We’re off and running with our group reading of Jane Austen’s unfinished last novel Sanditon!
(If you missed the introduction to this series, read it here to get caught up)
I hope you enjoyed the first three chapters as I did. I’ve only read this delightful fragment once before, several years ago now, so I am by no means an expert with all the answers. I will be exploring and discovering these chapters right along with you – each week sharing a few of my thoughts and looking forward to hearing your impressions and insights in the comments section below.
Never was there a place more palpably designed by nature for the resort of the invalid – the very spot which thousands seemed in need of.
Chapter 1:
In the opening scene, we meet a man who is an investor in and chief promoter of Sanditon as a healthful and fashionable seaside resort. I say that we meet him, but for some mischievous reason Jane Austen decides to withhold his name from us until we’re over halfway through the chapter. Did you notice that? She calls him “the gentleman” and “the traveler” for the first 4 pages. In fact, we wait so long to learn his name (Mr. Parker) that it reminded me of Daphne’s Du Maurier’s Rebecca, where the author withholds the heroines first name from us for the full length of the novel!
Other thoughts: There’s rich irony in the fact that Mr. Parker’s accident/injury resulted from his quest to find a doctor, especially since his detour was a mistake and there was no doctor there! Of course, the greatest irony is that Jane Austen chose to write about a place for invalids at a time when she is becoming one herself. Perhaps she was poking fun at her own weakened condition and the fact that she had failed to receive any benefit to her health from a visit to the seaside.
I also enjoyed how scrupulously polite and courteous the two gentlemen (Parker and Heywood) are to each other, despite the fact they’ve only just met and that their opinions on the subject of seaside resorts are diametrically opposed. Mr Parker’s enthusiasm for Sanditon knows no bounds, even causing him to forget the pain of his ankle in order to further expound on his favorite topic, until finally Mr. Heywood says:
“Apply any verses you like to [Sanditon]. But I want to see something applied to your leg.”
Chapter 2:
The narrative here in Chapter 2 is delightful – classic Austen wit and satirical humor laced throughout! I especially enjoyed the description of Mr. Parker’s mission (continuing the irony I mentioned above),
His object in quitting the high road, to hunt for an advertising surgeon, was also plainly stated; it had not proceeded from any intention of spraining his ankle or doing himself any other injury for the good of such a surgeon…
…the description of Mr. Parker (more imagination than judgement) and Mrs. Parker (not of capacity to supply the cooler reflection which her own husband sometimes needed… whether he was risking his fortune or spraining his ankle, she remained equally useless.), as well as a further comment on Mr. Parker’s preoccupation with the business of Sanditon:
Sanditon was a second wife and four children to him – hardly less dear, and certainly more engrossing.
Did you have a favorite line? When you read the exhaustive list of illness Mr. Parker claimed could be cured by 6 weeks at a seaside resort like Sandition, were you compelled to book your holiday immediately? I didn’t book a vacation, but chapter 2 kept me chuckling all the way through. Austen’s body may have been failing when she wrote it, but her mind was obviously still sharp!
Chapter 3:
Every neighbourhood should have a great lady. The great lady of Sanditon was Lady Denham.
Reading about Lady Denham, I couldn’t help seeing a resemblance to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the “great lady” of Rosings Park and surrounding area – someone with power over others and no hesitation to use it! Even Mr. Parker’s description of her (goodnatured, obliging, friendly and valuable neighbour) sounded like something Mr. Collins might say about his esteemed patroness.
Specifically, we’re told Lady Denham has the power afforded by a financial legacy up for grabs, with 3 sets of relations vying to inherit it. What a great plot set-up! Can’t you imagine the maneuvering and conniving to come? Clara Brereton may have the inside track, though. A cousin and now Lady Denham’s companion, Clara has apparently ingratiated herself with the great lady. And why not? She is described in very glowing terms.
She was as thoroughly amiable as she was lovely, and since having had the advantage of their Sanditon Breezes, that loveliness was complete.
What do you think? Can we take Mr. Parker’s descripton of Lady Denham at face value, or is he overawed by her, like Mr. Collins is of Lady Catherine? What’s your initial impression of Lady’s Denham’s band of competing relations? Who has the best right to her money and who has the best chance, from what you know so far?
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Please share your thoughts and reactions to chapters 1-3 in the comments section below. And be sure to read and respond to the comments of others so we develop a proper discussion, just as if we were meeting all together in one place as a book club!
