I first read Jane Austen’s Emma in an undergrad literature class. I read it for a second time in a grad school Jane Austen seminar. I wasn’t thrilled with the book either time. It all seemed so bland. Even Frank Churchill’s deception was dull. Out of Austen’s six novels this one was solidly ranked as number five for me with Mansfield Park at the bottom. On this my third reading of the book something happened. Maybe it was because I wasn’t expecting much. Maybe it’s because I have been rereading one Austen a year and this is year six making Emma last. Whatever the case may be, I very much enjoyed the book this time around. I enjoyed it so much I can’t decide if I should move it up just one notch to fourth or all the way to third. It doesn’t matter since no one cares but me, but it does help me give you an idea how much I suddenly liked the book.
I don’t have to like the protagonists of my books in order to like the book, but there has always been something about Emma herself that just rubbed me the wrong way and made me grind my teeth. Snobby, self-centered, privileged meddler about sums up how I saw her. That hasn’t changed but I found myself more sympathetic to her. A good amount of that sympathy is because of her hypochondriac of a father, Mr. Woodhouse. Oh my goodness, he sometimes made me want to break something in order to relieve my frustration over all his little worries. Emma is infinitely patient with him and should be considered for sainthood.
I believe I also unknowingly primed myself to like Emma by reading Being Wrong, a book about all the various ways we can be spectacularly wrong regarding anything and everything. And Emma turns out to spend so much time being wrong that it is almost funny especially since she prides herself on being so perceptive. Because she is a lady, however, she, for the most part, admits her errors with grace and good humor even while completely mortified by them.
I still have a problem with Mr. Knightley who is 37 or 38, even Austen can’t say for sure. Emma is 21. Mr. Knightley always talks about watching Emma grow up and even says he’s loved her since she was a girl. Isn’t that just a bit creepy? Plus, for 95% of the book he acts like he, to put it in a vulgar way because I am no lady, has a stick up his butt. Or maybe he’s a robot? No, it’s a stick since he eventually does display enough human feeling to pass the Turing Test. Mr. Knightley has all the reserve of Mr. Darcy without the wit. Even when he does declare his love for Emma and begins to act like a living person, I still can’t picture them as married. I mean, he has spent the whole book frowning at Emma, correcting her every wrong and expressing his displeasure when she violates social rules that I can’t imagine he would behave any differently once married. How insufferable to have a husband who is always right and always correcting you on everything! Since Mr. Knightley is moving into Hartfield so as not to upset Mr. Woodhouse, I frankly fear for Emma’s sanity, trapped in a home with a hypochondriac and a control freak.
What won me over with the book is the tight plot. Austen is a pro with the red herrings. All the twists and turns of who likes whom is delightful. And since the story is told mainly through Emma’s eyes we are fairly limited to her view of events which means we believe the wrong things too unless you’ve read the book before like I have and know what happens or you are an extra perceptive first-time reader. The clues are all there. Even more fun, since this is Austen we know there will be a happy ending; there will be weddings. But we are kept in suspense for most of the book about who will be marrying whom. It’s all so expertly done.
These last six years rereading one Austen novel every year have been enjoyable. At first I thought when I was done I should do it all over again, but no. Much as I liked it I think I will wait a few years before doing it again. That I will do it again I am quite certain.
I have only ever reread P&P – and it’s been years now since I’ve done a reread of it. I found that I got something more out of it with each reread. It’s probably time for another reread! Of the other novels, I’ve only read Emma and Mansfield Park, and I’ve never reread them.
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Belle, P&P is really marvelous. It’s a book that really shoots off sparks. Every time I read it I worry Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth won’t get married. You might want to give Persuasion a go sometime. It and P&P are neck and neck for my favorite Austen.
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You took the words right out of my mouth Stefanie
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I’d like to ask you why you rank the Austen novels?
Also, since you have so many books to read, why you devote time to reading those you’ve already read once or twice before?
Isn’t it enough to enjoy reading them again and see if you view them in the say way as the years go by.
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Richard, why rank the novels? Because when there are only six and you’ve read them all more than once it is a natural thing to do.
