Lady Susan Vernon is a calculating coquette, encouraging the attentions of several men at once; but this time she goes too far and has to accept the fate that she has prepared for her own daughter. Emma Watson returns from Ireland to rural Surrey, denied the inheritance that she has been brought up to expect and facing a future of the genteel poverty that Jane Austen herself knew well. Austen may have abandoned The Watsons for that very reason; it may have been a little too close to home. Will her Emma do better? We shall never know. In Sanditon Jane Austen struck out in an entirely new direction, taking a wry look at a developing seaside resort on the Sussex coast populated by a colourful cast of hypochondriacs and speculators. Sadly, she died before she could complete it.

If you have ever expected Jane Austen’s novels to be difficult to read, the Line Clear Edition is the one for you. Here are Jane Austen’s stories in Jane Austen’s words, made approachable by clear type and a clear layout, modern spelling and modern typography. The innovative chapter titles and contents list, derived from the text, will quickly guide the familiar reader back to favourite passages.

The cover image is taken from a Cassini Old Series map, using mapping first published by the Ordnance Survey in 1813 (while Jane Austen was still writing), and is reproduced by kind permission of Cassini Publishing Ltd. The front cover is centred on Eastbourne in Sussex. Austen tells us that Sanditon is ‘one complete, measured mile’ nearer to London than is Eastbourne. Another of the places mentioned in the story is Willingden; it may be significant that ‘Willingdon Mill’ appears on the map only about two miles northwest of Eastbourne.