Name: The Watsons: The novel Jane Austen was always writing
Start: 2025-10-30T18:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-10-30T19:30:00+00:00
Location: 1 Royal Crescent, Bath

The Watsons: The novel Jane Austen was always writing

Join Professor Kathryn Sutherland as she explores The Watsons.
Probably written in Bath in 1804-5, The Watsons was left unfinished. Despite this, it was clearly important: Jane Austen kept it by her for more than a decade during which all her famous novels were published. What is The Watsons—the beginnings of a novel? a short story? an experiment lying between biography and fiction? Why did she keep it?
Professor Kathryn Sutherland is Senior Research Fellow, St Anne’s College, Oxford. Her most recent publications include Why Modern Manuscripts Matter (2022) and Jane Austen in 41 Objects (2025).