Guest Post by Little Lady - Emma Woodhouse: The Imperfect & Lovable

Hello!
I'm Little Lady, a faithful Janeite, fellow blogger, lover of chocolate, coffee, and all things British!

First things first....happy birthday Jane!

I, like you (most likely if you are reading this blog), adore the writings of Jane Austen.  Her stories have been made in to countless film adaptations, re-written in to "modern retellings", computer games (SO fun and addicting), choose-your-own-adventure books (also totally amazing)... they have literally lasted the ages, beloved by all!  But I have to say...

If I had to pick a favorite from

among Miss Austen's books,

I can say without hesitation that it would be Emma every time.  I own the novel, the modern adaptation of the novel, three different versions of the film, and the soundtracks from two of those versions.  I really love Emma!

I am a firm believer that one cannot be a fan of the lovely and talented Jane Austen, without having read Emma and without having watched at least one film version of the novel.

But of course, I should probably tell you why it is that I favor this book so very much.

"Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another!"
- Emma, 1996

I love this book because Emma is so entirely flawed, and the entire book is truly a paradox!  In the story Emma is called "clever" at least four times, and the things she does are always remarkably "clever" as well...and yet through the entirety of the novel dear, clever Emma, does nothing but make mistake after mistake.  She is prideful, rude, and more than a bit vain!  Emma's own Mr. George Knightley remarked, referring to our heroine, that "Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief."

Emma Woodhouse is truly flawed, and yet to me that is the greatest appeal of the novel.  Emma's character is more real, more relatable, and really more lovable because of her great many flaws.

Emma's character is real because...

No one believes in a perfect character.  The number one flaw of young writers, is that they always portray their character as the most lovable, perfect, beautiful thing ever.  That's why typically their books don't get published until they wake up and realize no one is perfect...and no one likes perfect.  Even in our fiction, which gives us the freedom to travel to different lands, live a life we cannot today, or fall in love with a handsome gent (Mr. Knightley...), we still want a little reality -- and Miss Austen gives us that, in the flawed Emma.  Of course, it is not just Emma's flaws that make her real, it is also the journey she goes on throughout the story.  She starts out, ignorant of her own flaws, and happy the way she is....but by the end of the story, she's come to the realization that she is indeed not perfect, but that she can work to improve herself.  This is why I love Emma.  We too, go on a journey like this, each and every day we live, and having Emma go on that same journey with us, truly makes her a more realistic character.

Emma's character is relatable because...

She struggles with vanity, once in a while she slips and says something she really shouldn't (Box Hill, anyone?), and she really must work on not being so manipulative!  I love Elizabeth Bennet for her fiery-ness, Catherine Morland's imagination is quite captivating, and Fanny Price's sweet nature is admirable -- but really?  Emma puts her foot in her mouth.  I so get that....unfortunately.  In the course of the novel she is constantly kept in track by the gorgeous Mr. Knightley, and in one scene, she is quite chastised by him!  Beyond her faults, she loves dearly.  She loves her very dear friend Mrs. Weston, she cares deeply about Harriet Smith's happiness (even if she is misguided often regarding Miss Smith), and she takes diligent care of her aging father.  She makes mistakes, does silly things, has fun, loves deeply, enjoys the out-of-doors, longs to travel, and quite overlooks the love of her life for far too long.  She truly is a character that I believe in one way or another, we can all relate to.

Emma's character is lovable because...

I think besides being real, and relatable, Emma is especially lovable because of her spunk and spirit!  She never gives up, and she never backs down from a challenge.  She (especially in the film adaptations) is quite audacious at times.  She's like us, with us because her emotions are swinging all over!  She's in love, she's not in love, she's happy, she's completely depressed.  She's all over the place -- and yet truly lovable at the same time.

Courtesy of Sunshine & Shadows

And so, Miss Austen's Emma will always be a favorite of mine! And I hope this encourages you as well to grab a copy of this book off the shelf, and delve in! To read more about why I love Emma, visit Heart, Character, & Soul post.

Courtesy of Reading 52 Books In a Year

If you are more in the movie mood than the delving into a book, check out these fantastic film adaptations!

"Emma" 2009, "Emma" 1996, "Jane Austen's 'Emma'" 1996

I would love to thank Miss Laurie for having me guest post!  It has been a ton of fun to participate in the Jane Austen Birthday Assembly!  Enjoy the birthday fun!  Come and visit me for more fun posts covering an abundance of things (with Miss Austen never forgotten) on my blog Sunshine & Shadows.

I hope to see you all again soon!

