Austen, Unfinished works

I think of Lady Susan as the female counterpart of rakes such as Wickham and Willoughby – and perhaps, too, she can be considered as an older version of Mary Crawford.  The duplicity of the widow is revealed in her first two letters and, I  think, can be summed up in her comment, in Letter 17 to Mrs Johnson, that ‘Consideration and esteem as surely follow command of language, as admiration waits on beauty’ (p. 64).   How does Lady Susan uses language to engender ‘consideration and esteem’ (and protect her reputation)?  The derelict father is a common character in Austen’s works, but the mother or mother figure also tend to be significant – and lacking.  Lady Susan is one of the most malignant of Austen’s mother figures.  In what ways would she have been seen by contemporary readers to have failed Frederica?  Lady Susan has at least three lovers including the married Manwaring.  Adultery also features in Austen’s other novels.  In a letter to Cassandra, she claimed to ‘have a very good eye at an Adultress’ (Letter to Cassandra, May 1801).  Why might Austen have addressed the issue? 

The Watsons introduces several of the themes that Jane Austen explores elsewhere, but the social setting differs from those in her published work.  What differences in social stratification occur in The Watsons?  Emma has been considered too perfect.  However, there seem to be aspects of her character which recall Elizabeth Bennet – one wonders how Austen intended to flesh out the plotline she outlined to Cassandra. 

Sanditon makes me laugh aloud every time I read it.  The hypochondriacs are depicted in such wonderfully ludicrous detail.  The text has been described as harking back to the burlesque of Austen’s juvenilia, but it also carries the strain of social criticism seen in Persuasion, in its portrayal of the involvement of the gentry in commercial enterprise – and Mr Parker, it seems, is as much an ‘imaginist’ as Emma.