In Want of a Good Book

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) S: I laughed to myself when Mrs. Elton announced her disgust of ‘upstarts’, for Emma feels just that way about her! I think it’s charming that Emma doesn’t realise she’s endearing herself to Mr. Knightley.  R: Mrs. Elton…I’m not even sure what to say about her.… Read more

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) S: Ah, finally! Here is a bit of good sense from Emma: she sees she does not have a tender heart. My only question is why she does not work on disciplining herself to have one. I suppose acknowledging the problem is the first step, so… Read more

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) S: Chapter 26 is rather interesting. Although I have little to base this off of, I think that Mr. Churchill sent the pianoforte for Jane Fairfax when he went to London for his haircut; that was all rather fishy. I think that Mr. Churchill is playing… Read more

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) S: Oh dear. I have a feeling Emma’s pride is going to get the better of her. R: Indeed, and Mr. Knightley again calls Emma out on her behaviour, though he seems to do so almost gently in this case. Perhaps because Mr. Woodhouse is present.… Read more

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) R: Hallelujah! Emma sees the light. A little bit. She realised how wrong she was to encourage Harriet to like Mr. Elton, but in other ways she’s still blinded to her own behaviour. She recognises that some of her own attentions to Mr. Elton might have… Read more

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) R: Emma’s sister Isabella and family arrive, and we learn that Mr. John Knightley, Isabella’s husband, doesn’t always tolerate his father-in-law’s idiosyncrasies very well, which puts him somewhat at odds with Emma. S: Although very short, Chapter 11 gives a lot of insights into Emma’s extended… Read more

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) R: Chapter 6 begins with Emma continuing to work on Mr. Elton’s feelings for Harriet Smith and vice versa by bringing them together and subtly convincing Mr. Elton to request that Emma do a painting of Miss Smith. As Emma works on the painting, Mrs. Weston… Read more

(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters.) S: Colour me surprised! I was prepared to not like this book from the get go, just because others have mentioned to me I may not like it, but I laughed out loud quite a bit from the first sentence. The first chapter is very interesting… Read more