Sandition by Jane
Austen is a novel you’ve never heard of, it brings to life a world
of love, lust, social climbers and nude bathing. A 200-year-old
unfinished last work has had historians and fans baffled - but a new,
finished adaptation promises to be rather raunchy.
Jane Austen's
original handwritten manuscript of her novel Sanditon which was
unfinished when she died on 18 July, 1817. Nude bathing,
money-hungry developers, social climbers, and hypochondriacs are not
things that usually spring to mind when someone says Jane Austen.
When it comes to the
grand dame of the literary world, it’s usually all about the
bonnets, secret letters, carriage rides and demure looks. Taking off
with a bad boy soldier, or unwanted attention from a cousin, is about
as racy as it gets.
But the latest
incarnation of Austen’s iconic tales — in fact, her final,
unfinished fragment — is set to delve into the raunchy side of her
world as it hits TV screens for the first time. Dare I say it, things
could get a bit sexy.
Gravely ill at just
41 years old, Austen penned Sanditon — the foundations of the tale
of small town girl Charlotte Heywood, transported to a fashionable
seaside resort by a developer and his wife who literally crash into
her life after rolling their carriage in her rural village. Jane
Austen’s last unfinished novel was completed with help of author
Marie Dobbs.
But we never learn
whether Austen intended for her to find love because the English
novelist died on July 18, 1817, having written just 12 chapters, and
before she could tell us if Charlotte got her happily ever after.
Emmy and
BAFTA-winning writer and producer Andrew Davies is now set to
complete the puzzle, penning his own version of Sanditon 201 years
on, turning it into an eight-part ITV series to be distributed
globally by the BBC.
“Sanditon tells
the story of the transformation of a sleepy fishing village into a
fashionable seaside resort, with a spirited young heroine, a couple
of entrepreneurial brothers, some dodgy financial dealings, a West
Indian heiress, and quite a bit of nude bathing,” he said.
Skinny-dipping being
part of the story takes it a step further than the way bathing was
done in the Victorian era, given it was more like a wet T-shirt
competition behind closed doors. Well, with at least one person
copping an eyeful.
“People went out
in these bathing machines, which were rolled out part of the way into
the sea,” Ms Fullerton said.
“Then a big,
strapping woman ‘dipper’ would literally dip them into the water
through a hole in the floor … they would wear a long, clinging gown
which got wet, so they weren’t generally exposed in front of the
opposite sex.”
As Charlotte rolls
into town for the first time, Austen describes the area where the
bathing machines are as “the favourite spot for beauty and
fashion”. Go figure.
William Heath’s
artwork Mermaids at Brighton, circa 1829, depicts the ‘bathing
machines’.
The cottage where
the author lived and wrote for the last eight years of her life is
now known as Jane Austen’s House Museum in the picturesque village
of Chawton, Hampshire, in the south of England.
The museum’s
director, Dr Mary Guyatt, however, isn’t convinced Sanditon is such
a complete departure from Austen’s work after all.
“In Austen’s
novels, there is a strong association between seaside and crime, sex,
romance and money-making,” Dr Guyatt said.
“It is no
coincidence, for example, that Lydia Bennet runs away to Brighton
with Wickham in Pride and Prejudice.
“Jane Austen’s
other novels are much more a comment on social change than we
necessarily realise today and that’s because her references are so
subtle.
“Those references
are much more transparent in Sanditon; it’s very much a comment on
changing society.”
The novel’s greedy
developer, Mr Parker, is fixated on cashing in on the latest wellness
trend of taking a (weird) dip and inhaling the sea breeze, and even
sipping sea water, and “could talk of it forever” as he tries to
convince the rich and the fashion elite it will cure whatever
troubles them.
The handsome but
creepy Sir Edward’s “great object in life (is) to be seductive,”
cracking on to as many women as possible while trying to win the
favour and the fortune of the rich old Lady Denham, the puppet-master
of the operation who is also busy torturing her poverty-stricken
relatives. It’s just all so juicy.
While rural girl
Charlotte is at first focused on buying her sisters brooches and
parasols from the local library, she’s quickly revealed as having
the smarts to see through the fakery in this hotbed of fashion,
social climbing and commercial greed.
Charlotte seems the
only sane one in the room as at one point she’s surrounded by
people constantly popping pills, and sharing bizarre experiences such
as being paralysed by drinking green tea.
“It’s a terribly
funny piece all about the hypochondriacs at the seaside, and seems to
show a new direction for her (Austen),” Ms Fullerton said.
“She was dying
when she wrote this and had her own very real health problems, but
was able to laugh at people’s imaginary illnesses and ailments.”
Dr Guyatt agreed,
saying she believes Austen wrote Sanditon to amuse herself.
“It is not
insignificant that she was incredibly unwell when conjuring up
characters absorbed by imaginary illness and in that sense, she is
almost laughing in the face of her own ill health.”