jane austen's sanditon with an essay by janet todd

This impression is reinforced by Austen’s pithy comments about her friend Anne Sharp, who went in for all manner of ‘cures’ for her severe migraines and eye problems.

These characterizations would tend to suggest that Jane Austen’s view of illness was robust, unsympathetic, and perhaps rather simplistic. This sense of Anne de Bourgh as, effectively, a non-character in the novel, was carried through into the famous 1995 television dramatization, in which the actress who played Miss de Bourgh had little to do, other than sniffing occasionally, and sitting on the sofa looking ill. In Pride and Prejudice, Miss Anne de Bourgh, the daughter of the fearsome Lady Catherine, is described as ‘pale and sickly her features, though not plain, were insignificant’, and, thereafter, is only described through the eyes of her mother’s companion Mrs Jenkinson, who fusses that Miss de Bourgh might be too hot or too cold, or too much in light or shadow (p.200). This idea of ‘health-as-performance’ continues a theme which had been present throughout Austen’s novels – for example, Mr Woodhouse in Emma was described as a ‘valetudinarian’, and his obsession with such things as avoiding draughts and inclement weather was not really backed-up by any signs of genuine infirmity. In her introduction to Sanditon, Austen’s biographer, Janet Todd, makes frequent reference to the ‘fashion’ for ill-health which Austen identified, describing the two Parker sisters and their brother Arthur as forming ‘a droll commentary on the new leisure pursuit of hypochondria and invalidism which the eldest brother, Tom Parker, is exploiting’. Sanditon is Parker’s pet project, and he is very reliant for its success on keeping the patronage of the wealthy Lady Denham (Anne Reid).Īs well as the fact that Sanditon itself is a health resort, many of the novel’s characters are excessively preoccupied with their own health. Sanditon tells the story of young Charlotte Heywood (played in the TV dramatization by Rose Williams), who, as a gesture of gratitude for her family’s hospitality towards him while he is recovering from a sprained ankle, is invited by Tom Parker (Kris Marshall) and his wife to pay an extended visit to their home in the newly built health resort of Sanditon.

The fact that the novel was unfinished at the time of Austen’s death in 1817 meant that an adaptation could take the story in almost any direction, but, even so, it is surprising that the issue of health, which played such a large part in the novel, is almost completely absent from the adaptation. Pictured: Sidney Parker (THEO JAMES), Charlotte Heywood (ROSE WILLIAMS), Miss Lambe (CRYSTAL CLARKE), Lady Denham (ANNE REID) and Tom Parker (KRIS MARSHALL).

Jane austen's sanditon with an essay by janet todd