![]() ![]() What appears to us today as a logical transition to continue the story of Austen’s beloved characters in paraliterature was in fact quite a bold move for its day. It would be another twenty years before the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice would elevate Austen to pop-culture status and launch a thousand and one sequels. When it was first published in condensed format in Redbook Magazine in February 1975 there were very few Jane Austen inspired sequels or continuations in print. One wonders out loud if the abrupt halt in narrative also affected Another Lady, the anonymous co-author of Sanditon: Jane Austen’s Last Novel Completed, inspiring her to finish the story. ![]() I had not only been robbed of many hours of reading enjoyment, but of my requisite Austen happy ending. Not only were her characters left dangling, so was I. Hollis! It was impossible not to feel him hardly used: to be obliged to stand back in his own house and see the best place by the fire constantly occupied by Sir Henry Denham.” I felt a huge pang of regret. I readily admit when I first read Sanditon, Jane Austen’s last unfinished novel, and came to the last lines in chapter 12, “ Poor Mr. ![]() Psychologically we all want closure in our own lives as well as our literature. Inevitably someone will want to complete them. ![]() Last unfinished works by acclaimed novelist have an irresistible attraction. ![]()
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