ABSTRACT
E. M. Forster, who described himself as “slightly imbecile about Jane Austen,” expressed his disappointment in her last uncompleted novel. He characterized Sanditon as a book which “promises little vigour of character and incident” (154).1 However, Forster did understand that this novel fragment began by positioning landscape as a major character:
Forster continued by asserting that “Sanditon gives out an atmosphere, and also exists as a geographic and economic force” (155). Returning to Austen scholar Brian Southam in his discussion of landscape throughout Austen’s works: “Ultimately, in Sanditon, the setting becomes an agent in the story, a considerable element in the meaning of the work” (Literary Manuscripts 38).
