Sanditon Book Review

Sanditon: Jane Austen's Last Novel Completed by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm glad I read this after seeing the butcher job on PBS. Shame on Andrew Davies for making it sound like Jane Austen actually wrote all the sex and nonsense he put on the screen. About the only thing he got right was the name of the characters and the location. Charlotte is as rational as Miss Lizzy and never speaks horribly out of turn. Sidney is charming and delightful and never scowls. Miss Lambe has nothing to do with Sidney at all, is shy and retiring, described as half-mulatto and "pale" at one point, and nothing about slavery is involved at all. Sanditon is not in financial crisis, though Lady Denham is very much the same rich and selfish character.

This version was finished in 1975 by "Another Woman," who did an excellent job of capturing Austen's style and how the rest of the story would have logically played out. I would love to see THIS version on PBS.


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