As part of Miss Dashwood's Birthday Week for Jane Austen she issued a Book Challenge for participants to read one of Miss Austen's novels or short stories. I've long known it was time for a re-read of The Watsons, and once I began I became so enthralled with the characters and their stories! I took ever so many notes and knew I absolutely had to do a full book review!
The Watsons by Jane Austen
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| Penguin Classics Edition |
Plot: The Watsons follows the large family of Mr. Watson, the sickly rector of Stanton. His youngest daughter, sweet and elegant Emma Watson, returns home to her family after being raised by her aunt. When Emma attends her first ball in the neighborhood her oldest sister Elizabeth drives her over to stay with the Edwards family who will be her chaperons. As they drive Elizabeth talks of their brothers and sisters who Emma barely remembers and advises Emma on the customs of the ball and the characters of the people she is likely to meet. At the ball much of the excitement happens when Lady Osborne and her large party comes in late. Among the party is ten-year-old Charles Blake who is disappointed when Miss Osborne breaks her promise to dance with him. Emma quickly asks him to dance the next two dances, thus earning the regard of the boy's widowed mother and his bachelor clergyman uncle. Emma is much looked at by awkward young Lord Osborne and flirtatious Tom Musgrave. The day after the ball Emma and the Edwards are visited by friends from the ball and Emma just escapes having to ride home to Stanton with Tom Musgrave, but is obliged to tell him plainly how little she thinks of Lord Osborne. The third day after the ball Elizabeth and Emma receive a mysterious visit from witty Tom Musgrave and Lord Osborne who sits next to Emma speaks only to talk about half-boots and hunting hounds. In the weeks that follow Emma and Elizabeth become great friends. Their sisterly felicity is interrupted by Emma meeting more of her estranged family including her troublesome sister Margaret, their snobbish lawyer brother Robert and his conceited wife Jane. Emma finds peace from her squabbling siblings by nursing her sickly father. When Robert & Jane go home Emma is much pressed to return with them for a long stay, but she decides to bear the odd humors of Margaret over the eccentricities of her brother and his wife. Jane Austen's writing ends here.
