Title: Sandition

Author: Jane Austen

Genre: Classics

Pages: 320

Rating:  4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Jane Austen; 52 Books -- W52

How I Got It: iBooks free download

Sanditon might have been Austen’s greatest novel had she lived to finish it. Its subject matter astonishes: here is Austen observing the birth pangs of the culture of commerce, as her country-bred heroine, a foolish baronet, a family of hypochondriacs, and a mysterious West Indian heiress collide against the background hum of real-estate development at a seaside resort.

Instead of reading one of the continuations or completions of the novel by another author, I stuck to Austen's fragment.  I was really getting into the story of the little seaside town of Sanditon and its quirky residents.  I wish that Austen would have continued, the novel holds such promise.  We have a mysterious character, a few potential romances, a grand scheme, and all the usual meddling neighbors.  Really a fun little read...