But Sanditon itself – everybody has heard of Sanditon.
Saline air and immersion will be the very thing – my sensations tell me so already.
Jane loved the sea, so it seems fitting that the last novel she wrote would be about a coastal resort on the brink of transformation, a bold departure from her typical rural settings. Once a quiet fishing village, Sanditon is being developed into a fashionable seaside resort by the ambitious Thomas Parker, a businessman.
Coastal towns and sea bathing increased in popularity in Regency-era England as the royal family enjoyed holidays by the sea. The Prince Regent was also fond of swimming and could often be found on the beach of his holiday home in Brighton. Many towns on the coast of England were thought to have inspired Sanditon, such as Worthing, Sidmouth and Lyme. All places Jane had visited for holidays.
When she started writing the novel on 24 January 1817, she was unaware that her health would soon deteriorate leaving her manuscript incomplete. She laid down her quill for the last time on 18 March 1817, with the story remaining unread until her fondest nephew Edward decided to publish the story in A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1870.
You can read how her experimentation with prose, as the dashing Edward Denham speaks of the sea,
The terrific Grandeur of the Ocean in a Storm, its glass surface in a calm, its Gulls and its Samphire, and the deep fathoms of its Abysses, its quick vicissitudes, its direful Deceptions, its Mariners tempting it in sunshine and overwhelmed by the sudden Tempest.
The Brothers
In Jane’s notebook, you can just make out the date of 27 January 1817 in her handwriting at the top of the first page. Over the following weeks she wrote 24,000 words into three booklets, until her illness prevented her from continuing. Jane would talk over her novel with Cassandra, and had casually called it The Brothers, as there are two brothers at the middle of the plot. Her family later called it Sanditon after the town in which it is set.
Jane’s plot is built around a group of residents who want to turn their coastal town into a resort on the Sussex Coast. Charlotte Heywood is her heroine who helps Mr Parker and his family after an carriage accident. She returns to Sanditon and encounters the formidable Lady Denham, her wicked nephew Edward, and his odd sister Esther. Clara Brereton is the beautiful companion to Lady D, who rivals Charlotte for the heart of Sidney Parker.
Not country men
The Parkers are different from the usual type of men that Jane writes about because they are not country gentlemen. They are businessmen who want to transform where they live, as other towns have, and make themselves a fortune in the process.
She was as thoroughly amiable as she was lovely, and since having had the advantage of their Sanditon breezes, that loveliness was complete.
There were mixed reviews in the family about whether to publish Jane’s unfinished novel. In 1871, Jane’s fondest nephew wrote that, ‘Such an unfinished fragment cannot be presented to the public.’ However, he changed his mind, and included a short summary of the work in A Memoir of Jane Austen. The original manuscript was then published in full in 1925 under the title Fragment of a Novel.
King’s College Links to Jane’s Family
On Jane’s death, the three booklets were left to Cassandra, and upon her death to her niece Anna Lefroy. She passed them down through her family line to to Mary Isabella Lefroy, Jane’s great-great niece.
In 1930, they were given to King’s College, Cambridge, where Anna’s nephew Augustus Austen Leigh had been provost. They are very fragile and sensitive to light, so kept safely stored away and rarely on display.
Jane Austen’s Anniversary of her Death 2017
In 2017, the anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, King’s College displayed Jane’s copy of Sanditon on 18 July. It was wonderful to read Jane’s neat handwriting, and see the crossings out where she had edited the story.
Cassandra had written out her own copy of Jane’s manuscript of Sanditon before it was passed down in the family, and this can be found at Jane Austen’s House Museum at Chawton.
TV Productions
In 2019 it was announced to great excitement that a screenplay of Jane’s novel was to be made by the BBC. Andrew Davis (of Colin Firth and Pride and Prejudice fame) was commissioned to write the screenplay and create his own ending to the novel. The adaptation has introduced Sanditon to a new audience, sparking interest in Jane’s final novel and its potential endings.
Andrew famously said that when he read the lines Jane wrote, it would only take up two scenes! The series first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 25 August 2019 in eight parts and was a great success.
The romance between Charlotte and Sidney kept viewers enthralled, and reading Jane’s novel, you can speculate she also thought Sidney a match for the beautiful Charlotte.
Such a young man as Sidney, with his neat equipage and fashionable air.
Authors Note
Of course, there has been Sanditon 2 and Sanditon 3 that followed Sanditon which also have enjoyed great success and viewing numbers, especially in the US. Bridgerton is another great series watched by millions of people. It is sometimes linked with Sanditon, as the author Julia Quinn said she was inspired by Jane Austen to her romance novels. How lovely!
Further reading
Read Jane Austen’s Sanditon for free at Project Gutenberg
King’s College, Cambridge dedicated website page for Sanditon.
A Memoir of Jane Austen at the Jane Austen House Museum
