Yesterday I started reading Jane Austen’s hilarious novel, Emma. I’ve been a little obsessed with this novel ever since the 2020 movie adaptation was released to theaters. No need for spoilers, since I won’t really be discussing the movie here. But I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Jane Austen. It isn’t a perfect adaptation, but it is still one that I found myself thoroughly in love with, and that love grows more every time I watch it. I also have to add that it’s a real beauty and a treasure for me to see women directing these newer movie adaptations of classic novels. Emma is directed by Autumn de Wilde with the screenplay by Eleanor Catton. And then last year, Greta Gerwig both wrote and directed the new movie adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel, Little Women. It’s not that men can’t make good movie adaptations of novels written by women (1995’s Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee with the screenplay written by Emma Thompson is absolute perfection), but I do feel there’s something deeper, something more in tune with the novels when a woman writes the screenplay and directs the film.
Anyway, so I loved the new movie adaptation of Emma, and since I finished reading Persuasion a few days ago, my best friend suggested that we read Emma next. As an aside, Persuasion is a book which has become my absolute favorite Jane Austen novel, a development I did not expect. But while some people find it dull and boring because it doesn’t carry the more obvious humor of Emma and Northanger Abbey, I found it to be an absolute masterpiece of romance, devotion, and family, as well as a stunning landscape of human interiority and personal struggle. Anne Elliot, much like Fanny Price from Mansfield Park, is wildly underestimated as an Austen heroine. Elizabeth Bennet and Emma may be much more popular as Austen heroines, but I think Anne Elliot is probably closest to Austen’s own personality. For instance, Anne Elliot hates the city of Bath, and Austen was known to feel the same, preferring the quiet solitude of the country. Anne Elliot, despite her own wishes, ends up moving to Bath with her family in the same way that Austen did in her own life. Anne Elliot is a woman of strong feelings, but she is also very self-controlled and logical throughout the novel, much as Austen was known to be. Anne Elliot frequently muses internally about the silliness of the people around her, and Austen did this constantly. So it bothers me when people don’t “get” Anne Elliot as a character, or find her boring because she isn’t any such thing.
Yesterday, my best friend and I had a Google Hangout video call and talked for almost two hours about how much we loved Persuasion, our impressions of different characters, and read several passages aloud. While our mutual love for Jane Austen has been one of the cornerstones of our friendship, we’ve never actually read all of Austen’s novels together. The first year we were friends (I think we were fourteen), we watched Sense and Sensibility together. The first time I watched the A&E Pride and Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth was with her. When Joe Wright’s abominable 2005 movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice came to theaters, she and I and a group of our friends dressed up in period appropriate attire and went to see the movie. So really, there isn’t a single point of the development of our friendship that hasn’t been impacted by Jane Austen. Reading all of her novels together now, as adults in our thirties, has been a balm to my spirit. This year has been really difficult in a lot of ways and it’s so calming and peaceful to know that I have a kindred spirit. She is definitely my kindred spirit and the truest, best friend I could ever have asked for.
We’ve had two conversations now about the Austen novels we’ve read, one for Mansfield Park and one for Persuasion. And while we’ve both watched movie adaptations of Emma together, this will (as I said) be the first time we’ve read the novel together. This will be my fourth time reading Emma (well, three and three quarters. I didn’t actually finish it completely last year) and I’m excited to see what humorous details I can pick up on, especially in light of the new movie. I think next year, I want to try and watch all movie and mini-series adaptations of Austen’s work. And to be clear, I don’t mean the modern retellings, like Bridget Jones’ Diary and Clueless and the new movie coming out called Modern Persuasion which looks absolutely wretched. Although interestingly enough, I do mean Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is surprisingly accurate to the spirit of the novel and gave me one of the most beautiful Pride and Prejudice proposal scenes ever. It makes the whole film.
Anyway, there’s really not much of a point to this post other than to emphasize how much I love Austen and am loving even more to be reading her novels with my best friend. If you haven’t read Jane Austen, I highly recommend you do. She is brilliant and underrated, even with her popularity. I really think if you give her a chance, you won’t be disappointed.
