Editor's note.

EMMA'S EARLIEST READERS were not united in their admiration of the novel. If Mrs. Digweed, whose opinion Jane Austen recorded, "had not known the Author, [she] could hardly have got through it"; Mr. Fowle "read only the first & last Chapters, because he had heard it was not interesting"; Mr. Cockerelle "liked it so little, that Fanny wd not send me his opinion." Most readers whose judgments Austen catalogued liked the novel, but most of them also indicated a preference for Pride and Prejudice or Mansfield Park. Perhaps the problem was the complexity of its point of view. Mr. and Mrs. James Austen found Emma's "Language different from the others; not so easily read."

Much of the critical response (positive and negative) focused on character. Mrs. Elton was a favorite, as were Mr. Knightley and Miss Bates--though Mr. Benjamin Lefroy thought there was "rather too much of her." He allowed, however, that "It]he Characters [were] quite as well drawn & supported as in any [of her novels], & from being more everyday ones, the more entertaining." His wife, Jane Austen's niece Anna, responded in similar terms: "The Characters ... [were] admirably well drawn & supported--perhaps rather less strongly marked than some, but only the more natural for that reason." Indeed that natural quality was something many readers could agree on: Captain Francis Austen "preferred" Emma "on account of its peculiar air of Nature throughout." Mrs. Guiton also recognized it, though she thought the novel "too natural to be interesting." Perhaps that natural or realistic quality was what offended Mr. Scherer and Mrs. Wroughton, both of whom objected to Austen's "pictures of Clergymen," especially "in such times as these"; or Miss Isabella Herries, who "objected to my exposing the sex in the character of the Heroine--convinced that I had meant Mrs & Miss Bates for some acquaintance of theirs--People whom I never heard of before"; or Mrs. Dickson, who "[l]iked it the less, from there being a Mr. & Mrs Dixon in it."

It probably isn't surprising that those who re-read Emma found themselves more involved in the fictional world, increasingly interested in and affectionate towards its characters. Miss Bigg's second reading did not affect her opinion of the silliness of Harriet Smith, but on closer acquaintance she "expressed herself as liking all the people of Highbury in general." Captain Charles Austen--confounding novel and heroine--wrote of taking her/it on his voyage: "Emma arrived in time to a moment. I am delighted with her, more so I think than even with my favourite Pride & Prejudice, & have read it three times in the Passage." And Mrs. Charles Cage wrote to Fanny Knight the kind of letter any author would treasure--as evidenced by the fact that Jane Austen copied her opinion verbatim:

"A great many thanks for the loan of Emma, which I am delighted with. I like it better than any. Every character is thoroughly kept up. I must enjoy reading it again with Charles. Miss Bates is incomparable, but I was nearly killed with those precious treasures! They are Unique, & really with more fun than I can express. I am at Highbury all day, & I can't help feeling I have just got into a new set of acquaintance. No one writes such good sense. & so very comfortable."

In reading Emma, Mrs. Cage had entered a world delightful in its absurdities and estimable for its sense, a world that she both inhabited and looked forward to revisiting.

This year's Annual General Meeting in Vancouver, coordinated by Keiko Parker and Pam Ottridge, helped participants--surely all enthusiastic re-readers--discover and rediscover Emma. Like Mrs. Cage, we were at Highbury all day, exploring the world and scrutinizing that set of acquaintance. The first part of this issue of Persuasions prints essays from "Discovering Emma in Vancouver" that show how Austen constructs Emma's world-through its social anxieties, its mental geography, its political and cultural geography, its natural history. Other essays focus on character: Jane Fairfax, Mr. Knightley, Emma herself, Mr. Woodhouse, and their relationships to genre and other cultural forms.

The Miscellany begins with Karen Joy Fowler's account of the film adaptation of her revision of Jane Austen and then moves to essays examining Austen's own adaptive strategies. Other essays make discoveries by rereading Austen's fiction through its rhetorical and generic dimensions or by reading the individuals inhabiting her world.

This rich collection is the product of multiple re-readings and conflicting opinions, of engagement with fictional and "real" worlds. It wouldn't exist without the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions, and the labors of a small band--the editorial board, especially former editor Laurie Kaplan, and JASNA's President Marsha Huff--united in their commitment to scholarship and their admiration for Jane Austen.

Article Details

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Author:	Ford, Susan Allen
Publication:	Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal
Article Type:	Editorial
Date:	Jan 1, 2007
Words:	778
Previous Article:	Message from the president.
Next Article:	The anxiety of Emma.

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