From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress:
Are you ready to explore the delights of an emerging seaside village in Jane Austen’s last unfinished work? If so, here is a list of reading sources for Sanditon that will help you in your reading journey. Enjoy!
PRINT & DIGITAL 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.
BOOK 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.
- Sanditon, by Jane Austen
- Hesperus Press (2009)
- Trade paperback (112) pages
- ISBN: 978-1843911845
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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.
BOOK 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.
- Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon, by Jane Austen, introduction by Margaret Drabble
- Penguin; New Ed edition (July 31, 2003)
- Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook (224) pages
- ISBN: 978-0140431025
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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.
BOOK 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.
- Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon (Oxford World’s Classics), by Jane Austen, introduction by Claudia L. Johnson
- Oxford University Press; Reissue edition (May 15, 2008)
- Trade paperback & eBook (432) pages
- ISBN: 978-0199535545
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AUDIOBOOKS
The Watsons and Sanditon (Naxos Audiobooks), by Jane Austen, read by Anna Bentinck
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.
AUDIOBOOK 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.
- The Watsons and Sanditon (Naxos Audiobooks), by Jane Austen, read by Anna Bentinck
- Naxos Audiobooks US (2010)
- Audio unabridged (4) CD’s 4hr 29m
- ISBN: 978–9626342817
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Austenprose is an Amazon affiliate. Cover images and book description courtesy of the respective publishers. Text Laurel Ann Nattress © 2010, austenprose.com. Updated 23 March 2022.
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