Jane Austen novel you’ve never heard of brings to life a world of love, lust, social climbers and nude bathing

A 200-year-old unfinished last work has had historians and fans baffled - but a new, finished adaptation promises to be rather raunchy.

Cassandra Austen’s handwritten copy of her famous sister’s unfinished novel Sanditon. Picture: Jane Austen’s House Museum

NUDE bathing, money-hungry developers, social climbers, and hypochondriacs are not things that usually spring to mind when someone says Jane Austen.

When it comes to the grand dame of the literary world, it’s usually all about the bonnets, secret letters, carriage rides and demure looks. Taking off with a bad boy soldier, or unwanted attention from a cousin, is about as racy as it gets.

But the latest incarnation of Austen’s iconic tales — in fact, her final, unfinished fragment — is set to delve into the raunchy side of her world as it hits TV screens for the first time.

Dare I say it, things could get a bit sexy.

Gravely ill at just 41 years old, Austen penned Sanditon — the foundations of the tale of small town girl Charlotte Heywood, transported to a fashionable seaside resort by a developer and his wife who literally crash into her life after rolling their carriage in her rural village.

Jane Austen’s last unfinished novel was completed with help of author Marie Dobbs.

A handwritten manuscript of Sanditon. Picture: Jane Austen's House Museum.

But we never learn whether Austen intended for her to find love because the English novelist died on July 18, 1817, having written just 12 chapters, and before she could tell us if Charlotte got her happily ever after.

Emmy and BAFTA-winning writer and producer Andrew Davies is now set to complete the puzzle, penning his own version of Sanditon 201 years on, turning it into an eight-part ITV series to be distributed globally by the BBC.

Davies is the kind soul who gifted the world with the moment voted the best in TV history, when dishy Brit Colin Firth appeared as a dripping wet Mr Darcy in that lake scene in the 1995 BBC mini-series adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Susannah Fullerton, president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, says while Firth’s heart-stopping moment will be hard to beat, Davies’ adaptation of Sanditon could be the raunchiest yet.

“That scene (with Mr Darcy) isn’t in the book, Davies added that, so he’s famous for doing sexed-up versions of Jane Austen’s fiction,” Ms Fullerton said.

“I’m expecting more of the same in Sanditon … and I mean who could possibly object to Colin Firth in a wet shirt? Nobody, I would say!”

Indeed, Davies himself is promising a “sumptuous” journey, taking viewers “from the West Indies to the rotting alleys of London”.

“Sanditon tells the story of the transformation of a sleepy fishing village into a fashionable seaside resort, with a spirited young heroine, a couple of entrepreneurial brothers, some dodgy financial dealings, a West Indian heiress, and quite a bit of nude bathing,” he said.

Skinny-dipping being part of the story takes it a step further than the way bathing was done in the Victorian era, given it was more like a wet T-shirt competition behind closed doors. Well, with at least one person copping an eyeful.

“People went out in these bathing machines, which were rolled out part of the way into the sea,” Ms Fullerton said.

“Then a big, strapping woman ‘dipper’ would literally dip them into the water through a hole in the floor … they would wear a long, clinging gown which got wet, so they weren’t generally exposed in front of the opposite sex.”

As Charlotte rolls into town for the first time, Austen describes the area where the bathing machines are as “the favourite spot for beauty and fashion”. Go figure.

William Heath’s artwork Mermaids at Brighton, circa 1829, depicts the ‘bathing machines’.

CRIME, SEX, ROMANCE, MONEY AND THE SEASIDE

The cottage where the author lived and wrote for the last eight years of her life is now known as Jane Austen’s House Museum in the picturesque village of Chawton, Hampshire, in the south of England.

The museum’s director, Dr Mary Guyatt, however, isn’t convinced Sanditon is such a complete departure from Austen’s work after all.

“In Austen’s novels, there is a strong association between seaside and crime, sex, romance and money-making,” Dr Guyatt said.

“It is no coincidence, for example, that Lydia Bennet runs away to Brighton with Wickham in Pride and Prejudice.

“Jane Austen’s other novels are much more a comment on social change than we necessarily realise today and that’s because her references are so subtle.

“Those references are much more transparent in Sanditon; it’s very much a comment on changing society.”

The novel’s greedy developer, Mr Parker, is fixated on cashing in on the latest wellness trend of taking a (weird) dip and inhaling the sea breeze, and even sipping sea water, and “could talk of it forever” as he tries to convince the rich and the fashion elite it will cure whatever troubles them.

If only he’d had Instagram, hashtags and the Kardashians.

A Calm by James Gillray (1810) shows how beachgoers dressed in the early 19th century.

The handsome but creepy Sir Edward’s “great object in life (is) to be seductive,” cracking on to as many women as possible while trying to win the favour and the fortune of the rich old Lady Denham, the puppet-master of the operation who is also busy torturing her poverty-stricken relatives. It’s just all so juicy.

While rural girl Charlotte is at first focused on buying her sisters brooches and parasols from the local library, she’s quickly revealed as having the smarts to see through the fakery in this hotbed of fashion, social climbing and commercial greed.

Charlotte seems the only sane one in the room as at one point she’s surrounded by people constantly popping pills, and sharing bizarre experiences such as being paralysed by drinking green tea.

“It’s a terribly funny piece all about the hypochondriacs at the seaside, and seems to show a new direction for her (Austen),” Ms Fullerton said.

“She was dying when she wrote this and had her own very real health problems, but was able to laugh at people’s imaginary illnesses and ailments.”

Dr Guyatt agreed, saying she believes Austen wrote Sanditon to amuse herself.

“It is not insignificant that she was incredibly unwell when conjuring up characters absorbed by imaginary illness and in that sense, she is almost laughing in the face of her own ill health.”

Now the Jane Austen's House Museum, this was the author’s home for the last eight years of her life. Picture: Jane Austen's House Museum

— Melissa Seiler is a brisbane-based journalist and Jane Austen fanatic who very much enjoys watching THAT Mr Darcy moment. Follow her on Twitter @melseilerjourno

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the BBC’s 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.

A likeness of English novelist Jane Austen. Credit: Jane Austen's House Museum