Sanditon

Jane Austen's Unfinished Masterpiece Completed

De: Jane Austen, Juliette Shapiro

Narrado por: Helen Lloyd

Had Jane Austen lived to complete Sanditon, it would have been as treasured as her other novels. In the half-finished masterpiece, Austen fashions one of her classic heroines: Charlotte Heywood. The surviving fragment also sets the story well on its path as Charlotte begins an adventure to Sanditon where a full cast of characters becomes intertwined in various intrigues.

At first, Charlotte finds amusement enough standing at her ample Venetian window looking over the placid seafront. However, before long, Charlotte discovers that scandals abound. She becomes captivated by the romance of the seaside lifestyle. But is the town of Sanditon truly a haven and will Charlotte find happiness there?

Now, fully completed by respected author and Austen expert Juliette Shapiro, this new edition of Sanditon finishes the original story in a vivid style recognizable to any fan. Shapiro’s prose and plot twists stay true to Austen’s sensibilities at all times while capturing her romance, tragedy, humor, and sardonic wit.

©2009 Juliette Shapiro (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Great narration for a decent story

Story not bad. Has a feel of Jane Austen, but not exactly., of course. Narrator adds a lot of the humor and tone.

Austen it ain’t

Performance is great and it’s not the worst story I’ve ever heard, but it’s very clear where Austen’s writing ends. There’s no satire or humor in the additional writing, and it’s very introspective. I think it has more in common with the kind of works Austen satirized than the works she produced.

Thought it was the book from Marie Dobbs

Having read the 1975 version of Sanditon by Marie Dobbs, I was looking forward to that story and found this one imaginative but disappointing in comparison. Charlotte is the point of the first 11 chapters that Jane Austen crafted and to have her story concluded well prior to the story end was less than satisfying.

wonderful book

I love all books written by Jane Austen and this one was as wonderful as her as her other books that she was able to complete herself. whoever finished the book for her did an awesome job and the narrator did an excellent job as well

You Can Tell Where Austen Leaves Off

You can definitely tell around where Austen left off writing this novel due to illness and her eventual death, and where the contemporary author picks up. The last third of the novel sort of reads like the end of teen comedy movies where they cycle through every character and just provide the exposition of what happened to them after the main events of the story.

Just ok

I love Jane Austen's novels, but this one is hard to really get into. The word Sanditon is used so much that it becomes annoying & I feel like they develop the minor characters much more than Charolette Heywood or Sidney Parker. I may have missed something, but I don't understand why the maid Maisy (aka Jane) even writes a letter confessing her sins to Charlotte in the first place- were they close? The narrator was ok, but I did not find her very interesting. Her tone is soothing and it kind of puts me to sleep.

Loved it!

This book was thoroughly enjoyable. I couldn't tell where one author left off and then next began. I am left with a happy heart.

A Delight

Bravo to Ms. Shapiro for her masterful, flawless completion of Ms. Austin's final work. To hear the mother tongue spoken and written so perfectly is a delight to my ears. Romantics rejoice. This should be like a beautifully crafted meal for your ears.

Fun Regency romance--just not Austen

I liked the story, and I would read it or listen to it again. However, this story does not feel like Jane Austen, likely for the simple reason that it isn't after the first few chapters. I appreciate the Ms. Shapiro's creativity in trying to find a solution for the unfinished novel, but it didn't feel authentic to me; some of the melodrama as well as the writing style were jarringly different from the beginning, but that should be expected when a different author finishes a novel. Again, I appreciated the her attempt and creativity, and I ended up really enjoying the story. If you enjoy regency romances you will enjoy this novel--just don't expect it to feel like Jane Austen.

The narrator's performance is stellar. Ms Lloyd does an excellent job of distinguishing characters through accents or different modulations of her voice. She is pleasant to listen to and has a talent for different accents. I would happily listen to something else that she narrates and would definitely trust her with any favorite classic British novel.

It was alright…

I did like what Jane wrote. It was excessively wordy, but she died before she could edit it, so I’ll never hold that against her. I tried really hard to be objective when listening to the second part of the novel written by Shapiro. But, she took one of the characters from a bit of a bumbling, misguided fool in unrequited love (as Jane wrote him) to a suave, woman-juggling rake who actually has the affection of the woman who was supposed to be so off-put by him. That was my first irritation, but since he wasn’t a character I liked, it was no real issue for me, it just seemed inconsistent. But the whole ending of the book is almost a separate story. The parts about Catherine (the heroine) are kind of glossed over. She almost feels like a side character. Her whole relationship with her suitor isn’t one of the real focuses and really only covers a couple chapters. The relationship seemed quick, forced and haphazard. And then over! The whole last hour of the book is explaining of other story lines that could have been more palatable if they were slowly woven in rather than in a rush to explain at the end.