Why reread? Because it’s fun. Because there are new pleasures to be had each time. Because there is something special about being really familiar with a book. Because it is never the same book. Because sometimes twice is not enough.
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Mr Knightley definitely has a stick up his butt 😉 I am planning on rereading this soon, especially since I have Alexander McCall Smith’s retelling of Emma to look forward to, as well — I’m interested to see what he’s done with it!
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Melanie, I am relieved to know I am not the only one who feels that way! Enjoy your reread! I look forward to finding out about McCall Smith’s retelling from you.
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I always liked Emma. As an extremely tall and smart girl who could seem forbidding to high school guys, I figured that part of the attraction of Mr. Knightley is that Emma had finally met her match in terms of cleverness and social/emotional intelligence.
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Jeanne, as a person who has never been intimidating to anyone it is hard for me to imagine 🙂 But you are right, it is clear that Mr. Knightley is truly the only suitable match for Emma. I can only hope that Emma’s sprightliness will liven him up a bit!
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I always liked Emma too, and the presence of Mr.Knightley seems to be almost comforting to her. This one is actually one of my favorites 🙂
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I am more of a George Eliot reader than of Jane Austen of whose novels I have only read one – Mansfield Park. Perhaps that was the problem as Fanny Price is famously a bit of a prig though fascinating in her way.
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OK, Dorothea Brooke is a bit of a prig too but she has wider scope and greater sympathy than Fanny!
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Ian, you crack me up! I enjoy George Eliot but she is very different than Austen. I would never pick her up just for a fun read like I would Austen!
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aw! i love MP so much ! for some people is an acquired taste, others never come around… i just love it, pruddish fanny and priggish edmund and all!
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Nish, yes, you are right about his being comforting to her, I had not really thought if like that before!
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I keep thinking I’ve read Pride and Prejudice – I have a copy – but I’m not really sure if I know the story because I’ve seen the PBS dramatization so many times or if I really have read it. My copy is fairly dated, so maybe a long time ago? I did read Persuasion for the first time about 6 years ago and liked it quite a bit, and Emma is also on my shelf, but I never go around to it. P.S. Like you, I re-read books I love. Every time I read To Kill A Mockingbird or Les Miserables I find something new. After all, does one say, “Oh I’ve already taken a look at that Renoir once. Why do I need to look at again?”
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Grad, you’ve not actually read P&P? Grad, you must! The dramatization of it with Colin Firth is really good and some bits of dialog are word for word from the book, but it still doesn’t compare to the book itself. I like your way of thinking about rereading and the comparison to painting is most excellent!
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Like you, I fear for the marriage between Emma and Mr Knightley. He does so love to tell her off, and she does so love to carry on regardless. I can’t think it will last. However, what I love about Austen is the way she takes frankly appalling relatives and makes them funny and shows people dealing with them with such sympathy and compassion. Plus I agree with Mr Wodehouse that everyone would be much safer if they didn’t go out to parties (someone has to stand up for the introvert perspective). I listened to this the last time around read by Juliet Stevenson, who narrated it brilliantly and made it very funny. So that was good. And reading the Being Wrong book illuminates everything, I think. I did love that book so!
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Litlove, heh, you are right about the appalling relatives. Mrs. Bates would drive me as crazy as she does Emma but yet I really do feel sympathy for her and her situation. I think Austen provides us a good example in how to get along in small groups/communities. And while I am not a fan of parties, I would still much prefer to go dance at the ball than stay at home with Mr. Woodhouse worrying about my digestion 🙂
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I’m planning to reread Mansfield Park in the hope that I will understand why people like this one but I didn’t care for it at all. Maybe it will bounce Northanger Abbey into bottom place.
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BookerTalk, Mansfield Park is a hard one but when I reread it I did gain a better appreciation for it even if I still didn’t love it.
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it is a complex book, aldo, it is the one work by Jane Austen that keeps being analyzed and poked by sociologist, post colonial thinkers, historians and such. also, there are these obscure references no one can verify now, on having the family home namef after lord mansfield, chief justice of the kingdom at the time, who was ruling over some controvertial cases on slavery (the uncle of dido belle on the film belle).
