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x_los4. Zagreus
5. Emma
6. Tale of Two Cities
7. Persuasion
8. Letters of Two Brides
9. The Scarlet Pimpernel (current)
Emma is fucking delightful. A far more enjoyable book than Mansfield Park. It’s more thoroughly Austen-esque.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aralias says it’s been called her most perfect novel, and I can easily see it.
I spent the early chapters hoping Knightly didn't get up on Orphan Annie/Jane the Dull, and lucky no, I knew he wouldn't, because he and Emma are so /married/ already. Except for the having sex bit: its weird how /thoroughly/ Austen characters don't think about sex sometimes. There's a brief bit near the end where someone should take Emma aside and point out that 'no, being friends is not exactly like being married, sorry,’ but in Austen!land, this is not an objection raised even decorously.
Emma is, unlike Mansfield Park, in the happy situation of basic optimism about humanity. It boasts a cast of quite flawed but inherently well-intentioned characters. Largely. The Eltons do suck. Kind of a lot. Though v. amusingly.
But even Frank, Jane, and Frank/Jane does please me, in the end: surprising, as even as I was rooting for Knightly’s awkward statutory cause, I wanted Frank Churchill to love Emma because I thought Emma was just great. For Frank to be a charming, loveable idiot and for Jane not to suck, we need a lot of authorial work, and Austen manages.
It's a good, long ending. Really? When the conflict of a book is done? I just want to luxuriate in a drawn out happy ending. I know it's cheap, but I want to go through everything.
I don't know that I disagree at all with Emma's opinion that befriending too-reserved people is a lot of annoying effort. In the end the novel maintains that 'she and Jane should have been friends, fuck Harriet.' And Jane...was still irritatingly reserved. No. I want no friendship with Jane.aralias points out that Jane unbends at the veryvery end, and that she was probably reserved around Emma all her days b/c Emma made it clear she didn’t want to hang out, but still: Jane seems largely taciturn, and while [Bad username or site: ”aralias” @ livejournal.com] is probably right about the character in question, I can’t help but feel uncomfortable with overly reserved people. So.
Granted the Harriet character was more intelligent/sympathetic in Clueless, and the resolution in that, that they should stay friends, more satisfying.
I'm /thrilled/ when a book location is somewhere I've physically been, b/c I read a lot of not-American books, this rarely happens for me. I am excessively happy when it does work out, and the Churchills live in Richmond-Richmond, where I’ve been rowing, so yay.
Knightly loving Emma since she was thirteen is, on the face of it, the action of a creepster. But unlike Edmund the Engineer of Human Souls (oh Stalin quotes: always great), Knightly’s other half is independent, contrary, self-possessed and endowed with a good sense of humor, so that edge of creepy narcissism comes off. Him yelling at Emma over her treatment of others at Box Hill is so partly motivated by jealousy, as well as an earnest moral concern. The hand-kissing make-up scene is pure gold, with Emma’s confused reciprocal passion and Knightly’s checking himself in the face of how much he loves her. I ADORE Knightly’s reaction when he thinks the Secret Engagement has dashed Emma’s hopes. "Emma is hurt! Frank Churchill is a /fucker./” “Emma is fine! Frank Churchill is an ok bloke, whatevs."
Emma’s sincere wretchedness after Box Hill at having wronged another person is such a proof of everything that’s awesome about Emma. Her strenuous efforts to make up for it show her forceful strength of character. In a similar vein I love how Emma manages her father’s house, taking on all the responsibilities incumbent on the lady of the manor with skillful good will. Emma’s poor relief isn’t a huge thing. Neither is managing her hypochondriac old father onerous: she loves him, and doesn’t even look on it as a burden, but only her responsibility, and her unwillingness to live in a situation that would separate them speaks of patience with a difficult, silly but nice man that I personally wish I possessed.
So even when the novel is convinced that Emma ‘needs to get over herself,’ I don’t really see that she does, and in the end her self-effacement isn’t hideous, she just has to grow up a little and realize her own better nature. Fine, that maturation is a natural continuation of who she is as a person, and thus not wince-provoking.
I enjoy Knightly’s reading aloud the letter with bitchy comments. Emma’s old governess is great. Jane Fairfax's family is endearing even while lightly annoying, and sad, and v. well done.
