January Book Report: Emma

In preparation for the February release of a new Emma movie, I got out my copy of the Jane Austen classic this month.  

This book is a delicious treat, as is the case with all things Jane Austen (I’m watching Sanditon on Masterpiece Theater this month and it’s been pleasing).  In Emma, the dialogue is clever and witty.  The characters are an assortment of Austen’s carefully drawn quirky townspeople, at least a few of whom are especially tiresome and somehow still quite charming.  In short, the book is delightful and the story pops right along.  I’ve read Emma so many times that I can anticipate my favorite scenes.  For me, a committed re-reader, this is especially pleasing.

Every re-read finds me aware of something new in the novel.  This time around, it was a reminder about the limited world of educated women in the 1800s.  Emma, who works as a matchmaker for the women around her, resists marriage for most of the novel, preferring to stay home and care for her charming (but hypochondriac) father.  Her resistance to marriage is about her father but it’s also about having the chance to shape her life for herself.

In the end, of course, Emma does choose marriage.  In her case, it’s without giving up her sense of self.  As is the case with all Austen novels, the reader gets her happy ending.  But this is no saccharine event, accompanied as it is by the voice of an all-seeing honest narrator.  Emma was a cozy pleasure in January.  Plus, I’m ready for the movie next month!