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MP is not my favorite but I did like it much better the second time I read it. You are right that it is one that keeps getting analyzed which makes it a bit more interesting in that respect. I had no idea about the Mansfield name. Fascinating!
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I have read Emma once, and somehow it did not work for me either. Maybe I need to read it again. I have enjoyed the other Austen books that I have read.
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Ed, yeah, Emma has taken some time to grow on me. Perhaps she might work the same for you?
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This is a wonderful idea, rereading one Austen a year. I first read Emma in my undergraduate Eng lit class too, but didn’t read it again until decades later. As a matter of fact, Emma is the Austen novel I like the least. But you’re absolutely right, I don’t need to like the character Emma (neither did Jane herself) to like the book. Actually Mr. Knightley I like, very much too, and I feel he’s got a handful by marrying Emma. Oh my, what a match.
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Arti, thanks! It was fun and very doable. Heh, yes, Mr. Knightley will have his hands full but he knows exactly what he is getting himself into so he will never be able to say he is surprised.
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Gosh? Really? It’s really already been six years, and you’ve really already been through all six? Didn’t you JUST get that new-fangled Kindle thing on which you’ve been enjoying P&P?
Anyway, forget how quickly time passes (and my memory for detail, if I’m wrong about which one it was you were reading on that first Kindle you had), just yea! that Emma finally won you over this time. I always found how wrong she was while thinking she was so right hilarious. I never thought of Mr. Knightly as being insufferable on his own, more like they were both insuffersble together — in an endearing way– in their both being so sure of themselves. But, now I suppose I need to reread it again to see if I still think that. I keep wanting to do what you did and read an Austen a year — if only Emma — sigh! — didn’t keep demanding that I reread her more frequently.
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Emily, I know! It is hard to believe it’s been six years. I keep thinking surely there is one I missed? And yes, you are remembering correctly about me reading P&P on a new Kindle! Until now I never found Emma hilarious but the scene with her and Mr. Elton in the carriage after the party at the Weston’s, oh my! Priceless! Hmm, you make me think a little bit differently about Mr. Knightley. He and Emma as insufferable together, yes, I can see that. One Austen a year is very doable. You could read Emma first, then all the others and then Emma again. Easy!
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Arti, I don’t think it’s that Jane didn’t like Emma. What she said, I believe was that she was going to write a novel about “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”. I’m one who had Emma near the bottom of my list too, until my last rereading a few years ago when, like Stefanie, I fell under the spell of Austen’s plotting. Some have described it as the first detective novel, because there is a mystery to solve.
An Austen lover friend is currently doing a very slow re-read of Emma, and she was saying that she thinks Frank Churchill was Austen’s worst “bad boy”. My mum and I were intrigued, and were inclined to disagree. Her argument was that while people like Wickham and Willoughby were cads. Churchill was deceitful and mean. Hmm … I think Wickham and Willoughby’s dastardly designs on innocent young girls make them just as deceitful!
Many Austen lovers I know have qualms about Mr Knightley – but I never have. I guess I’ve always been a sucker for the wise older man (not that I have one – older, that is – myself). And I think we are supposed to believe that Emma has “grown up” now in terms of her poor social behaviour so there will be no need for Mr Knightley to castigate her anymore? It is a little bit of a weird situation but is I think quite believable in Emma’s situation. There were few eligible bachelors in Highbury, and Emma, because of her father, never got out. Indeed, she’d never even been to Box Hill before. So, I think in Austen’s day and in those circumstances, a marriage like this was not unlikely, and therefore not weird to them. (Marianne and Col Brandon have a similar, if not greater, disparity in age, though of course Marianne didn’t grow up with Brandon around).
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whisperinggums, Emma as detective novel, now that’s something I would not have considered! What an interesting thought from your friend about Frank Churchill. While he certainly is deceitful and mean he doesn’t even approach the wickedness of Wickham and Willoughby who were willing to ruin lives and reputations and were far more calculating and cold-hearted I think.
Emma certainly has learned a lesson by the end and will likely be different because of it though I can’t imagine that she won’t still have flights of fancy and plans for her friends. You make a good point about the eligible bachelors. Knightley and Emma are perfectly matched in so many ways. Perhaps they will have a good influence on each other.
