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Questions for Austen's unfinished novel, Sanditon


As usual, answer THREE of the following for next weekend:  

Q1: Why does Austen devote so much time and space to Mr. Parker’s schemes about Sanditon? Or perhaps a better way of asking this is, why is Austen so interested in these extended sales pitches about a seaside resort? Why does she want the reader to hear everyone of them?

Q2: How does Charlotte compare to Austen’s other heroines that we’ve read, such as Catherine and Anne? What makes her a distinctly Austenian protagonist? Is she as ‘plain’ as those two women, or is she striking from the outset?

Q3: Sir Edward is a great reader (usually a good sign for Austen), but has very strong opinions on what he reads, as he explains to Charlotte: “I am no indiscriminate novel-reader. There mere trash of the common circulating library, I hold in the highest contempt” (Ch.8). Why doesn’t Charlotte, another great reader, share his tastes? What might she find wanting in his opinion of good writing and good novels?

Q4: Sanditon centers largely on the discussion of money and class, much more so than any of her other works (though Persuasion has a bit of this as well). In a world where people grew up accepting class as part of the divine order, how does Austen seem to feel about the class structure and the role of wealth in determining happiness? Do you think she merely accepts things as they are (as many writers did), or would this have been a work that offers a sharp critique of it? Any clues?

Q5: Austen is very critical of the Parker sisters, women who are classic hypochondriacs, and yet conveniently forget their illnesses when it suits them. However, far from dismissing them as idiots, she writes that “The Parkers were no doubt a family of imagination and quick feelings” (Chapter 10). What makes them intelligent yet ridiculous? Sensible and satirical?

Q6: Sanditon (probably not the name Austen would have chosen) not only breaks off at Chapter 12, but reads like an unfinished draft. Despite having so many of Austen’s typical hallmarks, it also has some unusual aspects and ‘flaws.’ What do you think she might have changed, revised, or edited if she had lived longer? What strikes you as the hallmark of a first draft, rather than a finished draft of the novel?

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