ABSTRACT
The Conclusion explores Jane Austen’s rewriting of masculinity in Sanditon, an unfinished work she referred to as ‘The Brothers’, through the lens of Walter Scott’s critique of literary hierarchies in his review of Emma. Austen’s heroine Charlotte Heywood is a judicious consumer of literature, mirroring Austen’s own ideal reader, and it is the idle, impecunious baronet who is dangerously influenced by sentimental literature. Austen’s split narrative perspective across the Parker brothers reflects her breadth of male characterisation in Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park, but it is impossible to speculate on how Austen would have realised these characters had the novel been completed. The Conclusion also outlines future directions for research on Jane Austen and masculinity.
