JASNA Greater Phoenix hosted
a virtual presentation of
A Season at Sanditon
by award-winning author Rose Servitova
Saturday, October 22, 2022
11:00 AM MST
With special guest Karen Ievers, presented from her 18th-century home Mount Ievers Court in Ireland. Karen shared some of her Jane Austen-related paraphernalia that she has collected throughout the years, including a portrait of Tom Lefroy. Rose discussed her experiences with completing Jane Austen’s unfinished work as well as read segments from her new novel.
We were delighted to join Rose and Karen with a cup of tea and piece of cake during the event and a glass of bubbly at the end to toast the launch of A Season at Sanditon. Attendees had chances to win copies of the book.
Review from “Jane Austen’s Regency World” magazine of A Season at Sanditon:
“You are twenty-two years of age, I believe, Miss Heywood and one of fourteen children from a middle-sized farm. You have no wealth, no connections, no title and only a fresh-faced prettiness to recommend yourself. Do you not give marriage any thought?”
Startlingly rude, and verging on the vulgar, the dreadful Lady Denham is the seaside town of Sanditon’s answer to Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Rose Servitova’s witty and charming completion of Jane Austen’s last, unfinished, novel.
The ‘fragment’ remaining consists of eleven and a half unrevised chapters – but the themes and actors contained in this tantalisingly brief piece of work provide a superb jumping-off place for Servitova’s latest offering.
Sanditon’s cast of characters is a gift, sketched out with perfect precision by Austen, and beautifully rounded by Servitova – largely filtered through the cool and ironic gaze of our unfairly insulted heroine, Charlotte Heywood.
Here is Charlotte on the predatory Edward Denham: “the kind of man who, if a lady returns his smile, begins planning their honeymoon,” and here, discussing two of the Parker siblings, Diana and Arthur, with the sweetly innocent heiress Jemima Lambe: “Where health matters are concerned, there is no one to compare with Diana Parker. I have no doubt she delighted in hearing you cough, that she might enjoy the sound of her own advice and credit herself for curing you. And poor Arthur is but her echo – a weak man with a fondness for toast.”
To make up for Diana and Arthur, the Parker family also gives us a fine hero, in the broad and manly shape of Sidney. A thoughtful and attentive charmer, he is perhaps more Bingley than Darcy, but none the worse for that. And then – along comes a wild card: Dr Hollis, with his connection to the Denhams, and his eye on Charlotte…
One cannot help feeling that Jane Austen would have enjoyed this lively and light-hearted completion of the novel that could have been the most modern and mischievous of her creations. The idea of the coastal resort took a firm hold of the British consciousness during the Regency – with Brighton and its outrageously extravagant Pavilion epitomising all that anyone could possibly ask of a fashionable seaside town. The concept of entrepreneurship, embodied by the Parker family, also emerged in the early years of the 19th century. All this was wonderful grist to Austen’s irony-mill: the comedic possibilities presented by a town full of aspirational social climbers, provincial ingenues and old school – but minor – aristocracy are endless.
Rose Servitova has picked up all these elements and crafted them into something very special. Her unerring feel for Austenian dialogue and observation has allowed her to create a thoroughly finished novel from the ‘fragment’ left incomplete at the time of Jane Austen’s death.
Entertaining and satisfying completion of Jane Austen’s last novel.
From the back cover of A Season at Sanditon:
When Charlotte Heywood arrives at the fledging seaside resort of Sanditon, she quickly forms strong views on her new social circle. While she finds some to be agreeable enough, others inspire less charitable opinions, such as the penny-pinching Lady Denham, the rather dim Sir Edward and the highly ridiculous Diana Parker and her brother Arthur. But Charlotte develops a strong affection for her host’s brother, Sidney and becomes increasingly friendly with wealthy heiress, Miss Jemima Lambe.
Following a sea-bathing accident, the fascinating Dr Hollis enters Charlotte’s life and sets off a chain of events that will leave both Charlotte and Sanditon changed forever. Romance, deceit and the threat of ruin force Charlotte to face up to her shortcomings and, in an attempt to make amends, acknowledge that her own happiness is tied to the fate of Sanditon.
Jane Austen started work on Sanditon more than 200 years ago and put it aside unfinished just weeks before her death. Now award-winning writer Rose Servitova, who skillfully completed Austen’s other unfinished work, The Watsons, has finished the manuscript in a manner true to Austen’s immensely readable style and sparkling wit.
Rose Servitova’s debut novel, The Longbourn Letters: The Correspondence between Mr Collins and Mr Bennet, was published to rave reviews in 2017. Her second novel, The Watsons (a completion of Jane Austen’s unfinished work), was a finalist in both the SPR Book Awards and the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Writing Competition. Rose spends much of her time writing, visiting historical buildings, talking at literary events and walking on Irish country roads. She lives in County Limerick with her husband, two children, and an indifferent cat.