P.S. Though I have three film versions, I must admit the 2009 version is my absolute favorite!  Just had to put that out there.

~*~

Miss Laurie's note: Thank you Little Lady for agreeing to guest post! It was delightful reading about Jane Austen's clever Emma! :)

Guest Post: Jane Austen and Me by Rhoswen Faerie Wrose

I must first admit that this is the first time I have ever guest posted! So, when Miss Laurie asked me to do so, I was quite thrilled. Though, I am afraid, along with my inane ability to ramble, this very quote by our celebrated birthday girl quite sums up how this post may turn out:

"You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve."

And speaking of quotes, I thought I would share a few others from her that I quite enjoy:

"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."

~@~

"We are to have a tiny party here tonight. I hate tiny parties, they force one into constant exertion."

~@~

"I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant, and spending all my money, and, what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too."

~@~

"I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive."

~@~

"There are such beings in the world - perhaps one in a thousand - as the creature you and I should think perfection; where grace and spirit are united to worth, where the manners are equal to the heart and understanding; but such a person may not come in your way, or, if he does, he may not be the eldest son of a man of fortune, the near relation of your particular friend, and belonging to your own county."

~@~

"A classical education, or at any rate a very extensive acquaintance with English literature, ancient and modern, appears to me quite indispensable for the person who would do any justice to your clergyman; and I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress."

~@~

"I could no more write a romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other."

~@~

"He and I should not in the least agree, of course, in our ideas of novels and heroines. Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked; but there is some very good sense in what he says, and I particularly respect him for wishing to think well of all young ladies; it shows an amiable and delicate mind. And he deserves better treatment than to be obliged to read any more of my works."

I discovered Jane Austen long before I was ever even remotely interested in reading her works. My sister had written a research paper on her for her English class one year, and had started reading some of her books and watching the movies of them. I specifically remember seeing her read a copy of Sense and Sensibility that had a cover with pictures of the 1995 version. I thought the cover pretty, as well as the title, but the thought of a more grown up author, at the time, was very off-putting. And when my sister got the 1995 BBC/A&E Pride and Prejudice on video (yes, I mean the six VHS box set), and I saw the size of that thing- it scared me off from even watching any movie versions for quite some time!

  

I was only around  twelve or thirteen, so perhaps you will not blame me, but I still cannot help but see my foolishness in such childish prejudice. But that unfortunate opinion carried on for the rest of my teenage years and into adulthood, as well. In fact, I only became a Jane Austen fan within the last six years or so. In fact, it took my curiosity in what my sister saw in the BBC P&P that long ago to finally hook me. First I watch the 2005 version online, and I liked it! Then I got the BBC DVDs out of the library, and I was a gonner.

I now knew what everyone was talking about. How wonderful the stories Miss Austen wrote were, and I proceeded to find every possible version of her main six novels I could on DVD. Soon I had seen them all, though there were some versions of P&P I didn't care that much for within a short time of the start of the movies, and ended up turning them off.

And that spurred me on to finally read the books! I read Emma first, then moved on to Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and lastly Northanger Abbey- which has become my favorite. I gained the ownership of all the books, which helped greatly, as Barnes and Noble had just come out with their first e-reader program, which was only for the computer at the time. I had gotten all of her novels in B&N Classics versions for free through a special promotion going on then. It made me very happy to have ownership of them. And then I bought the whole set of paperback B&N Classics (real copies) as a set with a gift card I had gotten as Team Member of the Month at work! It was then that I knew I was finally, officially, a real Janeite! Baby one, though I may have been. Now, I'm still not a Jane Austen expert, but I owe, I think, my newly found interest in classic literature partly to her.

So, Happy Birthday, Miss Austen! You have changed my life. :-)

Now, how about a few more of my favorite quotes. This time, from her works.

  

"Sophia shrieked and fainted on the ground-- I screamed and instantly ran mad! We remained thus mutually deprived of our senses some minutes, and on regaining them were deprived of them again. For an hour and a quarter did we continue in this unfortunate situation." ~Love and Freindship 

"One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty." ~Pride and Prejudice

"We do not look in great cities for our best morality." ~Mansfield Park

"It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation." ~Mansfield Park

                                         

"There are people who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves." ~Emma

"Ah! there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort!" ~Emma

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid." ~Northanger Abbey

"I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible." ~Northanger Abbey

                                                                                      

"Life, if you live it right, keeps surprising you, and the thing that keeps surprising you the most…is yourself." ~Northanger Abbey

"Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half." ~Northanger Abbey

"The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing." ~Northanger Abbey

Visit me! :-)

~*~

Rhoswen Faerie Wrose's real name is Rebekah. She is a born again Spirit filled Christian, who is almost 30 and a graduate of Christ For The Nations Institute. She loves reading, writing, photography, singing, dancing, flagging, and other forms of art, Celtic things, Period Dramas, historical costumes and is a fellow Whovian. She is the proprietress of The World of Rhoswen Faerie Wrose where she's been blogging since January 2011 and is a staff member at the Narnia fansite TheLionsCall.com. 

