Jane Austen's Charlotte: Her Fragment of a Last Novel, Completed by Julia Barrett

Critics have noted how Jane Austen's ambitious last manuscript was unique to her, in that it gives not a hint as to how the work would develop and conclude. Whereas the design for the whole of THE WATSONS, for example, which she abandoned, is clearly predictable, as are most of her other plots. The wonder of this new completion of SANDITON is that Julia Barrett brilliantly imagines the evolution of Austen's art, sees its new spirit, her increasing response to nature, to locale, to the changing broader world of the Late Regency period of 1817. Courtship and romance is no longer the main thing! CHARLOTTE is a brave undertaking, almost miraculous in execution. Bravos to Barrett!

Those of us who adore Jane Austen are rightly fearful of attempts to pick up where she left off. But Julia Barrett is on to Austen's devastating wit--the critical and amused eye that she casts over the social landscape--and the result is a lovely read.

The great thing about JANE AUSTEN'S CHARLOTTE is the way Julia Barrett picks up Austen's most admirable start and continues undaunted by the broadness of its sweep. This novel is marvelously carried forward just as Austen conceived it--with all its characters brought to life. Charlotte and Sidney Parker's minimal but fine romance is superb!

Here's a true realization for that tantalizing opening of Jane Austen's last novel! Critics have always agreed that SANDITON would have led her into new territory. Not only would it have taken her out of her bit of countryside into a bigger geography, but invited her to venture further into the realities of her Regency world. The Sussex coast bring her into the mania and speculation of the new health faddism and more.Julia Barrett has taken Austen's themes up boldly, and carries them to the conclusions she had in mind. And, Barrett's done it with bravura, wit and style. Better still, all this serves as a background to what always concerns Austen: that age-old game lovers play.

After PRESUMPTION and THE THIRD SISTER, I had high expectations for Julia Barrett's latest work, and she has surprised and delighted me once again.I always wondered what might have come next from Jane Austen. Here I was astonished to see her turning her sharp eye to a seaside health colony as it struggled for success in her 19th Century England.And Charlotte is a heroine who is much more mature than even her Anne Elliot in PERSUASION or Elizabeth Bennet of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. She is savvy! I loved the way she could spot the literary nonsense that Sir Edward Denham delivers, the snobbery of his sister, Esther and the pretentious airs of a Lady Denham--to say nothing of the Misses Parker with their hysterical illnesses and their fervor for 'good works'.It's a sardonic sketch of a Sussex health spa that Austen laid out for Barrett, and she wittily and wisely sees where it all must end! Reading Charlotte felt like being back reading Austen herself.And don't forget the romance. Charlotte and her Sidney Parker's adventures are worthy of all Jane Austen's earlier pairings. I loved it!Siohhan Terry