Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Great Posthumous Novels


The New York Times runs them down.

From the piece...

Jane Austen – Sanditon (1817)

Jane Austen began Sanditon, her last novel, while succumbing to the final throes of the mystery illness that eventually took her life in 1817. As a consequence, only the first eleven chapters were completed. However, terminal illness had not affected her biting wit, shown here in her satire at the expense of the hypochondriac Parker sisters, residents of a small watering resort which is being commercially developed. Sanditon has since become a popular subject for 'continuators', with at least half a dozen versions completed by other writers after her death. Persuasion, her final completed novel, was also published posthumously.

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