Women's Classic Literature Enthusiasts discussion

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After several unsuccessful attempts, I'm looking at rereading Emma. I want to start roughly the 19th of this month.

Is anyone interested in a buddy read?

I'm going away for a few days, so depending how the android GR app & I get on I may not be able to respond till about the 17th. :)

I'll join and read Emma.

Awesome!

I would love to re-read it, it's my favorite Austen, but I'm heavily committed for such limited reading time as I have these days. I may follow the discussion, but probably won't do a full re-read. Or more accurately re-re-re-re-and-maybe-a-few-more read.

Note for the future: we request that any members interested in starting a buddy read message a moderator first before starting the thread.

This is the right folder for it, Carol. :) I don't think I'll have the time to reread but I can contribute to the discussion and be a cheerleader, lol. Emma is one of my favorite books.

Anastasia wrote: "Note for the future: we request that any members interested in starting a buddy read message a moderator first before starting the thread.

This is the right folder for it, Carol. :) I don't think..."

Oops sorry! :)

I'm away on holiday & the internet has been...frustrating. I should be back home Saturday.

I was just thinking tonight how much I would love to re-read it - I would love to join in the discussion.

Carol, will you want a separate thread started for discussing the book or will you discuss it in this one?

I think I could use this thread & maybe another 4 spoilers. Glad u can join us

I love Emma! Carol, I would love to join the re-read--I've just re-read Sense & Sensibility and have been thinking a lot about Austen.

Here you go, Carol: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Anastasia wrote: "Here you go, Carol: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

I'll be ready to join in, too, in a day or two!

cool. I may have to ask for a delay. I may have to go up north again as it looks like my fav uncle is dying. so glad I got 2 see him. Will make decision tonight after I talk 2 my cousin.

***Carol*** wrote: "cool. I may have to ask for a delay. I may have to go up north again as it looks like my fav uncle is dying. so glad I got 2 see him. Will make decision tonight after I talk 2 my cousin."

Not a problem for me. It's hard to lose uncles, especially the good ones, so I hope all goes well.

A delay is no problem.

Oh, I forgot to mention Carol, that I'm sorry about your uncle. :(

Sorry to hear about your uncle :-(

I'm sorry about your uncle as well, Carol.

Well I'm home as my uncle has rallied. Don't know if that's a good thing as he doesn't have much quality of life. So on with Emma! :)

& I have finished my previous book, so as soon as I have done my review I'm ready to start!

My copy is an old Collins which I won as a prize at school! I have tried at least 3 times to read it but have never got very far. So thanks for all the support!

So I have started & so far very readable! Maybe I was just too young before?

So far, finding her father a lot more annoying than Emma herself.

I'm amused by Mr. Wood house. I think in the hands of anyone other than JA, he would annoy me as well.

If you find Emma's father annoying, wait until you meet Miss Bates!

Andrea (Catsos Person) wrote: "I'm amused by Mr. Wood house. I think in the hands of anyone other than JA, he would annoy me as well.

If you find Emma's father annoying, wait until you meet Miss Bates!"

& my phrasing wasn't too clear. So far I'm not finding Emma annoying. Flawed as are we all, but not annoying.

I have never found Emma annoying. Full of ego, definitely.

I agree with Andrea. I found Mr. Woodhouse hilarious but I think in the hands of any other author I would have been annoyed.

I never found Emma annoying! I adored her in my teens and twenties - then I slowly began to realize that she can be a bit ... arrogant? blind? ... sometimes. But as I got better at seeing Emma's flaws I just loved her and the book even more!

I'm still enjoying, although I've come to the part where Emma's behaviour really made me grit my teeth! JA's writing style is now so assured, so accomplished!

Andrea (Catsos Person) wrote: "I'm amused by Mr. Wood house. I think in the hands of anyone other than JA, he would annoy me as well."

That's thought-provoking. Certainly in JA's hands he avoids annoyance (though knowing him personally would have frustrated me no end), but could some other author have treated him as gently, letting the humor of his situation overwhelm the annoyance?