Thanks for agreeing to guest post Rebekah! 

How I Met Jane Austen - JABA

I can't quite place when it was that I first heard the name "Jane Austen". Perhaps it was when I was nine-years-old and my parents first brought home a VHS copy of Sense & Sensibility (1995) - and that's why the name Emma Thompson was was often synonymous in my mind with Jane Austen. Perhaps it was at age ten after watching the BBC's Pride & Prejudice (1980) with my mom late at night or at age twelve while watching Pride & Prejudice (1995) on A&E with my family. Whenever it was that I first heard The Authoress's name it was quite a while before even I picked up one of her books.

Sense & Sensibility (1995)

My Austen Introduction: Yes, I am one of that great number of Janeites who was first introduced to the works of Jane Austen through the film adaptations of her books. It really all started with my parents who went to see Sense & Sensibility (1995) in cinemas for their anniversary and then quickly snatched up a VHS copy when it went to video. I was nine years old when I first watched Emma Thompson's adaptation come to life and though I didn't understand the story (or even all of what the characters were saying) I did love the costumes, houses and carriages and since my parents were laughing and crying over it I knew one day I would to! Not too long after that I remember my parents finding other Jane Austen adaptations such as P&P 1980, P&P 1995 and Emma 1997 (A&E) all of those becoming instant favorites with them and classics to be watched over and over.

Pride & Prejudice (1980)

My Interest Grew: Shortly after seeing some film adaptations, my mom started reading some of the novels. I remember lovely paperback copies of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey lying around the house and me desperately wanting to know what wonders those books contained. But my mom told me then that the style of writing was sometimes as difficult for her to understand as Shakespeare! I tried reading Northanger Abbey once when I was thirteen years old but didn't quite make it past the first chapter.

Emma (1997, A&E)

And Grew...: From age 12-13 I not only watched several Austen adaptations but I also found a cassette tape that was part of a BBC Radio Play of Emma. I listened to that tape over and over again loving every bit of the fragment of that story and pondering how the story might end. I remember how much it was like a mystery solved when I watched Emma 1997 (A&E) for the first time and found out which couples actually end up together! Later I was given the complete set of that Emma Radio Play and I enjoyed listening to the story in it's entirety.

Mansfield Park (1983)

And Grew!: When I was nearing age fourteen my family made friends with a young lady who owned several Jane Austen film adaptations which I begged to borrow from her. My family and I watched the whole of P&P 1995 in almost one day. We also devoured other films such as Mansfield Park 1983, Persuasion 1995, Mansfield Park 1999 and we even endured watching Northanger Abbey 1987, even though our friend had warned that it wasn't very good.

C.E. Brock Illustration

Reading My First Austen Novel: For my fifteenth birthday I had one wish: an unabridged audio book of Northanger Abbey. Those six cassette tapes were my prized possession! To me actress Anna Massey who read the book sounded like the voice of Jane Austen herself reading the tale to me. Catherine Morland was not too much older than me and I loved her sweetness and her adventures. John and Isabella Thorpe were vexing but still entertaining. Eleanor Tilney was the most elegant lady and the kindest friend to Catherine. And at fifteen I fell head-over-heals for Henry Tilney with his lively wit, good sense and gentlemanly manners! As soon as I'd finished listening to it once I would start listening all over again, immersing myself in the language and culture of Regency England.

Persuasion (1995)

Reading More Austen: When I started high school my father was my teacher and his love for English literature inspired me to read. He put Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility on my reading list for my sophomore year and I loved it! My dad read the books before I did and in doing so he discovered his own favorite Austen book is Persuasion (my parents met in the Navy and love the story of constant love, they are also big fans of Persuasion 1995).

