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Title:
The Younger Sister
Series: ----------
Author:
Catherine Hubback
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Romance
Pages: 518
Words:
200K
Publish: 1850
Jane Austen started a novel called “The Watsons” and only wrote five chapters before abandoning it. Many years later, a niece, one Catherine Hubback, took those five chapters and turned them into a sprawling mid 1800’s romance novel.
This novel is divided into three sections and I found the first to be the strongest. It was the closest to Austen’s original five chapters and I felt like Hubback was constrained by them and that kept the train on the tracks. It wasn’t Austen writing, but it was pretty close and “felt” like what she might have written. I thoroughly enjoyed that part and had high hopes for the rest of the book. That was the part I was in the early stages of when I posted my “Currently Reading” post about this book earlier this month.
Sadly, parts two and three were completely Hubback’s and she was no Austen, not by a long shot. There was more blushing, face coloring and ten-thousand other euphemisms for blushing as could be stuffed in as possible. Emma Watson faints on several occasions, hides necessary information “because it wouldn’t be proper” (mainly about her feelings) and generally buys into the “upper class people are inherently better” idea that seemed more of Hubback than anything. The characters, after part one, did not feel like Austen characters at all and how they acted and reacted were not Austen’esque at all.
Emma Watson herself is a Mary Sue of Morality and she waxes on and on about it, until I rolled my eyes. Emma gets the guy (a Mr Howard who is a “tutor” who is also somehow a preacher?) even though every other guy she runs across in the story ALSO wants her. Some are stupid, some are honorable and some are even, gasp, dishonorable. Oh the humanity of it!!!
To end, I don’t regret reading this, but I can’t recommend it unless you are a diehard (Bruce Willis doesn’t recommend this, ha!) Austen fan. It did convince me not to seek out any more novels by Hubback, which I don’t think will be a problem. It has also given me pause about the idea of seeking out some of the “completed” adaptations of Austen’s unfinished “Sanditon”.
★★✬☆☆
From The Internet:
Emma Watson, the youngest child of six from a poor family, was sent away as a child to be raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle. When her uncle dies and her aunt remarries, Emma (now a pretty, well-educated, and opinionated young woman) returns home to help care for her ailing father and reconnect with her estranged siblings. She quickly must learn how to behave among the less affluent and navigate her way through the affections of many young men vying for her attention.
