Jane Austen manuscript sells for $1.6M

NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- A recently discovered manuscript by British literary icon Jane Austen has been sold at auction to an unnamed institution for $1.6 million, Time magazine said.

Austen, who died in 1817, penned the classic romances "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense & Sensibility," "Emma," "Mansfield Park," "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey," many of which have inspired popular film adaptations.

Time said five chapters of an unfinished novel called "The Watsons" was recently unearthed by an Oxford University academic.

Begun in 1804, the manuscript focuses on heroine Emma Watson, a refined young women who was raised by a wealthy aunt, then returns home to find her sisters obsessed with finding rich husbands.

The papers were sold at a Sotheby's auction, however, the buyer has not been publicly identified, the magazine said.