Emma

Last week I finished "Emma" so I have now read four of Jane Austen's full length novels with only "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey" to go. The latter two appear to be quite short perhaps not much longer combined than "Emma" or "Mansfield Park" alone. In the introduction to "Emma" (which I always read after I have read the book) there was something about the importance of reading Austen's novels more than once since you look for other things once you are not focused on how the story will come out. This may be something I need to do, at least with "Mansfield Park" and "Emma."

One thing that stood out for me in "Emma" was a number of the subsidiary characters who are very well drawn. In writing about "Mansfield Park" I suggested that these two novels may represent Austen's moving to another level as a novelist - after the success of her first two books and before her declining health impaired her ability to work. Of special note to me in "Emma" are Mr. Woodhouse and Miss Bates, one a chronic hypochondriac and worse, the other a chronic talker. While these habits are not necessarily endearing, Austen's portrayal of them makes them both funny and to some degree endearing.

Perhaps the only unsympathetic character in "Emma" is the local vicar - Mr. Elton. This is interesting because it represents the second time (Mr. Collins in "Pride and Prejudice" being the first) where an Anglican minister is presented in something less than glowing terms. Interesting because, of course, Austen's father was an Anglican minister. One would guess that Austen probably knew Anglican clergy fairly well, raised by one, no doubt hearing stories of countless others and also probably meeting a number of them at different times. After working for almost 25 years in the Episcopal church, I am well aware of the many issues facing clergy children - enough to make me wonder about Austen's motivation for at least twice presenting pictures of unattractive behavior of men of the cloth.

My reading of two Austen novels this year has closely followed reading about five Trollope novels. Reading them in contrast like that made one thing about Austen's world especially clear - the difficulty of travel and how sheltered one's existence was away from major cities. In Trollope travel is almost always by railroad, neither simple nor easy, but it pales in comparison to Austen's world where horseback and stage were the only means of any kind of distance travel. Witness how in "Mansfield Park" Fanny is really stranded at Bristol until someone (ie. a protective male) can come and bring her back to Mansfield Park. George Eliot's novel, "Adam Bede" has been described as being about life in England before the railroad - Austen's novels are even more so.

One complaint about "Emma." As in "Mansfield Park," Austen sets up a two/one romantic situation creatring drama about who will be married and who will be left out. While in "Mansfield Park" the problem was resolved by someone giving into their bad side, in "Emma" it is resolved by one person falling in love with someone else. The latter relationship is present throughout the book, but no explanation is given for the one of the two giving up the one and marrying someone else. Indeed, the book ends without Emma herself understanding how this happens - it seems too easy a way out of someone being disappointed. But this complaint should not be seen as being anti-Jane. I am enjoying myself, looking forward to the last two and then on to "The Jane Austen Book Club."