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Thanks Stefanie .. Yes, that’s what I said. Those two Ws were far more calculating in their willingness to ruin young girls for their selfish ends.
And yes I agree re E and Mr K … I’m sure Mr K wouldn’t want Emma to become boring, just more considered and she wouldn’t want him not to give her different perspectives as she clearly respected his pov.
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Stefanie, I had much the same reaction upon reading Emma. I see other commenters beat me to the quote. However, for my money, the best modern adaptation of any Austen novel is Clueless. Somehow, the story really works for me in that setting.
Like you, I put Mansfield Park pretty darn low. I found Fanny insufferable and Edmund not very interesting. I’m not sure I’ll ever read that one again, but I felt I had to read it once.
What is your final ranking? I think mine would be Persuasion, P&P, S&S, Northanger Abbey, Emma, Mansfield Park. I think Persuasion appeals to me as an older person who likes the idea of second chances, though really P&P and Persuasion are imperceptibly close.
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Dana, Clueless is a very good adaptation, I agree. Being so used to spunky heroines, Fanny is difficult, but I appreciate her more than I used to. She is in a hard situation and does the best she can so I give her credit for that.
My final ranking? P&P slightly edging out Persuasion for first, then S&S, Emma, Northanger, and Mansfield Park. I suspect the next time I read through them all Persuasion will come out on top for exactly the reasons you give.
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My final ranking would be P&P, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, S&S. I keep thinking I’ll love Persuasion more the next time I reread it, but it hasn’t happened yet, and S&S I think I will just never be fond of. But Emma I do really love, notwithstanding my uncertainty that she and Mr. Knightley will do well as a married couple. I should do like you and reread all six. That would be salutary. It’s been aaaages since I read Mansfield Park — it might not hold up when I read it again.
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Jenny, perhaps Persuasion will grow on you eventually. It’s a quiet book that appeals more and more the older I get. I actually like Mansfield Park better on my last reading that I ever have before. It wasn’t enough to bump up from last place, but I went from really not liking it to having a new appreciation for it.
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Mansfield Park I actively dislike…it is sooooo not Jane Austenish to have a heroine who has absolutely no sense of fun and is such a prig!! Emma per se is hard to like but I did admire the fact that she learnt from her mistakes, gracefully acknowledged her error and moved on to do what is right. Makes her more humane, like Elizabeth Bennette, who learns to overcome her prejudice, only in Emma’s case, the latter’s mistakes were more juvenile! I don’t particularly like Mr. Knightly, but I do like the fact that he acts as a conscience to Emma and is noble at heart. I never quite thought of him as a control freak, only boring. But now that you have planted the idea, I must mull over it!!!
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And yet cirtnecce, it is Jane Austen so, how do we explain that? One of the joys of Austen, I think, is the variety of her heroines. It’s one of the reasons Austen lovers never stop talking about her novels.
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cirtnecce, Mansfield Park is hard to like, I understand. It is one I have struggled with. But it is slowly growing on me. It actually is very Jane Austenish, just much more subtle than all her other books. Mr. Knightley as conscience for Emma, yes, I like that! I hadn’t thought him quite like that before, but it works!
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I have two unread Austen novels–Emma and Mansfield Park–but I have seen different versions of both books. I actually like the story of Emma, but keeping in mind the film adaptations will always be a little different than the books. And if truth be told, usually the Mr. Knightley character is usually played by actors who are, um, rather handsome, and I am sure that comes into play as well. No doubt I would think differently reading the book. When I was younger I would have had a eww reaction to the age difference (and I still do with Sense and Sensibility), but somehow it bothers me less with Emma. And I guess since I am also older and hate the idea that someone younger would be off limits…. Am rationalizing here I suspect! Glad to hear you liked it this time around more than previously–isn’t it interesting to see how much we change from one reading to the next?
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Danielle, heh, isn’t that what they always do in movies, make the man much more handsome and the women prettier? I mean, with all the adaptations of Jane Eyre I’ve yet to see a truly plain Jane or an ugly Mr. Rochester. Your age-gap rationalization made me laugh. On the lookout for a sweet, young early twenty-something are you? 😉
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