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A review by rebeccazh
Emma by Jane Austen
Had to reread this for a module I'm taking and I was surprised by how much I missed the first time round. It's a lot more revolutionary than it appears.
One of the biggest differences from what I remembered was that I used to think it was a love story. And I liked both Knightley and Emma. Now, I wouldn't call this a love story, because it's about Emma, the heroine of fancy and imagination. She's like a budding young author who goes around trying to rewrite everyone's narratives (and fails, because her world is too closed off from the outside world). This time rereading, I found that I didn't like Knightley. He's always moralising. I couldn't stand Emma at first, although I loved her characterisation, but I like who she became near the end of the novel. I think the romance in the novel is really actually secondary to Emma's story.
And the writing is so complex! The narrator's voice is really subtle at times. It's cool reading this the second round, because I see how much is packed into the writing. All the multiple layers of meanings, all the different characters' and their reactions and interpretations... Also, there were some parts that were just hilarious.
I liked Jane Fairfax a lot more than I remember. This book is really revolutionary, because Jane is what you would expect of a typical heroine. Her moral dilemma with Frank causes her so much distress and would make a pretty good novel by itself. And yet the story is about Emma. Spoilt, presumptuous, overly self-confident and overbearing Emma. I loved her as a character but didn't like her at all as a person, and still I would rather read about her than Jane.
One of the things that interested me was the way Austen viewed class hierarchies. She seemed to see the relationship between the gentry and the lower class in a similar way to the relationship between landlords and tenants. The gentry's duty is to be guardians of civility and manners, and to, in a way, take care of the lower classes. But, no matter how much good feeling exists between the two groups, they could never truly mix nor be equals. Knightley and Robert Martin are friends, and Knightley sort of guides and looks after Robert Martin, but he would never invite the latter to dinner.
So, on the surface, the story of a woman who realizes her mistakes and finds true love, but I think it's a lot more destabilising than that. It's about a woman who has to learn to balance her solipsistic inner world with the outer world, so that she can achieve a clarity in her understanding of the world.
One of the biggest differences from what I remembered was that I used to think it was a love story. And I liked both Knightley and Emma. Now, I wouldn't call this a love story, because it's about Emma, the heroine of fancy and imagination. She's like a budding young author who goes around trying to rewrite everyone's narratives (and fails, because her world is too closed off from the outside world). This time rereading, I found that I didn't like Knightley. He's always moralising. I couldn't stand Emma at first, although I loved her characterisation, but I like who she became near the end of the novel. I think the romance in the novel is really actually secondary to Emma's story.
And the writing is so complex! The narrator's voice is really subtle at times. It's cool reading this the second round, because I see how much is packed into the writing. All the multiple layers of meanings, all the different characters' and their reactions and interpretations... Also, there were some parts that were just hilarious.
I liked Jane Fairfax a lot more than I remember. This book is really revolutionary, because Jane is what you would expect of a typical heroine. Her moral dilemma with Frank causes her so much distress and would make a pretty good novel by itself. And yet the story is about Emma. Spoilt, presumptuous, overly self-confident and overbearing Emma. I loved her as a character but didn't like her at all as a person, and still I would rather read about her than Jane.
One of the things that interested me was the way Austen viewed class hierarchies. She seemed to see the relationship between the gentry and the lower class in a similar way to the relationship between landlords and tenants. The gentry's duty is to be guardians of civility and manners, and to, in a way, take care of the lower classes. But, no matter how much good feeling exists between the two groups, they could never truly mix nor be equals. Knightley and Robert Martin are friends, and Knightley sort of guides and looks after Robert Martin, but he would never invite the latter to dinner.
So, on the surface, the story of a woman who realizes her mistakes and finds true love, but I think it's a lot more destabilising than that. It's about a woman who has to learn to balance her solipsistic inner world with the outer world, so that she can achieve a clarity in her understanding of the world.