How to Read Jane Austen's Emma (Introductory Lecture)

'Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.'

It’s time to spend some time in the world of Jane Austen with Emma.

Our reading of this masterpiece will teach us about love, friendship, courtship, marriage, men and women, moral judgement, growing up, romance, what we need from our partners, the rise of the novel, and much more. We will meet some incredible characters and, in doing so, ultimately meet ourselves.

Today we’re discussing how best to break into this complex Regency romance and bring ourselves fully to one of the greatest novels ever written.

I am refraining from details that might spoil the story in this discussion, with the assumption the central love match is common knowledge. So enjoy the talk however best suits you. Feel free to use the timestamps to navigate to topics of interest, or make yourself a cup of tea and kick back with me and your copy as we dive into Jane's world.

The first half of the video covers historical context, bibliotherapy/reading for healing, and the life of Jane Austen, whilst the second half dives into Emma, the story and characters, and we conduct some close appreciation of some marvellous passages from the beginning of the work.

Video Timestamps:

0:00 Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse

2:00 a heroine who no one will like?

4:00 why Jane Austen is a great writer

6:00 Jane Austen book club lectures

8:00 the healing power of Jane Austen

10:00 Austen’s novels increase intelligence

12:00 Austen’s novels improve empathy

13:00 Elizabeth Bennett vs Emma Woodhouse

14:00 reading provides company in solitude

16:00 Jane Austen & the rise of bibliotherapy

17:00 what does it mean to be a Janeite?

18:00 why learn to read great literature?

20:00 reading Jane Austen in times of war

21:00 why men should read Austen too

23:00 Jane Austen’s creation of character

24:00 Jane Austen’s free indirect style

26:00 how she speaks to women and men

28:00 life during the time of Jane Austen

30:00 the era of the French Revolution

32:00 life in the Rectory at Steventon

33:00 Jane Austen’s father and brothers

35:00 Steventon to Bath to Chawton

36:00 Austen’s young vs mature novels

38:00 grief, pain, psychological complexity

39:00 Austen’s life whilst writing Emma

40:00 literature of the Napoleonic era

42:00 Austen and the rise of social realism

44:00 Sir Walter Scott’s review of Emma

46:00 why doesn’t Austen depict war?

47:00 the tragedy of Austen’s early death

49:00 how every Austen novel is different

51:00 every Austen heroine is unique

52:00 Emma is a polarising Austen novel

53:00 did Austen wish to get married?

55:00 Austen’s first love, Tom Lefroy

56:00 courtship in Regency Britain

57:00 why didn’t Jane marry Tom?

58:00 age of marriage in Regency era

59:00 losing love in the Austen family

1:00:00 the mysterious love of Jane’s life

1:01:00 Regency old maid stereotype 

1:03:00 on marrying for love vs class

1:05:00 wish-fulfilment in Regency fiction

1:06:00 Jane Austen’s marriage proposal

1:07:00 love story at the heart of Emma

1:08:00 Emma as first detective mystery?

1:09:00 why do we read great comedies?

1:11:00 Hartfield/Highbury in Emma

1:12:00 free indirect discourse in Emma

1:15:00 three voices in Austen’s Emma

1:16:00 Emma vs other Austen novels

1:17:00 character of Emma Woodhouse

1:18:00 the character of Mr Woodhouse

1:19:00 the motif of distance in Emma

1:21:00 reading the beginning together

1:23:00 Emma’s unperceived egoism

1:25:00 solipsism of Austen’s characters

1:27:00 matchmaking and odd humours

1:29:00 Emma Woodhouse vs Mr Knightley

1:33:00 on the arguments of this pair

1:35:00 why do we tease the ones we like?

1:37:00 another wonderfully ironic exchange

1:41:00 romantic love as deep friendship

1:43:00 the Emma-Knightley relationship

1:46:00 Emma Woodhouse on marriage

1:49:00 Jane Austen on genteel poverty

1:51:00 is Emma a revolutionary novel?

1:53:00 your experience with Jane Austen?

Resources to Explore:

TV & Film Adaptations: There are so many wonderful film and television adaptations of this classic novel. Every reader will have their personal favourite. I love the 2009 four-part television serial starring Romola Garai, Johnny Lee Miller, and Michael Gambon, which is available on BBC iPlayer here. For films, the 1996 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and the 2020 film starring Anya Taylor-Joy are very popular, as is the 1996 TV film starring Kate Beckinsale. For a more classic option, there is the 1972 miniseries starring Doran Godwin. For a loose modern retelling, there's Clueless from 1995 starring Alicia Silverstone. Also, for fun, you could check out The Jane Austen Book Club. You might want to save your viewing as a treat for when you finish the work, or you might find it a joy to read and watch concurrently. Let us know who best captures Emma and Knightley for you.

Biography: Claire Tomalin, the superb biographer of writers like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Mary Wollstonecraft has an excellent work covering the great writer's life. If you would like to get to know Jane intimately, you might also be interested in reading some of her Selected Letters. For a great recent exploration of the era, Rory Muir's Love and Marriage in the Age of Jane Austen is well worth dipping into. And the always splendid John Mullan has a fun work that you might enjoy too: What Matters in Jane Austen? Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved. Also, just as there is no end of books about the life and times of Jane Austen, there are also so many fabulous documentaries too. One of my favourite historians, Lucy Worsley, has an excellent one with the BBC called Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors.

Short Story Pairing: Readers who adore the works of Jane Austen lovingly consider themselves 'Janeites'. One of my missions to help newcomers to Austen consider themselves 'Janeites' too. But you might find it interesting to read the the Rudyard Kipling short story that popularised the term. The story is about a group of WWI soldiers who are secret fans of Austen's novels. Kipling wrote the work after losing his son in the war. He discovered that reading Austen's novels with his wife helped to soothe his deep grief. We get this great quote in the story: ‘There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.’

Bibliotherapy: As mentioned, the Medical Corps would recommended traumatised soldiers read the novels of Jane Austen for emotional and mental healing. Neuroscientific studies suggest that Austen is good for the head as well as the heart. Whilst books like Jane on the Brain by Wendy Jones explore how her novels positively effect not only our brain's ability to perform complex functions, but also has a demonstrable impact on our empathy and social intelligence.

Edition: I'm personally working from the Penguin paperback edition, but feel free to use the edition most attractive to you. If you fall in love with Austen's writing, you might want to collect each of her novels in the same editions. If you want a beautiful hardback, I'm a big fan of the Everyman's Library editions. Many readers also love the Penguin clothbound series for these classic works. For audiobook fans, the Juliet Stevenson reading from Naxos is excellent.

Favoured line of journals: Having a dedicated journal for your reading of great literature makes a fantastic keepsake for your journey, a memento of a moment in time. I love the Leuchturrm1917 range of bullet journals with dotted paper, but lovers of Austen might be interested to see that there is a handsome 5-year Jane-a-Day journal available. I have outlined my journalling, rereading, and marginalia practice here.

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion, which will be this coming weekend, will cover events up to and including volume two, chapter eight. That's the first 214 pages in the Penguin paperback edition.

So enjoy your time in Highbury, start meeting those characters, and noting down any themes, ideas, or passages that personally resonate with you.

Questions for You:

1) What is your current relationship with Jane Austen? Is this your first reading or a rereading of this masterpiece?

2) What are you hoping to get out of your deep reading of Emma?

3) What themes from your wider reading would you like to pull into Jane Austen?

4) Before beginning the novel, Austen wrote, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.' How do you feel about that assertion?

Happy reading, everybody!