The Watsons is an unfinished novel by Jane Austen. It is less than eighteen thousand words long and is most commonly published in compilation volumes of Jane Austen's unfinished works and/or juvenilia. According to Austen family legend, it was started around 1803 and put aside after her father's death in 1805.
Synopsis[]
Emma Watson was raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle in the expectation that she would be their heir, but after her uncle dies, her aunt remarries and she is sent to live with her father and sisters, whom she has not seen in fourteen years. Her father is sick, and when he dies, Emma and her sisters will be penniless. They are therefore desperate to be married: Elizabeth, the eldest sister, mourns her first love Purvis but will marry any man who is not disagreeable; Penelope has gone to Chichester to pursue the elderly and asthmatic Dr. Harding, and Margaret has gone to Croydon in another bid to make the wealthy ne'er-do-well Tom Musgrave miss her.
She is invited to attend the first winter assembly with Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, whose daughter Mary is an heiress pursued by Emma's brother Sam as well as Captain Hunter. Emma dances with ten-year-old Charles Blake, which brings her to the attention of Lord Osborne, Charles's uncle Mr. Howard, who was Lord Osborne's tutor and is now the clergyman of the parish, and the women of their party: Lord Osborne's mother Lady Osborne, his sister Miss Osborne and her friend Fanny Carr, and Charles's mother Mrs. Blake, a widow who keeps house for her brother. She dances with Mr. Howard and comes to admire him.
The next morning Emma is stranded at the Edwardses' when her father takes the chair to attend the bishop's visitation, and she is offered a ride in his curricle by Musgrave; she refuses and is instead brought home by the Edwardses' carriage. Days later Musgrave visits with Lord Osborne, who shows Emma marked attention and invites her to see him off on his next hunt; she does not go, and because their father cannot return the visit, they dispatch Musgrave with an apology to Lord Osborne.
Margaret returns after a month in Croydon with their brother Robert and his wife Jane, and on the same evening, Musgrave happens to visit on his way back from London. He plays cards with them and repeats gossip from Osborne Castle, but he is unable to tell Emma about a conversation Mr. Howard and Lord Osborne had regarding her before he is interrupted. He is invited back to dinner the next day but does not come, which puts Margaret in a bad humor. Robert and Jane leave to return home after inviting Emma to join them in Croydon; she refuses. The draft ends there.
According to Cassandra Austen, Mr. Watson would soon die, and his four unmarried daughters would have to depend upon Robert and Jane for a home. Emma would reject a proposal from Lord Osborne, and after tribulations regarding Lady Osborne's passion for Mr. Howard and his for Emma, Emma and Mr. Howard would marry.
Main Characters[]
Adaptations[]
The Watsons, a play by Laura Wade, directed by Samuel West, for Chichester Festival Theatre, November 2018
Completions[]
Many authors have "completed" this work, including:
- The Younger Sister, completed by Austen's niece, Catherine Hubback, 1850
- The Watsons, completed by L. Oulton, 1923
- The Watsons, by Jane Austen. Completed in accordance with her intentions by Edith and Francis Brown, 1928. Edith Brown was the granddaughter of Catherine Hubback, and the great-great-niece of Jane Austen.
- The Watsons: Jane Austen's Fragment, John Coates, 1958
- Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed, Joan Aiken, 1996. Republished in 2008 as The Watsons and Emma Watson
- The Watsons, by Jane Austen and Another Lady , Helen Baker, 2008
- The Watsons Revisited, Eucharista Ward, 2012
- The Watsons Jennifer Ready Bettiol, 2014