Why Didn’t Jane Austen Finish 'The Watsons'? by Joanne Wilkes

'The Watsons', Austen’s incomplete novel from about 1804, predates her published fiction by several years. This talk discusses the possible reasons why Austen did not finish this text, suggesting that she reworked salient elements of 'The Watsons' into 'Pride and Prejudice', but in a way that transformed the bleak and arguably intractable aspects of the earlier novel – a story which also centres on a family with several unwed daughters and dim financial prospects.

Professor Emerita Joanne Wilkes was educated at Sydney and Oxford Universities and spent most of her career at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, retiring in 2021.

She has lately published Unfinished Austen: Interpreting Catharine, Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon (2023), and has also contributed several essays on Austen to recent essay collections.

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