This week’s assignment: Read chapters 4 – 6. In chapter 4, we at last reach the much-touted Sanditon. Watch for the difference in attitudes between Mr. Parker and his wife – old versus new. Chapter 5 gives us an account of Mr. Parker’s invalid sisters and brother. Are they really ill or suffering only from hypochondria? In chapter 6, Charlotte gets her first look at the glories of Sanditon on a brief walking tour and then of Lady Denham. Mr. Parker and Lady Denham are united in their concern that Sanditon should be full of visitors spending their money. But surprisingly, they differ on another matter, you will discover. Read on and come back next Friday to discuss these three new chapters!
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I know this is only a first draft, and lightly-sketched, but I think Austen moves her story along pretty quickly. She has her heroine out of the bosom of her family and into the challenge of semi-independent life by end of Chapter 3. She’s also set up a powerful contrast – rootedness = good, change = bad – which knowing her I’d expect to be softened before the end. (Everything in moderation, everything has its place. )
I do think the sarcastic tirade about the miracle-working properties of sea air is rooted in bitter experience. It could cure anything except whatever was killing her.
As C3 closes she tempts us to travel further by revealing an ambiguous, enticing prospect. Potential villain in Lady Denham? Potential hero in her titled nephew? And then there’s Little Orphan Clara, apparently the angel of the home…And above all of it hangs the rich, greasy smell of money up for grabs.
But will poor Mrs Parker ever get a speaking part?
Author
Hi, Rita! You raise some good points. I wondered about the “first draft” aspect too, particularly since my first drafts are pretty finished – not “rough” at all. So far these chapters feel quite fully developed, like Austen already knows her characters very well. But she’s left some of the tedious housekeeping details to clean up later (lots and lots of dashes, at least in my copy).
Love your description: “above all hangs the rich, greasy smell of money” Bravo!
PS – I’ve read ahead and, yes, Mrs. Parker speaks!
So, I just re-read the first three chapters of Sanditon, and here are my responses to your questions:
Chapter 1–I love the way Mr. Parker is introduced as an “enthusiast” who can’t help but promote Sanditon, even standing in a lane talking about it when he should be having his sprained ankle looked after! The word “enthusiast” isn’t used until chapter 2, but in Austen’s time it was more often used for religious “enthusiasts,” like Methodists and Evangelicals, who experienced religion emotionally as well as intellectually–most mainstream Anglicans used it as a derogatory term. So perhaps Austen is saying that Sanditon was like a religion for Mr. Parker–and, indeed, that the quest for entertainment and health, as well as profit, had become a substitute for religion for many people in England.
In chapter 2 we also see an example of Austen’s famous “indirect narrative voice,” in the chapter that starts with “He held it indeed as certain . . .” We’re really hearing Mr. Parker’s voice, talking about how wonderful the sea was for every possible aspect of health, but it’s presented as the narrator’s voice. Great humor here, too–both relaxing and fortifying, and anti-everything!
The last paragraph is a delight, too–Mr. Heywood promising to “send everyone to Sanditon who asked his advice” (probably no one!) and never to spend five shillings at Brinshore (which he had never before heard of)!
In chapter 3 we get a whole community introduced. Lady Denham is of course a bit like Lady Catherine de Bourgh (as Shannon noted above); ruler of all she surveys and delighting in controlling all her “inferiors.” Though there is no question who Lady Catherine will leave her money to (her daughter Anne), so she doesn’t have that means of control. We can imagine Lady Denham bossing Clara around, though, like Lady Catherine bosses everyone in her house.
Author
Thanks so much for sharing, particularly from your areas of special expertise, Brenda. Very interesting what you say about the word “enthusiast.” Mr. Parker’s enthusiasm for Sanditon certainly does resemble a brand of religious fervor! Glad you’re enjoying Austen’s somewhat snarky humor too. 😀
Knowing that Jane was dying as she wrote these chapters is particularly sad. She may have for a brief time, looked for some miracle cure such as bracing sea air. I think her descriptions of Sanditon (as described by Mr. Parker) are brilliant because there is a bitterness (hers) behind the glowing reviews.
I think that there is disapproving tone behind the whole story so far. She seems, to me, to be suggesting that life should be lived at its fullest and as well as possible. She makes a point of mentioning how the Heywoods go nowhere, Lady Denham is miserly and controlling, and Mr. Parker is too focused on making Sanditon the spa of the rich – all life limiting traits. Only Clara is presented as a potential heroine. Charlotte is too blasé in the first 3 chapters and makes no contribution to the story yet.
Author
Yes, it is a little odd that Charlotte, presumably the heroine of the story, is not featured more. Judging from the first three chapters, it would seem that it’s going to be a story about Mr. Parker. I’m not sure I picked up on such a disapproving tone, like you did, Suzanne. You may be right, but I didn’t feel any judgement against the Heywoods, at least, for being content to stay at home, not needing to go and see and be seen in fashionable places to be happy. Or maybe that’s just my own personal homebody tendency showing! 😀
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