From Pinterest

Discovering Other Fans: After reading my first Austen novels I was hooked and wanted to know more about The Authoress behind the books. On an internet search of Jane Austen, to my surprise I found site after site dedicated to information about her life, novels and the film adaptations of her books. One of my favorites of the fans out there was Margaret Sullivan "Mags" who not only penned the amazing Austenblog but also had put together Tilneys and Trap-doors a site dedicated to my beloved Northanger Abbey and The Cult of Da Man about my favorite hero Henry Tilney! Because these folks all know so much more about Jane Austen than I did I spent countless ours eating up tons of information and reading other people's opinions but didn't reach out and comment at all.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Beginning To Reach Out To Fellow Janeites: In 2005 my father, a computer programmer, asked me if I'd like to have a webpage of my own dedicated to Persuasion and all things Jane Austen so that is when my website Kellynch.com was born. It's been neglected for a while but there is a great deal of information there that I still use myself. When news that Pride & Prejudice (2005) was being made I hung on every piece of news and watched the trailers and clips hundreds of times. Seeing the film in a local cinema was a surprise Christmas gift from my parents and, even though it is one of my least favorite Austen adaptations now, the memory of sitting in a darkened cinema and tears springing to my eyes at the mere sight of "Jane Austen" on the huge screen is one that I will always cherish. The three 2007 ITV adaptations brought even more interest and tons of news which I kept up with on a daily basis at my website Austen Efforts (now converted into a new blog version). By this point I had read Pride and Prejudice, Emma, all of Jane's Juvenilia and short works and called myself a devoted Janeite!

Blogging About Jane: Up to this point I had tried to introduce a few of my friends to Jane Austen but had no one in my real life, besides my parents, who really understood my obsession. September 4, 2008 I began a wild journey by starting up this blog, Old-Fashioned Charm, with the idea in mind that I would post about everything old-fashioned but especially about Jane Austen. I started meeting other Janeites who had similar stories to mine, young ladies who loved Jane's books with a passion and also enjoyed discussing the film adaptations and other period dramas. 

Jane Austen Festival 2012

Recent Jane Austen Adventures: In the last four years of blogging I've had numerous opportunities in recent years to be interviewed, receive a few comments actors in Jane Austen adaptations (or even their parents!), get recognition from some of the Austen expects I admire and learn so much. My cherished memory of this summer is attending the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, KY for my birthday. It was exhilarating just being around so many other Janeites with all the events and conversations having to do with Jane and her Regency era! 

Between last year and this year I've also read Mansfield Park from cover to cover for the first time (I'd listed to abridged audio books before) and had so much fun discussing the book with my dear friend Melody. The greatest thing about OFC for me is getting to me and befriend so many amazing people and hear their stories of how they met Jane. 

How Has Jane Austen Influenced My Life? Reading, listening, watching Jane Austen and writing about her has influenced almost every aspect of my life. Her novels are very entertaining but I believe they have also influenced, for the better, how I think and how I view the world. My ideas of friendship and romance have certainly been influenced by stories. I've learned from the heroine's mistakes and successes, been encouraged to emulate their virtues and avoid their faults.
Thank dearest Jane!

To conclude this rambling post I'd like to echo my favorite words about The Authoress:

"Jane lies in Winchester -- blessed be her shade! 

Praise the Lord for making her, and her for all she made! 

And while the stones of Winchester, or Milsom Street, remain, 

Glory, love, and honor unto England's Jane! " 

- Rudyard Kipling, Epigraph to "The Janeites"

What about you? How did you meet Jane Austen?

Did you start with her books or the films?

How has Jane Austen influenced your life?

Happy 237th Birthday Jane Austen! - JABA

What is a fitting birthday wish for a 237-year-old authoress of great renown?  I'm not quite sure, but I thought it might be suitable this year not to rehash her whole life story but just to let her words speak to you.  For me these past few months Pinterest has been my one weakness and that is where I've found most of these lovelies!

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I also found this lovely Jane Austen birthday cake:

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Also, over the past few months I've been quite taken with these words by Jane:

Click to see larger view

The prayer above is part of a longer prayer written by Jane Austen and posted on the wall of All Saints Church in Steventon where her father and then brother both served as vicars. You can read An evening prayer "composed by my ever dear Sister Jane" at length.

I also saw this lovely letter at AustenBlog written by Jane Austen's brother Francis Austen "Frank" to an American fan in 1852 which tells about his memories of his sister. You can read the entire correspondence at Molland's!

Will you join me in wishing Jane Austen a very Happy Birthday? 

Ready? 1 - 2 - 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE AUSTEN!!!!

I'm not sure what I would give The Authoress. perhaps a new hat or another pretty clothing item. Perhaps a volume of poetry or an armful of blank journals for her to continue writing in!

Do you have any Jane Austen related plans today?

What gift would you give Jane?