The Watsons
Written by Jane Austen
Narrated by Geoffrey Giuliano and The Crush
3/5
()
About this audiobook
The Watsons is an abandoned novel by Jane Austen, probably begun about 1803. There have been a number of arguments advanced as to why she did not complete it, and other authors have since attempted the task. A continuation by Austen's niece was published in 1850. The manuscript fragment itself was published in 1871. Further completions and adaptations of the story have continued to the present day.
The timeframe of the completed fragment covers about a fortnight and serves to introduce the main characters. Mr. Watson is a widowed and ailing clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, the heroine of the story, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But after her aunt contracted a foolish second marriage, Emma has been obliged to return to her father's house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her sisters, Penelope and Margaret. One particular focus for them is Tom Musgrave, who had paid attention to all of the sisters in the past. This Emma learns from her more responsible and kindly eldest sister Elizabeth.
Jane Austen
Jane Austen nació en 1775 en Steventon (Hampshire), séptima de los ocho hijos del rector de la parroquia. Educada principalmente por su padre, empezó a escribir de muy joven, para recreo de la familia, y a los veintitrés años envió a los editores el manuscrito de La abadía de Northanger, que fue rechazado. Trece años después, en 1811, conseguiría publicar Juicio y sentimiento, a la que pronto seguirían Orgullo y prejuicio (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) y Emma (1816), que obtuvieron un gran éxito. Después de su muerte, acaecida prematuramente en 1817, y que le impidió concluir su novela SanditonLa abadía de Northanger, Persuasión (1818). Satírica, antirromántica, profunda y tan primorosa como mordaz, la obra de Jane Austen nace toda ella de una inquieta observación de la vida doméstica y de una estética necesidad de orden moral. «La Sabidu-ría –escribió una vez- es mejor que el Ingenio, y a la larga tendrá sin duda la risa de su parte.»
More audiobooks from Jane Austen
Emma (Seasons Edition -- Spring) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pride and Prejudice (Premium) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Seasons Edition -- Fall) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sanditon and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Watsons
Related audiobooks
Persuasion (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mansfield Park (Unabridged) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Watsons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPride and Prejudice (version 4) Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Northanger Abbey (Unabridged) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sense and Sensibility (BCA): With an Excerpt from 'Jane and Me: My Austen Heritage' Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Kanerina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeerbrook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma: A classic retelling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvelina Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen's Juvenilia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camilla Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Eyre Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorthanger Abbey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMansfield Park Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Eyre (Unabridged) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMansfield Park (version 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Version 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmma: A Fragment of a Story Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5North and South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Susan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Far from the Madding Crowd Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Audley's Secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Classics For You
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fountainhead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlas Shrugged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perks of Being a Wallflower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Crucible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stone Blind: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers in the Attic: 40th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Around the World in 80 Days: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War & Peace - Volume I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Master and Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Ships: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tale of Two Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Gatsby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Watsons
45 ratings5 reviews
- 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 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: 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.