Let’s read Jane Austen’s Emma and talk about it. (Updated)
Jane Austen is all over the news this month as we mark the 200th anniversary of her death and ponder, once again, how an 18th century single lady writing novels about women looking for good husbands became one of the most-read, most-loved writers of all time. The more she is dismissed (marriage novels, early chick-lit, feh), the greater she is revealed to be.
Here, data analysis tries to explain why Jane Austen’s work endures. Here, writers weigh in on which is the greatest Jane Austen novel.
My favorite Austen is Persuasion, in which a woman with an irritating family (a staple in her novels) encounters the man she had been in love with years earlier. Yes, it’s a second chance novel. The first Austen I ever read was Pride and Prejudice, which I hurled across the room the first two times I attempted it, and loved when I finished it. And I’ve seen a lot of film and TV adaptations, including Love and Friendship, Whit Stillman’s funny, caustic version of an early novella (It may be argued that all Stillman’s movies are Austeniana); and Clueless, Amy Heckerling’s take on Emma, which injected Paul Rudd into our bloodstreams. However, I’ve never read Emma, so I will do that this week.
Why are there no dragons or wights in this book, Drogon complains.
Join me! Here’s Emma online. We’ll discuss the novel in Comments.
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I’ve been reading Emma in coffee shops, where I feel compelled to sit up straight, chin up, lest I be judged for my posture. Jane Austen described Emma Woodhouse as a character only she, the author, would like; I concur that she is not a character one takes to instantly. The book begins with this description.
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
Note the word “seemed”. Handsome (as in “striking”), clever, and rich as she is, she is also manipulative, quick to judge, given to interfering in other people’s lives, and a terrible snob. She is, for all her advantages, Clueless (I am impressed at how faithful that adaptation is to the spirit of the novel). We want her to fall on her face…and she does. Her designs are thwarted, she gets her comeuppance, and earns our respect.
While reading the novel, I could not help but feel how small Emma’s world is, how constrained. She is the queen of the village, but it’s a place where nothing much ever happens, so if a single man so much as crosses the street to say hello to a single woman, it’s news. No wonder Emma has to scheme and throw people together; left in her comfortable house with her kind but doddering hypochondriac father, where the high point of her day is a visit from the neighbors, she would be bored to death.
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Critics describe Emma as Jane Austen’s experimental novel—for one thing, her protagonist Emma Woodhouse is not your traditional heroine. She is not downtrodden or disadvantaged, and while she lived at a time when women had few opportunities outside of marriage and child-raising, she could pretty much do as she wanted. Emma was antagonist material, a kontrabida who became the bida.
After the first burst of enthusiasm, I found my reading pace slowing to a crawl in the middle sections, then picking up in the last quarter. I had to get used to the slower, more contemplative rhythm of Austen’s prose. As long as I’ve adjusted to the slowness, I will proceed to two other Austen novels I have not read: Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 17th, 2017 at 21:26
I have memories of reading Emma.
I had been “encouraging” my sisters to read Jane Austen. I guess they got tired of my badgering that one actually told me the ending of Emma which was what I was reading at that time.
There are two more Emma adaptations. The one with Gwyneth Paltrow I appreciated less after I watched the other one.
I’ll read Emma again, when there’s downtime in the office.
July 18th, 2017 at 10:32
oriames: No, there are at least ten Emma adaptations.
July 18th, 2017 at 13:03
Haha ok.. i’m missing out on 7 :D
July 18th, 2017 at 14:05
oriames: Hindi ba bagay si Gwyneth dahil nakakairita siya?
July 18th, 2017 at 15:32
Siguro dahil sa accent nya (hindi naman sya British diba) and kilala ko na sya, medyo unconvincing. Ewan McGregor is also there with bad hair. But the others I believe were perfectly cast: Mr Knightley, Mrs Elton, Harriet. Eventually na i ignore ko si Gywneth.
Siguro the character of Emma is meant to be irritating but you cannot help but love her because she’s pretty and rich and tries her best to be nice. Is she the millenial of the Regency Era?
Mas nag symphatize ako sa BBC-Emma ni Romola Garai (I had to look up her name haha). The way they did that adaptation seemed seamless. I can sit for a few hours just watching it and feel like I’m together with them in the story. I also loved the way they ended it.
For me, any Jane Austen adaptation is worth watching. I became a late-bloomer fan after I read the first line in Pride and Prejudice.
If you haven’t watched it yet, try to watch Austenland. Makes fun of everything Jane Austen. It’s really funny :D Andun si Lindir of LOTR and the Hobbit :D
July 19th, 2017 at 00:25
I like Romola’s Emma the best too, kasi kahit na I found her Emma too emotional at times, I was able to relate and empathize with that version more than I did with the others. Pero mas gusto ko yung Emma ni Gwyneth kesa Emma ni Kate. Emma is described as witty and charming but Kate’s Emma is more acerbic than witty. I actually think Gwyneth is Emma: rich, entitled, beautiful and completely unrelatable; loved by some but completely detested by others.
Also, Jeremy Northam is the best George Knightley.
When I first read Emma, I couldn’t figure out why everyone seemed to be so charmed by her. She just wasn’t a very interesting character to me. Mas interesado pa ako kay Jane Fairfax, and even kay horrible Mrs. Elton. But I also found it sweet that she fell in love with her best friend. I wondered pa why everyone I knew who’s read Pride and Prejudice and Emma swooned over Mr. Darcy and not Mr. Knightley, who I thought was the better and dreamier gentleman. And then nag sink in sa kin yung fact na he was 16/17 when Emma was born, and since their families are neighbors and close friends, he literally saw her grow up. And that was just too skeevy for me.
(For the record, I think Capt. Frederick Wentworth is the best Austen hero. And yes, Austenland is funny. Lalo na si Jennifer Coolidge!)
July 24th, 2017 at 12:58
so i wasn’t able to read Emma but was wading in Jane Austenland all throughout the weekend. a friend died on friday and the most comforting thing I could do after buying some art brushes that i haven’t really used was to watch pride and prejudice (the keira knightley version, let’s pretend she’s a descendant of mr knightley :D ) and then went on to read mistress of longbourn (where in a parallel universe, elizabeth inherits longbourn and through this is almost as equal as the men who court her.) i hope you enjoy / -ed reading Emma.
July 24th, 2017 at 14:52
oriames: Terrible to lose a friend, I hope you are feeling alright.
For the modern spinoffs, check out Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James, in which the happiness of Elizabeth and Darcy is rudely interrupted by the appearance of Lydia, Wickham, and a corpse.
I enjoyed Emma very much, though it took me a while to get used to its slowness. As long as I’ve gotten started, I might as well proceed to the other Austens I have not read: Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.
July 24th, 2017 at 17:39
We’re seeing the goodness out of this death. My mother mentioned it’s easy to make a eulogy for people who are good. That’s what he was, a gentle kind-hearted giant.
I hope you enjoy reading the other books :D Mansfield Park is like a telenovela.