July 14, 2011
An unfinished manuscript written by Jane Austen around 1804 sold at the Sotheby's auction for almost 1 million pounds. The incomplete work titled "The Watsons" is the earliest surviving manuscript for a novel by Austen and is exceptional because it contains the corrections of the author. The story centers around a widowed clergyman's four daughters. Sotheby's book specialist emphasized that the heavily corrected draft "has afforded an extremely broad audience an insight into the author's writing process and reworkings". |