JANE AUSTEN'S UNFINISHED NOVEL

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 17

JANE AUSTEN'S UNFINISHED NOVEL

"The .Watsons." By Jane Austen. Leonard Parsons, London. Jane Austen's unfinished novel, "The Watsons," has been reprinted. It had only once been printed, in the seconaf edition of the "Memoir" of his famous aunt, by James Austen Leigh, in 1871. Mr. Arthur Waugh, in reviewing "The Watsons," for "The Daily Telegraph," thinks this unfiniahed novel was written six or seven years after "Pride and Prejudice," which was published in 1797, although not appearing "in print until sixteen years later. Mr. Waugh thus describes the Watson household:— Wo enter the Watson household on a day of much bustle and perturbation, for it is the occasion of the first winter assembly in the neighbouring Surrey town. The Watsons live in a countryvicarage, a little more than half an hour's drive from the scene of festivity, and, eince their poverty hag denied them a close carriaee, it has always been the custpm of their rich town "frieiids, the Edwards, to offer the Miss Wateons house-room and entertainment for the night of the ball. On this occasion only the youngest daughter, and she a stranger to the neighbourhood, is able to accept the invitation. For Penelope and Margaret are away from home"; Elizabeth, the eldest, must stay by the fire to take care of their sick father, bo there is only Emma to be driven over "in the old, chair, with all her finery" niled in front. Now, Emma haa been an exile froni home since she ■ was a tiny eirl, having, in point of fact been adopted" by her aunt, \rho_ has suddenly developed a middle-aged inclination to marry again. So Emma comes not only to the ball as a stranger, but also to a, family circle which is bubbling over with inquisitiveness about her character; and who but Miss Austen could play to perfect purpose with all the fluttering uncertainty of such a meeting? Emma is indeed a darling, one of her creator's own irresistible English eirls of a hundred years ago. She is only just 19, bright, happy clever, and truly kind-hearted. She 'is out to enjoy the ball to the full, but not at the expense of other people's happiness; and the very beginning of the evening K ives us an insight' into her amiable and engaging sympathy As always at a country ball in the' Austen word, the entire festivity circles round the party, from the "great house. Enter Lady Oaborne, nearly 50, but still very handsome, stiff with the dignity of rank. Enter her son, Lord Osborne, a very fine young man, coldly supercilious, thoroughly aware of his own importance. There follow Miss Osborne, the fair and fluffy daughter of the house; and a cheery and glittering house-party, among whom we specially notice Mr. Howard, the young parish parson, and ™, w "«>w sister, Sirs. Blake, whose little boy, , Charles, aged 10 years old, is m a fever of excitement because the beautiful Miss Osborne has promised nun the first two dances. "We have been engaged this week," cried the boy, "and we are to dance down every couple." He is pirouetting in happy anticipation,^ when he gets his first taste of feminine infldsiity. For Miss Osborne is on the arm of Colonel Beresford, and excuses herself with an easy nod. "I \vs3l certainly dance with you after tea," she throws over her shoulder to the boy, but little Charles's evening is all but spoilt in its first ten minutes. The tearß are mounting to his eyes when Emma Watson steps kindly forward. "I shall be very happy to dance with you, sir, if you like it," she says, holding out her hand with ingenuous "good humour. And such is the reward of sincerity and kindliness that every man in the room is at once her slave. Tom Musgrave seeks her hand for the quadrille in vain; the "great Lord Osborne himself is always standing near her; but her chosen partner is the wise and natural Mr. Howard, who, "though chatting on the common- i tst topics, had a sensible, unaffected way of expressing himself, which made them all worth hearing." and who (if it be i not vain to prophesy) one may conclude was destined ■ later on to be rewarded by a more than tepid interest in the heart of his happy Emma. At any rjjte, our heroine's first "assembly" was a vast success. Would there were more of them to come! But the story breaks off soon after her return home, where we leave her gathered into the bosom of her family, with her father, sickly and uncertain in temper; j with Elizabeth, well-meaning and kindly, but disappointed, and a bit of a j "muddler";' and with the rather meni acing Margaret, so amiable "in company," but so fretful and perverse at home, worrying over the perplexity of an unrequited inclination to the callous Musgrave. Marriage, you perceive, is j the inevitable destiny of the Watsons. "I. shall never love any man as I loved Purvis,'" sighs Elizabeth, "but we must ! marry." Every man'who comes to the house is anxiously eyed as a .possible suitor. There are free and easy moralists ' of to-day who find it impossible to be patient with such an estimate of woman's unalterable fate. The music of Pan's pipe calls them over the hills and far away. The lights of the domestic hearth seem tame and colourless. Well, the domestic hearth was the Watsons' world. They had no freer ambition than to be average wives and mothers. A narrow dream, perhapa, but girls like. Emma found it enough. And with a girl like Emma for his own, a man of common wisdom might conceivably find it onough for two, as well. Here Mr. Waugh's review ends. Mr. -A. B. Walkley, in his introduction to "The Watsons," holds that if Miss Austen left the work unfinished if she "left untold (or not even half-told) the story of Cambuscan bold, we must not try to complete it for her."