5. Emma
6. Tale of Two Cities
7. Persuasion
8. Letters of Two Brides
9. The Scarlet Pimpernel (current)
Emma is fucking delightful. A far more enjoyable book than Mansfield Park. It’s more thoroughly Austen-esque.
aralias says it’s been called her most perfect novel, and I can easily see it. I spent the early chapters hoping Knightly didn't get up on Orphan Annie/Jane the Dull, and lucky no, I knew he wouldn't, because he and Emma are so /married/ already. Except for the having sex bit: its weird how /thoroughly/ Austen characters don't think about sex sometimes. There's a brief bit near the end where someone should take Emma aside and point out that 'no, being friends is not exactly like being married, sorry,’ but in Austen!land, this is not an objection raised even decorously.
Emma is, unlike Mansfield Park, in the happy situation of basic optimism about humanity. It boasts a cast of quite flawed but inherently well-intentioned characters. Largely. The Eltons do suck. Kind of a lot. Though v. amusingly.
But even Frank, Jane, and Frank/Jane does please me, in the end: surprising, as even as I was rooting for Knightly’s awkward statutory cause, I wanted Frank Churchill to love Emma because I thought Emma was just great. For Frank to be a charming, loveable idiot and for Jane not to suck, we need a lot of authorial work, and Austen manages.
It's a good, long ending. Really? When the conflict of a book is done? I just want to luxuriate in a drawn out happy ending. I know it's cheap, but I want to go through everything.
I don't know that I disagree at all with Emma's opinion that befriending too-reserved people is a lot of annoying effort. In the end the novel maintains that 'she and Jane should have been friends, fuck Harriet.' And Jane...was still irritatingly reserved. No. I want no friendship with Jane.
aralias points out that Jane unbends at the veryvery end, and that she was probably reserved around Emma all her days b/c Emma made it clear she didn’t want to hang out, but still: Jane seems largely taciturn, and while [Bad username or site: ”aralias” @ livejournal.com] is probably right about the character in question, I can’t help but feel uncomfortable with overly reserved people. So. Granted the Harriet character was more intelligent/sympathetic in Clueless, and the resolution in that, that they should stay friends, more satisfying.
I'm /thrilled/ when a book location is somewhere I've physically been, b/c I read a lot of not-American books, this rarely happens for me. I am excessively happy when it does work out, and the Churchills live in Richmond-Richmond, where I’ve been rowing, so yay.
Knightly loving Emma since she was thirteen is, on the face of it, the action of a creepster. But unlike Edmund the Engineer of Human Souls (oh Stalin quotes: always great), Knightly’s other half is independent, contrary, self-possessed and endowed with a good sense of humor, so that edge of creepy narcissism comes off. Him yelling at Emma over her treatment of others at Box Hill is so partly motivated by jealousy, as well as an earnest moral concern. The hand-kissing make-up scene is pure gold, with Emma’s confused reciprocal passion and Knightly’s checking himself in the face of how much he loves her. I ADORE Knightly’s reaction when he thinks the Secret Engagement has dashed Emma’s hopes. "Emma is hurt! Frank Churchill is a /fucker./” “Emma is fine! Frank Churchill is an ok bloke, whatevs."
Emma’s sincere wretchedness after Box Hill at having wronged another person is such a proof of everything that’s awesome about Emma. Her strenuous efforts to make up for it show her forceful strength of character. In a similar vein I love how Emma manages her father’s house, taking on all the responsibilities incumbent on the lady of the manor with skillful good will. Emma’s poor relief isn’t a huge thing. Neither is managing her hypochondriac old father onerous: she loves him, and doesn’t even look on it as a burden, but only her responsibility, and her unwillingness to live in a situation that would separate them speaks of patience with a difficult, silly but nice man that I personally wish I possessed.
So even when the novel is convinced that Emma ‘needs to get over herself,’ I don’t really see that she does, and in the end her self-effacement isn’t hideous, she just has to grow up a little and realize her own better nature. Fine, that maturation is a natural continuation of who she is as a person, and thus not wince-provoking.
I enjoy Knightly’s reading aloud the letter with bitchy comments. Emma’s old governess is great. Jane Fairfax's family is endearing even while lightly annoying, and sad, and v. well done.