Alexa wrote: "I never found Emma annoying! I adored her in my teens and twenties - then I slowly began to realize that she can be a bit ... arrogant? blind? ... sometimes. But as I got better at seeing Emma's ..."

Ditto. The more you get to know her, the richer a person she becomes. He flaws get magnified, but so do her virtues. She really does mean well, but (view spoiler)[in the end she remains a product of her class. (hide spoiler)].

I'm struck by the similarities between Emma and Anne Eliot (Austen's other wealthy/high-society heroine in Persuasion) not in terms of personality (they have totally opposite dispositions), but in terms of family situation--neither has the kind of close sibling relationship of Jane and Lizzy Bennet or Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.

Emma is fairly alone, once her governess marries and moves out, because of her father's age and disposition and her situation as the wealthiest young woman in Highbury. Austen seems to be saying that wealth doesn't protect you from loneliness and isolation. That little scene in Ch. 5 between Knightley and Mrs. Weston, where Knightley wonders what will become of Emma, is really interesting--this part:

"Be satisfied," said he, "I will not raise any outcry. I will keep my ill-humour to myself. I have a very sincere interest in Emma. Isabella does not seem more my sister; has never excited a greater interest; perhaps hardly so great. There is an anxiety, a curiosity in what one feels for Emma. I wonder what will become of her!"

"So do I," said Mrs. Weston gently; "very much."

"She always declares she will never marry, which, of course, means just nothing at all. But I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for. It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object. I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good. But there is nobody hereabouts to attach her; and she goes so seldom from home."

"There does, indeed, seem as little to tempt her to break her resolution, at present," said Mrs. Weston, "as can well be; and while she is so happy at Hartfield, I cannot wish her to be forming any attachment which would be creating such difficulties, on poor Mr. Woodhouse's account. I do not recommend matrimony at present to Emma, though I mean no slight to the state I assure you."

Part of her meaning was to conceal some favourite thoughts of her own and Mr. Weston's on the subject, as much as possible. There were wishes at Randalls respecting Emma's destiny, but it was not desirable to have them suspected; and the quiet transition which Mr. Knightley soon afterwards made to "What does Weston think of the weather; shall we have rain?" convinced her that he had nothing more to say or surmise about Hartfield.

Love your comments Hope.

My read is going to be slow. The font on my edition is small & even with glasses & a reading lamp, this book is too tiring to read at night.

My daughter was home for the weekend & she thought the book itself was quite beautiful - even though it was a bog standard hardback for the 60s! :)

Hope wrote: "I'm struck by the similarities between Emma and Anne Eliot (Austen's other wealthy/high-society heroine in Persuasion) not in terms of personality (they have totally opposite dispositions), but in ..."

Those are some interesting observations about the sibling (sister) relationships in some of these books.

I haven't read SS in a long time. But I read Persuasion for the first time last year.

If i recall the Dashwood sister relationship, (view spoiler)[ it seems as if Elinor was very mush the "big" sister to Marianne as a steadying influence. Lizzie and Jane seemed to be equals. Anne's relations with her sisters were kind of dysfunctional but in different ways. Her married sister (middle) was very self absorbed, though cordial to Anne as long as Anne was willing to listen to her babble. The elder sister seemed to have no use for Anne. (hide spoiler)]

Where are all of you in your reading (chapter etc)?

I've completed Book I.

Uh oh. I've made a mistake. I have not completed book I. I was thinking of another book.

Andrea (Catsos Person) wrote: "Uh oh. I've made a mistake. I have not completed book I. I was thinking of another book."

Ha! I wondered as I had a skim through & couldn't see that my copy was divided into books! :)

I will complete book/Vol. I today.

I'm am now starting ch 16.

I'm part way through Chapter 26 - (view spoiler)[Frank Churchill has just returned. (hide spoiler)]

Oh dear! I was confused. I have just completed Volume/Book 2. I thought that I was still in book 1.