"The Watsons: Emma" by Kaila Haines

"The Watsons: Emma" by Kaila Haines ★★★★★

Haines has remarkably and beautifully completed Jane Austen’s unfinished book The Watsons. It felt like Austen wrote this herself!

Austen began writing this in 1803 when she was in London and stopped in 1805, either due to her father’s death or the subject in the story (the heroine and her family are destitute which were more difficult for the characters to make a love match). Upon her death in 1817, Jane’s sister Cassandra received the incomplete manuscript for it and knew what Jane intended for the narrative.

Kaila E. Haines has rewritten and condensed what Austen wrote of The Watsons into her prologue, and taken the intended ending of the story to create a worthy and wonderful masterpiece, matching Austen’s style of writing, tone and descriptions. The story follows nineteen-year-old Emma Watson who is sent back to her impoverished family after years of living with her wealthy aunt and uncle, where the expectations of an advantageous marriage are inevitable. At a ball, she meets the awkward and wealthy Lord Reginald Osborne, his clergyman tutor, Mr. Henry Howard, and the libertine Tom Musgrove. She then navigates twists of fate, imminent proposals, family scandals, and expectations in the Regency era society.

Haines addresses issues of racism, classism and gossip in Georgian era, something Austen often discussed in her works. These could cause discrimination and tarnished reputations respectively, and are used as areas essential and effective to the plot. For example, Mr. Howard on more than one occasion either defends Emma or dislikes the conversation he is in due to other’s remarks on Emma’s station and skin colour. Jane Austen herself describes how harshly people judge her:

“Many were the eyes, and various the degrees of approbation with which she was examined. Some saw no fault, and some no beauty. With some her brown skin was the annihilation of every grace”.

The word choice of “annihilation” (as Haines also mentions in a blog post), is strong and significant, as it indicates destruction, there being nothing left as evidence. Haines ensures she uses the same word and tweaks this into “Some saw no fault, others found their brown skin to be an annihilation of all things proper” for her story. Another example is Emma’s brother Samuel had to be “mindful that quite often, the color of his skin prevented him from being fully accepted in polite society.” These situations are still relatable today.

There are excellent descriptions:

“Robert Watson had turned the family trait of pragmatism into cold calculation for the benefit of himself and his immediate family, which did not extend to his brother or sisters.”

This alone is very powerful. It tells you everything you need to know about the character of Emma’s older brother: he does not care about his siblings, only himself and the family he has made.

“Margaret, assiduously seconding every opinion Lady Caroline uttered – as though she were the oracle of Delphi – made her feel infinitesimally worse.”

This description is exceptionally clever! In the temple Delphi in ancient Greece, the oracle was a priestess named Pythia who would tell people cryptic prophecies and messages from the God Apollo. It not only shows Margaret holds Lady Caroline in the highest regard, someone to look up to (putting her on a pedestal) but it may also suggest what Lady Caroline says are things Margaret is not smart enough to understand (therefore cryptic to Margaret).
A peacock is used as recurring symbolism for Lord Osborne (from the peacock pattern on his clothing to the description of him “hovering like a proud peacock anxious to be admired”) as peacocks are often associated with vanity.

Indeed, the more one looks at it, the more one can tell there is a combination of everything Austen. The story goes from verbal conversations to describing conversations, occasionally the author speaking directly to the reader, as Austen does. Emma is reminiscent of both Anne from Persuasion and Fanny Price from Mansfield Park as she is reserved but has excellent opinions. Lord Osborne may be a potential reflection on Austen’s own experience (as she herself turned down a wealthy man). There is a moment akin to Colonel Brandon saving Marianne from Sense and Sensibility as Henry saves Emma in the storm, and a moment like Pride and Prejudice as Emma receives a letter from Elizabeth explaining her history with her sister mirroring Darcy’s history with Mr. Wickham. Lady Caroline Osborne is essentially another Caroline Bingley, and it could be argued she and her brother are like the Crawford siblings in Mansfield Park. Tom Musgrove is like Wickham and Willoughby.

The overall chosen plot has been chosen with utmost care and perfection: the bond and tension between Emma and Henry was perfect, the plot twist about Lucille’s husband was very sweet (though it could be argued Austen herself would never have written that element), and the denouement was great. Throughout, there were some hilarious moments such as when Henry saves Emma after she is caught up in the rain and Lord Osborne offers to help, is taken aback when Emma refuses.

The narrative stumbles slightly in its final act. The novel’s epilogue (chapter 35) felt more like a Gaskell than an Austen! Many characters at some future time pass away or have misfortunes and the only good news is of Emma and her brother Samuel. This was too many and too concurrently. This did not take away from the overall narrative but more happier things would have felt more Austen. Some aspects were missing: there should be a scene where Emma receives her Christmas present of the book and the perfume, as well as a scene or moment where there is an argument between Emma and Henry, as this would have added more stakes and tension. Lord Osborne’s proposal publicly in the midst of a ball would not have been tradition back then, nor written by Austen, though it makes sense to have because he is so desperate to have her and it adds a huge amount of scandal!

The blurb should have included the information that this was a continuation of Austen’s unfinished work so more people are drawn to this. Some may not know, or may have forgotten. The blurb could also have avoided a particular spoiler about Mrs Blake’s husband. That made for an interesting plot point for the reader to discover by themselves. It would have also been better to have known the exact date of when the story is set.

Despite these aspects, Haines’ completion of The Watsons is a worthy, wonderfully researched masterpiece and a treat for Jane Austen enthusiasts, Regency romance readers, and anyone who enjoys rich, character-driven historical fiction.