Sanditon Season 2 Differences From The Novel

We have a few questions for you today. Do you believe that a novel can flawlessly turn into a tv show? Does the “Sanditon” series reflect Jane Austen’s unfinished novel? Are there Sanditon season 2 differences from the novel, or are they the same? Today we will try to find the answers to these questions together.

Sanditon’s novel remained unfinished with the death of Jane Austen. But this novel was presented to us as a drama on ITV, with the screenwriters completing it. Sanditon’s novel remained unfinished with the death of Jane Austen. But this novel was presented to us as an eight-part drama on ITV with the screenwriters completing it. So how did they complete this unfinished story? Does it exactly reflect the original? Get ready to see the answers!

Sanditon Season 2 Differences From The Novel

Does Sanditon Exactly Reflect The Original Novel?

Jane Austen died in March 1817, when she was only 41, after writing 11 chapters of this novel. The original title of the story was “Brothers”. It was renamed “Sanditon” in 1925 and offered to the people. These first 24,000 words describe young Charlotte Heywood and her host Tom Parker. He’s a man desperately trying to put the Sanditon town on the map as a seaside resort. This story which is open to intrigue has to end before it can begin due to her sudden death.

The continuation of the story was thus written by Pride and Prejudice adapter Andrew Davies. He notes that almost half of the series exists in the unfinished novel and writes one-on-one according to that incomplete story. He added that he was forced to improvise after Sidney Parker was included in the series. Then he continues with the following words; “What she did was establish this wonderful group of characters very clearly. But she never really got the story going at all. What she did was just so fresh, because these men, in particular, are not like Jane Austen’s usual people. They’re kind of businessmen, they’re entrepreneurs, they’re something new.

Sanditon Novel

As for the subject of the unfinished novel, Charlotte Heywood who is one of the 14 children of a respectable Sussex country gentleman is narrated. The beginning of the story begins, as we saw in the tv adaptation. Tom Parker and Mrs. Parker overturn their car while driving on an unfamiliar road near the Heywood family home. He sprains his ankle and the Heywoods take them to their home in Sanditon for help. He persuades the family to let their daughter Charlotte come and stay as a guest for the summer in the fashionable seaside resort he thinks it is.

Then, she meets Lady Denham of Sanditon House who Tom Parker has persuaded to invest in Sanditon’s future although she has penny-pinching habits and preoccupation with her money which is not without reason. Her nephew Sir Edward Denham and his sister Esther Denham are her fortunes. She likes but has a poor relationship with Clara Brereton who is from her own family. It’s a forerunner of competition. Isn’t it?

Sanditon Season 2 Differences From The Novel

Also, The Parkers delighted by a visit from Mrs. Diana Parker who is a hypochondriac busy body and a second hypochondriac sister called Susan which is not mentioned in the tv drama, and younger brother Arthur Parker.

Sir Edward tries to impress Charlotte, but our clever heroine Charlotte realizes that the man has the idea of attracting Clara. Mrs. Griffiths comes to the town with three charges; the two Miss Beauforts, and a West Indian heiress called Miss Lambe. This is the unnamed story in the TV version.

Finally, Charlotte and Sidney Parker who is Tom’s brother in Sanditon encounter him, and she finds him attractive. That was fiction for the tv series after episode 1. So a lot of questions arise in their minds. Who is Charlotte’s love in the original novel? Although the screenwriter Davies was inspired by the original, he actually added many different characters to the story. About this, he said the following words “I think she’d been obviously setting up Charlotte and Sidney for some kind of frisson. And there was Sir Edward as well, who presents himself as a sexy man, but not a very reliable one. We thought, well, hang on, that’s not enough – let’s have a decent chap!”

Novel vs. Tv Series Differences of Sanditon

In the original, there are two gardeners called Old Stringer and Young Stringer. But Davies changed that and introduced Young Stringer, played by Leo Suter, as potential suitors in the series. He says that “He’s an invention. Because the building of the town is obviously so important, you have to think who is actually doing this building? So young Stringer came into being, as did old Stringer, his dad. There’s a kind of dynamic going on there because young Stringer doesn’t want to stay being a foreman all his life. He wants to be an architect, he’s got big ambitions and he’s clever as well as practical.”

Sanditon Season 2 Differences From The Novel

We believe there is an incestuous relationship between step-siblings who are Sir Edward Denham and his sister Esther Denham. Do you think there is such a thing? Comment on the below. They live together, but neither of them has enough money. They come to Sanditon together and meet Charlotte at the local library. They almost look like a couple. What an interesting one! But we have no evidence that they had a sexual relationship or a romantic relationship. They just look like biological step-siblings. Our original author, Jane Austen, also does not have any texts on this subject. So it looks like it will remain a secret.

Now let’s focus on the moment in the novel When Charlotte sees something through the trees. Here we clearly see in the Sanditon Season 2 differences from the novel.

The paragraph continues “Charlotte, as soon as they entered the enclosure, caught a glimpse over the pales of something white and womanish in the field on the other side. It was something which immediately brought Miss Brereton into her head; and stepping to the pales, she saw indeed and very decidedly, in spite of the mist, Miss Brereton seated not far before her at the foot of the bank, which sloped down from the outside of the paling, and which a narrow path seemed to skirt along—Miss Brereton seated, apparently very composedly—and Sir Edward Denham by her side.

They were sitting so near each other and appeared so closely engaged in gentle conversation that Charlotte instantly felt she had nothing to do but to step back again and say not a word. Privacy was certainly their object. It could not but strike her rather unfavorably with regard to Clara, but hers was a situation which must not be judged with severity.” In the Tv version, it was shown to us as a handjob scene.

Sanditon Season 2 Differences From The Novel

Here’s how Davies talks about this scene; “We just sat around talking and thinking, and saying, dare we do that? Yes! There’s a funny bit in the book when Jane Austen says: poor Charlotte peers looking for the deer, and sees something, she’s not sure what she’s seen, something white and womanly. And anyway, somehow it became – what it was. I really aim to please myself, writing these things. I write something that I would like to watch. And I suppose the sexing it up thing comes in fairly naturally. If it’s not there I feel that that’s a shame, and I put some in.”

As you can see, there are many Sanditon season 2 differences between the real endless novel and the tv show. Now I want you to reconsider the questions I asked you at the beginning. Can a novel really reflect each other when it turns into a tv show? I think it’s impossible not to wander off from the real subject when actors and professional screenwriters are involved. What do you think about that? I’d be very happy to see your ideas in the comments. See you!

Also Read: Sanditon Renewed For Season 2 And 3 By PBS