Jane Austen's The Watsons
About this ebook
MIMI MATTHEWS
From New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray comes a continuation of Jane Austen's famous unfinished novel, The Watsons
The unsung heroine of Jane Austen's unfinished novel The Watsons is a privileged girl living with her wealthy aunt and uncle absent any meaningful contact with her birth family. Then her life abruptly gets turned upside down: her uncle dies, and her aunt remarries unwisely, which means she must return to Wiltshire and rejoin the greater Watson clan. There, she becomes an object of desire for the most eligible bachelor in the county, the proud Lord Osborne . . . but her own fascination alights upon Mr Howard, the local clergyman. In the hundred pages Austen wrote before abandoning the novel, she asks: can the youngest Watson sister afford to neglect the fortunes of her struggling family to truly follow her heart?
But Austen never completed this book - and therefore, her devoted fans have never discovered the answer, leaving the heroine's fate undefined and open to speculation. Until now, as bestselling author Claudia Gray expands this story into a vivid tale of love, sorrow, social class, honour, and, as in any Austen novel, the ways these all become intertwined for a young woman in Regency-era England. Transforming The Watsons from an unpolished draft into a riveting ensemble novel filled with romance, humour, and social commentary, Gray recaptures the spirit of Austen's most enigmatic story.
'Regency readers, rejoice! Infamously unfinished Jane Austen novel The Watsons has been at long-last completed by the deft and caring hands of Claudia Gray! Perfectly capturing Austen's signature wit and exquisitely torturous slow burn romantic yearning, Gray's prose sparkles and is sure to delight'
ERIN A. CRAIG
'To read The Watsons is to see a master at work. Claudia Gray is a worthy heir to Austen's legacy'
TJ ALEXANDER
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About the author
CLAUDIA GRAY is the pseudonym of Amy Vincent. She is the writer of multiple young adult novels, including the Evernight series, the Firebird trilogy, and the Constellation trilogy. In addition, she's written several Star Wars novels, such as Lost Stars and Bloodline. She makes her home in New Orleans with her husband Paul and assorted small dogs.
Though the domain of JANE AUSTEN's novels was as circumscribed as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family's entertainment. As a clergyman's daughter from a well-connected family, she had ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At 21, she began a novel called "The First Impressions," an early version of Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her father's retirement, the family moved to the fashionable resort of Bath. Two years later she sold the first version of Northanger Abby to a London publisher, but the first of her novels to appear in print was Sense and Sensibility, published at her own expense in 1811. It was followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). After her father died in 1805, the family first moved to Southampton then to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Despite this relative retirement, Jane Austen was still in touch with a wider world, mainly through her brothers; one had become a very rich country gentleman, another a London banker, and two were naval officers. Though her many novels were published anonymously, she had many early and devoted readers, among them the Prince Regent and Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, in declining health, Austen wrote Persuasion and revised Northanger Abby. Her last work, Sandition, was left unfinished at her death on July 18, 1817. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen's identity as an author was announced to the world posthumously by her brother Henry, who supervised the publication of Northanger Abby and Persuasion in 1818.
