserted town that nevertheless begins to fill with holidaymakers. Austen assembles a cast of characters of varying degrees of absurdity and sense, and sets about describing their relations with her characteristic insight and ingenuity. 

Hesperus Press (2009)
Trade paperback (112) pages
ISBN: 978-1843911845 

Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon (Penguin Classics), by Jane Austen, introduction by Margaret Drabble 

If the convenience of three of Austen’s minor works in one edition does not convince you to snap up this classic edition, then Margaret Drabble’s excellent introduction will. Publisher’s description: These three short works show Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary styles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings. The early epistolary novel “Lady Susan” depicts an unscrupulous coquette, toying with the affections of several men. In contrast, “The Watsons” is a delightful fragment, whose spirited heroine – Emma – finds her marriage opportunities limited by poverty and pride. Meanwhile “Sanditon”, set in a seaside resort, offers a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and spectators, treated by Austen with both amusement and scepticism. 

Penguin Classics (1975)
Trade paperback (224) pages
ISBN: 978-0140431025 

Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon (Oxford World’s Classics), by Jane Austen, introduction by Claudia L. Johnson 

Northanger Abbey might get top billing in this edition, but the other minor works make this a unique combination that are often hard to find in such a great value. Claudia L. Johnson’s introduction is stellar. Publisher’s description: Northanger Abbey depicts the misadventures of Catherine Morland, young, ingenuous, and mettlesome, and an indefatigable reader of gothic novels. Their romantic excess and dark overstatement feed her imagination, as tyrannical fathers and diabolical villains work their evil on forlorn heroines in isolated settings. What could be more remote from the uneventful securities of life in the midland counties of England? Yet as Austen brilliantly contrasts fiction with reality, ordinary life takes a more sinister turn, and edginess and circumspection are reaffirmed alongside comedy and literary burlesque. Also including Austen’s other short fictions, Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon, this valuable new edition shows her to be as innovative at the start of her career as at its close. 

Oxford University Press USA (2008)
Trade paperback (432) pages
ISBN: 978-0199535545 

The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen: Volume VI: Minor Works (The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen), by Jane Austen, edited, preface and notes by R. W. Chapman 

The recommended choice of The Jane Austen Society of North America, this edition of Jane Austen’s Minor Works is part of a set of six volumes and was first published in 1926. It still stands as the best available today. In addition to Lady Susan, readers will enjoy The Watsons, Sandition, Juvenilia, Plan of a Novel, Opinions of Mansfield Park and Emma, Verses and Prayers and editor R. W. Chapmans’s excellent preface, notes, appendixes and some select black and white period illustrations. 

Oxford University Press (1988) reprint of 1954 edition
Hardcover (486) pages
ISBN: 978-0192547064 

Audio Books: 

The Watsons and Sanditon (Naxos AudioBooks), by Jane Austen (Author) 

Amusingly read by Anna Bentinck, the acclaimed BBC Radio personality, this new recording includes two of Jane Austen’s unfinished works that deserve more recognition and wider readership. Publishers description: One abandoned, one unfinished, these short works show Austen equally at home with romance (a widowed clergyman with four daughters must needs be in search of a husband or two in The Watsons) and with social change (a new, commercial seaside resort in Sanditon). Typically touching, funny, charming and sharp. 

Naxos Audiobooks US (2010)
Audio unabridged (4) CD’s 4hr 29m
ISBN: 978–9626342817 

Ebooks: 

Sandition and other Stories, by Jane Austen 

The Austen elves at Girlebooks have assembled an excellent selection of Jane Austen’s Minor Works, Juvenilia and Letters is their usual thoughtful and well formatted layout for your desk top or eReader, all free for your reading enjoyment. Publisher’s description: Also known as Sand and Sanditon, this unfinished novel was written in 1817, the last year of Jane Austen’s life. The novel ends at Chapter 11, after a promising introduction of the seaside village of Sanditon, a few major characters, and several intriguing minor characters. Also included are The Watsons, Lady Susan, Frederic and Elfrida, Love and Freindship, Lesley Castle, The History of England, A Collection of Letters, and Scraps. 

Girlebooks.com
ebook

Ready your seabathing costumes ladies and gentlemen and take the plunge ‘By the Seaside with Sanditon’. See everyone on Monday, March 15. Bring your parasols!