제인 오스틴의 왓슨 가족.The Book of The Watsons: By Jane Austen, Concluded by L.Oulton, by Jane Aust

제인 오스틴의 왓슨 가족.The Book of The Watsons: By Jane Austen, Concluded by L.Oulton, by Jane Austen
PREFACE
This work was left by its author, a fragment without a name, in so elementary a
state as not even to be divided into chapters, and some obscurities and
inaccuracies of expression may be observed in it which the author would probably
have corrected. The original manuscript is the property of my sister, Miss Austen,
by whose permission it is now published. I have called it The Watsons, for the
sake of having a title by which to designate it. Two questions may be asked
concerning it. When was it written? And, why was it never finished? I was unable
to answer the first question, so long as I had only the internal evidence of the
style to guide me. I felt satisfied, indeed, that it did not belong to that early class
of her writings which are mentioned at page 46 of the Memoir, but rather bore
marks of her[ Pg vi] more mature style, though it had never been subjected to the
filing and polishing process by which she was accustomed to impart a high finish
to her published works. At last, on a close inspection of the original manuscript,
the water- marks of 1803 and 1804 were found in the paper on which it was
written. It is therefore probable that it was composed at Bath, before she ceased
to reside there in 1805. This would place the date a few years later than the
composition, but earlier than the publication of Sense and Sensibility, and Pride
and Prejudice. To the second question, why was it never finished? I can give no
satisfactory answer. I think it will be generally admitted that there is much in it
which promised well; that some of the characters are drawn with her wonted
vigour, and some with a delicate discrimination peculiarly her own; and that it is
rich in her especial power of telling the story, and bringing out the characters by
conversation rather than by description. It could not have been broken up for the
purpose of using the materials[ Pg vii] in another fabric; for, with the exception of
Mrs. Robert Watson, in whom a resemblance to the future Mrs. Elton is very
discernible, it would not be easy to trace much resemblance between this and
any of her subsequent works. She must have felt some regret at leaving Tom
Musgrave's character incomplete; yet he never appears elsewhere. My own idea
is, but it is only a guess, that the author became aware of the evil of having
placed her heroine too low, in such a position of poverty and obscurity as, though
not necessarily connected with vulgarity, has a sad tendency to degenerate into
it; and, therefore, like a singer who has begun on too low a note, she
discontinued the strain. It was an error of which she was likely to become more
sensible, as she grew older and saw more of Society; certainly she never
repeated it by placing the heroine of any subsequent work under circumstances
likely to be unfavourable to the refinement of a lady.
J. E. AUSTEN LEIGH