EMMA
By Jane Austen
I threw EMMA into my carry-on bag as an after-thought. Wouldn’t there be some good number of quiet moments during vacation—perhaps at night after the kids had fallen into their beds exhausted—for me to read a classic English novel? My collection of Austen novels includes EMMA, PERSUASION, PRIDE & PREJUDICE, and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. They are arranged alphabetically on the shelf (The CDs around here are arranged this way, too, I am afraid!) and so EMMA came with me to England.
As it turned out, I fell into my own bed each night, exhausted, soon after the kids … and so I slept through any quiet moments there might have been. Instead I read EMMA in stolen moments during the day when the kids were playing football in the garden. (It is not soccer over there … and as far as I could tell the term backyard doesn’t exist. And so they played football in the garden.) I also read a fair bit on the day when my husband took the kids on a hike and I stayed behind to do laundry and pack us up for Paris. And there was the three hour train ride from London to Paris. I was glad to have EMMA with me.
That I was able to lose myself in Emma’s story speaks to Jane Austen’s great talent as a novelist, I think. As a heroine, Emma is a challenge. She is rich and a bit snobbish about it. She is young and thinks her position in society and her station in life have prepared her to meddle in the affairs of others. Somehow, though, I found Emma compelling. To be truthful, I found her naïve pride a bit familiar. Who among is not ashamed of at least some of the ideals and sentiments of their youth? And although I am quite sure that I would not have survived the strict societal rules of seventeenth century England, I was able to suspend my twentieth-century sensibilities and believe that such a thing as propriety and connections were important to a successful marriage. And so I was able to read and enjoy Emma’s story. (Unlike, by the way, several amazon.com readers, who trashed this book online.)
I left my copy of EMMA in England, on the bedside table of another Emma. This one is the teenaged daughter of my English friends, whose room my husband and I usurped for the duration of our English vacation. The modern Emma was a gracious host and a patient playmate to our kids. She has not a snobbish bone in her body and, though young, seems to me level-headed enough to avoid any of the mistakes Jane Austen’s Emma fell prey to. I look forward to hearing what she thinks of EMMA.
Best,
Loree