The Watsons by Jane Austen and completed by John Coates: A Review

The Watsons

by Jane Austen

Completed by John Coates

Source: local library

The Watsons was an unfinished manuscript left behind by Jane Austen. It has always caused us to wonder what would have happened had she finished it, so it was with delight that I found a very hard to find completion by John Coates. When I say hard to find I mean it’s out of print. I was lucky my library had a copy hiding in its midst’s.

Coates makes a change to our heroine’s name. Instead of calling her Emma he calls her Emily, which works just fine.

In the initial fragment we are led to understand that Emily had been raised by her Aunt who upon her second marriage went to Ireland effectively sending Emily back home to strangers. Mr. Watson is a sickly man who rarely leaves his room and Mrs. Watson is long since dead which is suggested to be the cause of Mr. Watson’s condition.

Emily comes from a large family---two brothers and four sisters. Her brother Robert is married to a simpering woman named Jane. The other brother Sam is practicing to be a doctor. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, is in essence the lady of the house seeing to all the needs of the parsonage. Penelope is the teasing, witty one and Margaret is vain and self absorbed. What a cast of characters!

Tom Musgrave is considered a flirt a la Willoughby or Wickham. He gets his just desserts when he marries Margaret Watson as he is sure to be miserable in life now. Lord Osborne is the wealthy lord who sets his eye on Emily and proposes to her twice (both time refused), but in a charming twist he finds his heart has been claimed elsewhere for some time. It is Mr. Howard who ultimately wins Emily’s heart despite him only being a clergyman---what is wealth and status to true love?

In other words this is a cast of characters that only Austen could have introduced.

Coates created a balance between Emily and her Aunt and their more prosperous status than that of her family. However it was suggested that Jane spoke to her sister Cassandra and explained that Emily’s father Mr. Watson was to die and she was to be dependent on her snipping sister-in-law and brother. As I knew of this I was saddened to see Coates deviate from that path, but then that is what makes it a completion because we can only speculate how Jane herself would have ended it.

Coates does an admirable job in keeping the transition between Austen’s fragment and his completion without any disasters. What is more is that every Janeite is sure to find similarities to other Austen characters in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe that even Jane herself would have been proud.

Final Recommendation: A book worth the read….if you can find a copy that is.

Have you read this completion or the one by Joan Aiken?

Hot Regency Find: These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer

I have recently become acquainted with the author Georgette Heyer, who wrote over fifty novels in her life time. Impressive. She is often placed into the same vein as Jane Austen, but I find that Austen and Heyer both offer distinctly differently elements in their books. Perhaps the only comparison that holds true is that they both wrote works set in the Regency. But that is a blog post for another day.


I just finished Heyer’s These Old Shades. I must admit to first being ill disposed toward the heroine, Léonie, but she soon grew on me. I really did not warm to this book until chapter 10 and then I found that I could not put it down. Perhaps, I had to slowly taste what was being offered before I realized I like it.

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer




 



Paperback: 384 pages (Also avaliable on Kindle)

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca; Reprint edition (October 1, 2009)



Language: English

ISBN-10: 9781402219474

ISBN-13: 978-1402219474

The gentleman in question is Justin Alastair, the Duke of Avon, known by friends and enemies alike as Satanas--the devil. On this particular evening, the dangerous rake crosses paths with Léon, a red-headed youth of low birth who is fleeing a certain beating at his brutal brother's hands. On a whim, Avon buys the boy and makes him his page. It soon becomes clear, however, that Léon is not what he seems, and that Avon has an ulterior motive for bringing him into his household. Set in pre-Revolutionary France, These Old Shades follows a twisting course as young Léon (or is it Léonie?) is swept up in a dangerous mystery: how to account for the page's amazing resemblance to the sinister Compte de Saint Vire, for example; and why will this man go to any lengths to get the youth in his power?

Hot Regency Find: Incognito by Suzanne Allain

This is a new feature which I will be showcasing on Sundays. I will showcase a Regency related book, but it will not always have a book review to accompany it. Sit back and enjoy and I hope perhaps you will find a new book to read.

Incognito by Suzanne Allain


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Mistaken identities, stubborn lovers and great comedy; what more do you need, but to go read this book. :)




This delightful book by Suzanne Allain is a quick read. It is in the vein of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.




Lady Smithfield has two daughters, Lydia and Emily. Lydia is considered the most beautiful according to Lady Smithfield. Where Lydia is fair and pale and beautiful, Emily has dark hair and she is not considered the ‘beauty’ by their mother. The Smithfield’s are not as well off since the death of Lord Smithfield (Think Sense and Sensibility and the Dashwood’s thrown out of Norland upon Mr. Dashwood’s death). So, it is with great relief and delight that Lady Smithfield receives a letter from the Duke of Alford honoring the arrangement between his late wife and Lady Smithfield. That arrangement is for his son Lord Wesleigh, to marry Lady Smithfield’s eldest daughter Lydia.




Lord Wesleigh does not want to marry a woman he has never met. Lydia is in love with someone else, so Emily arranges to marry Lord Wesleigh instead. Lord Wesleigh decides to go incognito to the town the Smithfield’s live in and observe his bride-to-be from afar before he decides. In a predictable twist of fate Lord Wesleigh prefers Emily to Lydia anyways. Except now Lord Wesleigh will not stop masquerading as someone else until he is sure Emily’s affection is real and she is not after the-not-incognito Lord Wesleigh’s money. Comedy and laughter ensures.




I read this book in one sitting. While it was very predictable in the outcome I laughed out loud on many occasions. It was well written and was an enjoyable Regency romantic romp. If you like Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen you will like this book.




The only dislike I had was that there was not as much character development as I would have liked due to the short length of the book. Personally, I like well rounded and developed characters. I instantly liked most of the characters in this book and was able to identify with them. I just wish there was a little more.




I would read this book again and recommend it to others. A great Regency romp can be had with Incognito.






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