Book of the Week

Emma by Jane Austen
Recommended by Will Palmer

Emma is a novel written by Jane Austen, which tells a tale of the English gentry in the early 19th century.

This review has the purpose of enticing you into reading the book and yes, I am aware that my very first sentence will entice only a very specific group of people. Therefore, it being my job to entice every reader of this review, I shall now persuade you as to why Emma is one of the greatest comedy of manners novels of all time.

In Defence of the Novel?

Dr Hudson

Jane Austen appears on the new ten-pound note with the quotation, ‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading’ emblazoned beneath her picture.

The line comes from Pride and Prejudice and is – as many commentators have pointed out – spoken by a character who is merely pretending, and actually has no interest in reading at all. We might look to another of her works, Northanger Abbey, only published after her death but written early in her career, to see a more detailed discussion of novels and reading.

Lessons in Love from Jane Austen

Miss McLaughlin

TEN ways to get a girl by Mr Knightley, Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy

plus 

FIVE ways to lose one, by Mr Willoughby, Mr Wickham, Mr Crawford, Mr Collins and Mr Darcy

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of the greatest - and best loved - writers in the literary canon. In the year which marks the bicentenary of her death, this month sees the introduction of the new plastic £10 note with Jane Austen replacing Charles Darwin after 17 years on our legal tender. Collectors are on the look out for low serial numbered notes (the first three presented to the Queen, Prince Philip and Teresa May respectively) and other significant Austen dates. So, before you hand over your tenner, make sure you take a glance to check if you have Jane Austen’s birthday, 16 12 1775, or her death 18 07 1817.

The picture of Austen is accompanied by the line 'I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!' Although the sentiment on face value seems fitting, those amongst you who are familiar with the novel might question its suitability given that Miss Bingley, having just made this declaration, promptly ‘yawned’ and ‘threw aside her book’. Perhaps, you might suggest, her attraction is more to the wealth which would have been necessary to possess the desired ‘excellent library’ than for the wealth to be found within the books themselves. And didn’t Darcy have a very wonderful library…?

Jane Austen 200

Dr Hudson

As a teacher, it’s always a great pleasure to hear from former pupils, so I was delighted to get a card at the beginning of this term from an Old Pauline now studying English at university who wrote specifically to say that he had taken my advice and read the works of Jane Austen. I remembered that he had felt put off by her reputation when we had talked on one occasion about the novels, thinking they were not for him. Now, he said, he saw why I had recommended them and was a confirmed admirer of her writing.

Jane Austen died in 1817, two hundred years ago this year, at the age of 42. Now, this relatively quiet-living, spinster from a village in Hampshire is one of the most famous authors in the English-speaking world.