True Love, Jane (Austen and Campion) Style

True Love, Jane (Austen and Campion) Style, my piece at my home base, RH Reality Check, is up for our V-day story package celebrating love. I'm always searching for ways to combine radical feminism with a love of 19th century Brit Lit. Sigh. I think I did a better job with "Bright Star" than with "Emma," perhaps because the latter is so close to my heart right now and I'm still thinking about it in a frenzy, night and day. The intro is below:

In recent months, my favorite romantic works of art, "Emma" on TV and "Bright Star" in theaters, both featured well-mannered Regency Brits in old-fashioned romances. Cultural critics love saying that women viewers' proclivity for costume drama represents a backlash against sexual liberation, a longing for a return to decorum and being treated like property. But to me, it's the opposite. Both film's visions of love achieve the goal of being enrapturing and romantic while subtly critiquing conventional conceptions of love.

#Emma_PBS. Did You Loooove It By the End?

Dear readers, it's long over, and this is a much-belated post. But did the conclusion charm you as much as it charmed me? Were you humiliated and uncomfortable on Box Hill or did you wish Knightley had said "badly done, Emma," a little less yelling-ly? Were you totally enamored of the romantic conclusion, or did you miss seeing the scene in which Knightley and Emma sit together and read Frank Churchill's letter (so perfect, and kind of perfectly snarky for our internet age)? Were you deliriously happy that Emma got to see the sea at long last or did you worry along with Professor Dumbledore/Squire Hamley on downers Mr. Woodhouse? And did you agree with my mother when she emailed me with the following words of wisdom:

Thought Emma was FABULOUS... You could really feel the love between her and Knightley!!!!

I had my quibbles, but the whole thing won me over utterly. So much so that Simon and I bought the DVD, in fact, as a mutual Valentine's Day gift. Yay!

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Emma--Book and BBC

Emma by Jane Austen


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I re-read Emma for the third time alongside my soon to-be-cara sposo, Mr. VL, who is reading it for the first time. I have to say, now that I'm no longer a naive adolescent girl myself, I have even more appreciation for the way Austen captures the mindset of that particular epoch in one's development.

But this isn't a rapturous enough way to start--I'd always enjoyed the book, and admired its cleverness and wit, but this time I truly fell in love with it. It's as well-structured as Pride and Prejudice, with characters serving as symmetrical foils and doubles for each other, and it's a meditation on human folly, on our tendency to see others through the tinted glass of our own desires, proclivities and fears. Emma of course, is the worst example, guessing everything wrong down to her own heart's feelings, oblivious to everyone's real motives under the screen of the motives she would like them to have. But this tendency is true of every character, down to Emma's father, Mr. Woodhouse, who assumes all others have the same need for gruel and blazing fires in the summertime as he does. Even Mr. Knightley, who supposedly has perfect judgment and composure, chooses interesting moments to scold Emma--often related to his own masked feelings for her. In Austen's world we're all stumbling around in the blindfolds of our own perspective, our own human imperfection. There's an undertone of melancholy here, too, lurking in the corners of this comédie humaine. I actually burst into tears during a certain climactic scene in which someone is told she has borne something as no woman in England could--(of course it was 2 a.m. and I had the flu, but the emotions were genuine.)

I think it's a first-rate work of genius. Sometimes, dear readers, I'm inclined to say that there are two categories of fiction: 1-fiction 2-Austen. Jane Austen does everything your writing teachers and editors say don't do: she uses the passive voice, lots of linking verbs, adverbs, and general adjectives like "handsome" and "elegant" and "tasteful" and almost no physical or tangible descriptions of anyone or anything. And yet her world comes more alive than most contemporary writers who describe things with metaphors like the full belly of her grief scraping across her soul. Not that there's anything wrong with imagery. It's just that Jane does it all with such a light touch. Sigh.

