Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed

Joan Aiken excels with this clever takeover of Jane Austen's unfinished work. Just the right tension needed, as per any great Austen storyline, with equal humor and pathos at the just the right time. So glad this was written...I completely enjoyed every page.

The Watsons and Emma Watson I confess: I had not read The Watsons before reading this edition and Aiken's take on it. It felt very odd to be reading something of Jane Austen's that was not as dear and familiar to me as the six completed novels are. The Watsons begins with Emma Watson, newly returned to her family home, after living with a beloved aunt for 14 years, and being taken by her eldest sister Elizabeth to a nearby village, where she will stay the night with the Edwards family and attend her first ball. Emma's family is rather poor, her father is often ill, and she doesn't really know any of them, brothers Robert and Sam or sisters Elizabeth, Penelope, and Margaret. After the death of her mother, Emma had been sent to live with an aunt, who taught her fine manners and appreciation for nicer things. As they travel to the ball, Elizabeth tells Emma about their sisters and some of the people she will undoubtedly be meeting at the ball, including the dashing and (possibly) dangerous Tom Musgrave who is "a young man of very good fortune, quite independent, and remarkably agreeable, a universal favourite wherever he goes. Most of the girls hereabouts are in love with him, or have been" (2). Apparently their sister Penelope was hoping he would look her way, but she's a bit troublesome (having encouraged Elizabeth's love to marry elsewhere in the past). Elizabeth hopes Tom dances with Emma, but does not want Emma to fall for him. Also mentioned are the Edwards, whose daughter Sam Watson is hoping to marry, but who might prefer a Captain Hunter; Lord Osborne, his mother, Lady Osborne, his sister, Miss Osborne, and their party, which Emma later learns includes a Mr. Howard, former tutor to Lord Osborne and a clergyman, his sister, Mrs. Blake, and one of her sons, Charles, who is about ten. At the ball, Emma meets many people, dances, and is admired by the gentlemen. At one point, she shows kindness by dancing with little Charles Blake, when Miss Osborne, who had promised to dance with him goes off with another partner. Emma instantly wins the gratitude of Mrs. Blake, her brother, and the attention of Lord Osborne and Tom Musgrave. Much of the rest of The Watsons entails Emma's interactions with these characters and her family. Her eldest brother Robert, who is quite stuffy, and his wife Jane (who reminds one of a cross between Fanny Ferrars from S & S and Mrs. Elton from Emma), come for a visit, bringing another sister, Margaret, who appears friendly but is really very petty, dislikes Emma's fine manners (though Emma does not put on airs), and hopes Tom Musgrave will fall in love with her. The novel fragment ends with Robert and Jane wanting Emma to come for a visit, but Emma would rather stay with her poor father, who is nearing his end. The Watsons, obviously, cuts off very abruptly, but fortunately for us, Emma Watson by Joan Aiken begins where Jane Austen left off and imagines the fates of Jane's characters. There are many twists and turn

While you may not feel that Jane Austen would have taken the story in this direction, in Joan Aiken's hands the story is absorbing, detailed and delightful. Her style is more common sensical and tends to veer towards realism. Births, deaths, marriages that work, marriages that don't. Great style. Though she pays hommage to Jane Austen by completing Emma Watson, this is a book that can stand alone and face applause. I have read many "wannabe" Jane Austen books and her novels are by far the best.