Customer Reviews

Jane Austen's Charlotte

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

This novel is a travesty. That Ms. Barrett would even presume to complete the work of one of the greatest English authors is audacity personified. This book is extremely boring and seemingly plotless. If you're looking for a satisfying completion to this novel choose "Sandition" by Jane Austen and "Another Lady" instead. Ms. Barrett not only fails to deliver the wittiness and sharp insight of a Jane Austen novel, she also fails miserably at attempting Austen's style of writing. Truly a disappointment, to put it mildly.

Jane Austen's fragment is a delightful story which is ruined with the first sentence Julia Barrett writes. In it she has Charlotte repeat the joke the narrator has just told. The language becomes convoluted and flowery. All the characters sound like Sir Edward Denham but without the poetry quotations. There is very little action of any kind in the book. Jane Austen's characters fade into the background and the new ones introduced by Barrett take over the story. Charlotte, Lady Denham and Sidney Parker seem to change character completely as soon as Barrett takes over the writing. She takes six or more pages to say what Austen would have put in a couple of sentences. What plot there is bears little resemblence to anything Jane Austen seems to have had in mind.

I am always eager to read completions of Jane Austen's work, unlike those who find it unthinkable that anyone should touch the gems she left behind. I find Ms. Barrett's work disappointing, however, because it appears to me that it lacks the subtlety and charm so characteristic of Jane Austen's: the minimal changes of place and scene, the delicate development of character through conversation and observation, the wry humor she employs and the focus of thought and action through the eyes of her primary characters. This Charlotte is too full of inconsistencies of characterization and plot (Lady Denham throwing lavish entertainments? Lurid tales of piracy and gambling?) for me, and I didn't enjoy reading it. I liked Sanditon by Another Lady much better - I think she did a lovely job of capturing JA's essence and finishing the novel in a manner more consistent with it's original author's style and pattern.

I really wanted to like this book, but it pains me to say that is was terrible. I am mystified why the author chose to call the book Charlotte because after JA's portion, Charlotte is rarely mentioned. The rest of the story is a collection of rambling, tedious speeches by minor characters. The story becomes ridiculous when the author introduces piracy and horse racing into Sandition. It ends with the inevitable, but unbelievable uniting of Charlotte to Sidney. It is unbelievable because they have barely had 2 or 3 superficial conversations in all of the author's addition to JA's fragment. Don't waste your time on this one, check out Sandition instead.

Even casual readers of Jane Austen understand that all her writing exists within a certain range. All her novels contain some variation of certain plot elements - the hero, the female rival(s) for the hero's affections, the decoy hero, the wouldn't-marry-him-even-if-he-was/even-though-he-is-worth-10,000-a-year anti-hero. Austen's genious was not in original plotting, but in her use of this formula to explore character, human nature and society. The opening chapters of _Charlotte_, those penned by our beloved authoress, set up all these elements brilliantly. Unfortunately, when Julia Barrett takes over the narrative, we find no social commentary (forgiveable perhaps since Ms. Barrett does not live in the society described), but more importantly, a plot which ambles about as non-sensically as a drunk who has lost his sense of direction. The heroine spends most of her time outside the hero's company, and a considerable time outside of Sanditon and away from most of the characters introduced. The characters clearly intended by Austen as rivals disappear from the pages between their introduction and their marriages, approximately 90% of the story. I can hardly critize Ms. Barrett for not writing in Austen's style or with Austen's formula. I only expect such deviations to be done well, in a manner that is internally consistent with the characters introduced, which _Charlotte_ is not.

As a lover of all things Austen, I was very excited when I first came upon this book. But this completion of Sanditon is incredibly weak. The plot wanders aimlessly, although "wanders" is perhaps too favorable of a term since it implies some momentum.

Worse, the characterization is frightfully dull. The previous Sanditon completion in the 1970s by "Another Lady" is vastly superior, fleshing out very memorable characters and making you really care about Charlotte. By the end of this book, I didn't care about any of the characters as they were so frightfully dull. The climactic conclusion was more like an afterthought; perhaps the writer(s) wanted to be done with the book as fast as I did.

Avoid this debacle and track down the completion by "Another Lady" instead.

As a JA lover, I was excited to receive a copy of this book, and eager to like it. Unfortunately, that was impossible, as Barrett's continuation on Austen's chapters is exceptionally poor work. Barrett introduces extraneous characters for no apparent reason, wastes pages outlining their motives and mental states in tedious detail, and then leaves them to accomplish nothing in particular. You know something is seriously awry with the plotting and pacing when the heroine's relationship with the hero hardly makes an appearance until the final 2.5 pages of the book!

The writing, too, is extremely disappointing, with convoluted sentence structures and seemingly random chapter closures. Worst of all, the work completely lacks Austen's understated and sparkling wit.

I strongly recommend skipping this work altogether, and reading "Sanditon" instead. It's a charming and satisfying completion of the JA fragment that, unlike "Charlotte," remains true to Austen's original characters and prose style.

I found this novel terrible and was a waste of time. I can't bare reading another page after chapter 11 where Austen had left it. This is by far the worst novel I've ever read. If you want to read the completed version of Sanditon, I would suggest Sanditon by Another Lady. It's a good novel and was well done compare to this clumsy one. This novel is not at all worth reading.

I am a big Jane Austen's fan, and I love to read the continuations and sequels. However, I had trouble finishing this book. The break in the writing between Austen's original text and the addition is glaring. The style changes, the characters change, the plot leaps wildly. It's almost like two books -- the author shouldn't have bothered keeping the original text. She probably would have done better rewritting it to fit her own style. I highly recommend reading the other Sanditon continuation by Anne Telscombe instead. It does a seamless job of continuing and the characters stay in character.

I received this as a gift because I am a huge JA fan. I read it through to the end because I read all books related to JA. I cannot believe this book has a rating of 3/5 stars. The plot, as continued by Barrett is absurd in the extreme, and, as others have pointed out, inconsistent and capricious. There is almost no dialogue, a distinct departure from Austen's usual style. A smarmy, confused, verbose narrator conveys most of the "story line." Adding insult to injury is the unnatural and awkward writing style. Barring a few grammatical constructions and vocabulary changes, Austen's language is not so different from our own. Barrett would have us believe that people, in truth, fly everywhere and use the conditional every other word. Would that eager JA readers could but be warned away from this unhappy collection of words!