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| Illustration by C.E. Brock |
In an effort to move myself along toward completing Emma by Jane Austen I decided to blog about my progress. This will be be last installment as I did it, I finished the book. Beware there are spoilers ahead.
Weekly progress: Part three, chapter 13 to end.
50 page goal: yes, or I ran out of pages to read, at any rate.
Action: Mr. Knightly returns from London to console Emma and ends up confessing his love for her. Frank writes a super long letter to Mrs. Weston explaining his actions in concealing his engagement to Jane Fairfax. Emma frets about her how her father and Harriet Smith will take the engagement. Mrs. Elton has snotty things to say about Emma. Mr. Knightly agrees to move into Hartfield so that Mr. Woodhouse won't be alone without Emma. He finally is happy about the arrangement when neighboring chicken coops are raided and he sees Mr. Knightly as a protector of his property.
Surprises: I was delighted by how many surprises I encountered in these last few chapters of the book. The first shocker was that Jane Fairfax actually broke off the secret engagement with Frank Churchill right around the same time as the death of his aunt, so there was a delay in getting all that sorted out before they were happily back together. Next, Harriet Smith was sent by Emma to London for a month to stay with Isabella, Emma's sister, after the engagement. It was Mr. Knightly who told Emma that Mr. Martin and Harriet Smith would be getting married, not Harriet to Emma (as in the movies.) Lastly, and this is a trite surprise, Harriet's parentage was discovered.
Comments: I have always loved the C.E. Brock illustrations for the Austen books. The link I provided above will get you to a page that has all his illustrations for Emma. Once I built up a head of steam, I quite enjoyed reading Emma and found that I was more interested in spending time on it that the other stuff I was currently working on. This weekly update really helped keep me on task.
Thanks for reading, and by doing so encouraging my completion of this classic novel.
I need to go back and read more of the classics. I've only read Austin's Pride and Prejudice, which is a favorite.
ReplyDeletei jump back and forth between Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. I love them both. right now I'm on a P and P kick. Next year, who knows?
Deleteit really, really helped me. Once i instigated the 50 page rule and knew that i was going blog about my progress it really got me going. Plus it helped me read with a purpose. I'd recommend that you try it.
ReplyDelete