Different class

Of all of the canon of English Literature, there can't be many more high profile authors or works that I've managed to get this far in my life without having properly encountered than that of the works of Jane Austen. I recently made this confession to a Professor of English at Oxford University who specialised in Austen and I figured that if anyone was ever going persuade me to pick something up, it was probably her.

In my defence, it's not a matter of not wanting to, though it's not my usual cup of tea, merely being regularly distracted by things I have a greater inclination to pick up, though I had every intention of getting there one day. With a pre-20th century category to fill and plenty of big names to try, it was now or never. And as she said (and as I had been told before) that if you read just one, read Emma, who was I to disagree?

On the whole I liked it, probably more than I was expecting to. It was clever, subtle and the devil was very much in the details. The sly observations, the manners and quiet comedy of the social situations, manipulations and characters were surprisingly captivating. It gave an interesting insight into the time it was written, which is definitely not one I know much about. The nuances of class, of gender, of polite society all came through strongly and were, for me, the best part of the book.

I can't say I could really connect with any of the characters, being that they were too far removed from my own personal experiences and, perhaps due to the reserve and manners of the time, often too lacking in any real personality. Our heroine, however, is well-fleshed out. Smart and likeable, she is also not without flaws, which make her much more interesting to my mind. Meddlesome, lacking self-awareness and not half as good a judge of people as she thinks she is, she has all the arrogance of youth. Furthermore, she doesn't seem to learn from her mistakes, repeatedly trying and failing to matchmake successfully, which is the central theme of the novel. I was initially slightly ambiguous about the ending – I expected it to be happy as that was my preconception of Austen's work, but I wasn't sure it was deserved due to the overall course of the novel not really leading that way. However, the fact that Emma seems to have learned from her mistakes finally and followed her heart, I can't disagree with and maybe I'm just in the right frame of mind for a nice, romantic, happy ending.

Book number: 49
Title: Emma
Author: Jane Austen
Category: Pre-20th century literature