Since very little in manuscript form survives from the six famous novels, these four manuscript texts offer insight into the novelist in the process of creation.

These unfinished texts are fascinating for several reasons. They have never received nearly as much attention as the six novels that appeared between 18, and this is the first study to examine them in detail, and in relation to each other. None was published till well after her death. She was also the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.Unfinished Austen is a scholarly monograph which examines four texts left incomplete by Jane Austen: Catharine, or the Bower (1792–-3), Lady Susan (1795?), The Watsons (1803–-4?) and Sanditon (1817). Austen began writing at a young age, embarking on what is possibly her best-known work, Pride and Prejudice, at the age of 22. Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. Margaret Drabble's introduction examines these three works in the context of Jane Austen's major novels and her life, and discusses the social background of her fiction. Written in the last months of Austen's life, the uncompleted novel Sanditon, set in a newly established seaside resort, offers a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and speculators, and shows an author contemplating a the great social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution with a mixture of scepticism and amusement. In contrast, The Watsons is a delightful fragment, whose spirited heroine Emma Watson finds her marriage opportunities limited by poverty and pride. The early epistolary novel Lady Susan depicts an unscrupulous coquette, toying with the affections of several men.

These three short works, show Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary styles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Margaret Drabble. She has also won acclaim for her performances in Strangers, Pride and Prejudice and Delicious. This Penguin Classic is performed by award-winning actress, Emilia Fox, who is best known for her starring role in the long running BBC drama Silent Witness.

Lady susan the watsons sanditon