Jane Austen manuscript sells for £993,250 !

A rare Jane Austen manuscript has sold for £993,250 ($1.6m) in London, three times more than its estimated price.

Auction house Sotheby's had originally valued the unfinished novel - entitled The Watsons - at £200,000-300,000.

The manuscript, originally owned privately, was purchased by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Other novels by Jane Austen

Short Biography

Jane Austen was a major English novelist, whose brilliantly witty, elegantly structured satirical fiction marks the transition in English literature from 18th century neo-classicism to 19th century romanticism.

Jane Austen’s life was a brief one, lasting only from 16 December 1775 to 18 July 1817. During that time she lived in Steventon, Hampshire, until the age of 25 in 1801; for the following eight years mostly in Bath and briefly in Southampton; and then, from 1809 to her death, at Chawton Cottage, again in Hampshire. She never travelled abroad, and did not travel extensively within England either. Her father died in 1805, but her mother, despite several health scares during Jane’s lifetime, outlived her daughter by 10 years and lived to the age of 88. Her brothers and sisters also all outlived her. Only four of Jane Austen’s novels were published during her lifetime, and while they enjoyed a moderate success and popularity then, they have never been out of print since.