View all my reviews >>


Now, for my thoughts on the BBC production.It's definitely growing on me--as other have noted, this production improves a lot after the first smirk and eye-roll filled hour and a half. I like that it brings out those darker, lonelier, more cramped edges of Highbury life. I find Johnny Lee Miller's Mr. Knightley absolutely charmant, and Garai's manic mannerisms have calmed down a bit. I think she gets certain aspects of the character, almost the opposite elements from the Paltrow portrayal--but neither actress can combine the naivete with the goodwill with the headstrong wit with the vulnerability lurking beneath it all--except, I maintain, Alicia Silverstone :)

Needless to say, I cannot wait til the conclusion, and I may have to re-watch the ballroom scene which is lovely--again, conventional Janeite wisdom has already come to this consensus, but I will add my voice to the chorus.

What do you all think so far? Is the miniseries improving for you also?

Obligatory Pre-Emma Post

It's been a roller-coaster weekend for me anticipating Emma 2009, readers. Last week I began re-reading Emma and got really excited by how funny and witty and brilliant the book is and that pumped me up for tonight. Then today I read a bunch of commenters all over the internets really trashing the adaptation and my heady anticipation took a hit.

It's confusing--Sandy Welch's adaptations (North and South and 2006's Jane Eyre) are two of the best in the last five years, so she seems the obvious choice to screenwrite. Romola Garai's Gwendolyn Harleth in Daniel Deronda is like another side of Emma Woodhouse--shallow-rich 19th century woman played as tragic instead of comic. So again, good choice in casting. I thought Johnny Lee Miller was a fine choice for Knightley, and obviously Gambon as Mr. Woodhouse is less inspired than mandatory.

Still, sometimes the right ingredients don't add up to the perfect meal. So there's nothing to do but wait and see. I'm going to keep an open mind and try to enjoy the adaptation for its own sake (even as I re-read the book just so I can get angry about more discrepancies--but there's fun in that, there is!). I'll be joining the twitter conversation as this adaptation airs--hastags #Emma_pbs and #emma.

Also, I wrote a little blog post at Speakeasy about how Clueless is my favorite Emma adaptation and how hard it is to top Alicia Silverstone's charm when casting an Emma character. Head over there and check it out and prove that Austen fatigue hasn't hit the internets.

Literary Linkage--Emma and Booklists

• Via bronteblog, Penguin has announced a new shtick to encourage reading the greats: "ten essential classics," a new list which includes some EBC faves. Check out the site here.

• Mags' UK readers at Austenblog submit their VERY mixed reviews of Emma '09, installment 1.

The Connection Between "Emma" and "Daniel Deronda"

The new Emma will star both Romola Garai (Gwendolyn/Emma) AND Jodhi May (Mirah/Ms. Taylor-Weston), reprising their on-screen pairing as rivals for our hero's love in Daniel Deronda. And this time, Ms. May will not be playing a tragic Jewess with a penchant for music and aristocrats. They will be fwiends :P

Mags also tells us that Natalie Portman is going to play Lizzy Bennet in R+P and Zombies. Rather than repeat myself endlessly, I will direct you to this post about my (and Charlotte Bronte's) feelings towards skinny magic/manic pixie dream girls who are cast to play enduring literary heroines.

Part 3 in an endless series of casting news from Austenblog.

"Emma" Casting News from Mags

Extra! Extra! Read all about it.

I for one, am very pleased with the results, even the controversial choice for Mr. Knightley. I think this may be the Emma we deserve.

[Based on the comments thread at Austenblog, I may be one of the only people who admires certain aspects of Rozema's Mansfield Park film. I wrote my junior paper on it, after all. I don't think its stars can be faulted for the fact that the Edmund-Fanny relationship is made of fail, nor can Rozema be faulted for playing around with the source to put it onscreen--MP is in my opinion, all but un-adaptable as is, because the novel's pleasure is in its narration rather than its characters.]


I think we're going to need an "Emma" label for this blog soon but for now we'll just stick with the lolgwyneth.