Sir Thomas joyfully consents to the marriage of his son Edmund and niece Fanny in this illustration from 1908.
Mansfield Park was published in May 1814. It is a somber book, lacking the spark of Pride and Prejudice. Although these books appeared within two years of each other, a long span of time separated their composition. Pride and Prejudice was a novel of Austen’s hopeful youth; she wrote Mansfield Park as a mature woman who had borne sorrow and disappointment. Bright, engaging Elizabeth Bennet belongs to Austen’s more carefree past, but the women of Mansfield Park are creations of her later years. Mary Crawford possesses Elizabeth’s wit and allure, but she never gains self-knowledge. Fanny Price shows good sense, but she is sober and dull. “Mansfield Park is altogether an old book,” wrote a literary scholar in the late 1800s, “with none of the merit of youth.”
The author herself had lost the spring of youth, according to what the novelist Mary Russell Mitford heard from a mutual friend. The friend reported that Austen had “stiffened into the most perpendicular, precise, taciturn piece of ‘single blessedness’ that ever existed, and that, till Pride and Prejudice showed what a precious gem was hidden in that unbending case, she was no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire-screen.” Yet Henry Austen described a very different Jane. “Her voice was extremely sweet. She delivered herself with fluency and precision,” he observed. “Indeed she was formed for elegant and rational society, excelling in conversation as much as in composition.”
Jane made a list of the earliest reactions to Mansfield Park. She noted that Cassandra, who was “Fond of Fanny” and “Delighted much in Mr. Rushworth’s stupidity,” found it “quite clever, tho’ not so brilliant as P. & P. [Pride and Prejudice].” Mrs. Austen thought Fanny Price was “insipid,” but she enjoyed Mrs. Norris. Jane’s friend Anne Sharp called the novel “excellent.” She noted, “Of it’s good sense & moral Tendency there can be no doubt.— Your Characters are drawn to the Life.—so very, very natural & just—but as you beg me to be perfectly honest, I must confess I prefer P & P.” Anne had left Godmersham in 1806 to take another position, but she and Jane stayed in touch through letters.
A Mrs. Augusta Bramstone “owned that she thought S & S.—and P. & P. downright nonsense, but expected to like MP. better.” Having finished the first volume of Mansfield Park, Mrs. Bramstone “flattered herself she had got through the worst.”
Another woman, Lady Gordon, captured the essence of Austen’s genius:
In most novels you are amused for the time with a set of Ideal People whom you never think of afterwards or whom you the least expect to meet in common life, whereas in Miss A-s works, & especially in M P. you actually live with them, you fancy yourself one of the family; & the scenes are so exactly descriptive, so perfectly natural, that there is scarcely an Incident or conversation, or a person that you are not inclined to imagine you have at one time or other in your Life been a witness to, born[e] a part in, & been acquainted with.
The first edition of Mansfield Park sold out within six months, but Thomas Egerton refused to print a second one. So Henry Austen offered his sister’s next novel to another publisher, John Murray. Murray loved the new book, which was called Emma, and bought its copyright. He also purchased the rights to Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park, planning to bring out new editions at a later date.
Henry Austen sat for this portrait in his minister’s robe. Jane was fondest of this engaging, impulsive brother.
Jane took over the business negotiations after Henry fell ill. In November 1815, when she went to London to meet with John Murray, Henry was sick enough to need medical care. One of the men treating him was a court physician. This doctor informed the Prince Regent—who admired Austen’s books—that the lady novelist was in town. Jane promptly received an invitation from the prince’s librarian, the Reverend James Stanier Clarke, to tour the library at Carlton House, the prince’s London residence. During this meeting, Clarke hinted that Austen might dedicate her next novel to the prince.
Jane Austen, being no admirer of the Prince Regent, hated the idea of dedicating her book to him, but a suggestion like this was really a royal command. With no choice but to obey, Austen wrote the briefest dedication possible, one that readers might easily miss: “Emma, Dedicated by Permission to H.R.H. [His Royal Highness] The Prince Regent.” Murray told her this would never do. He drafted a proper dedication, one that took up lots of space and befitted a British monarch:
To
His Royal Highness
THE PRINCE REGENT,
this work is,
by His Royal Highness’s permission,
most respectfully
dedicated,
by His Royal Highness’s
dutiful
and obedient
humble servant,
the author
Murray also produced a scarlet-bound presentation copy of Emma for the prince.
The librarian, Clarke, thanked Austen on behalf of His Royal Highness. He then tried to help her by offering a subject for her next novel. He hoped she would describe “the Habits of Life and Character and enthusiasm of a Clergyman”—a man much like himself—“who should pass his time between the metropolis & the Country.”
It was a fine notion, but Austen respectfully declined. “Such a man’s conversation must at times be on subjects of science and philosophy, of which I know nothing,” she tactfully replied. She was, she told Clarke, “the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.”
Unwilling to give up his idea, the Reverend Clarke pleaded, “Do let us have an English Clergyman after your fancy.” Austen might even “Carry your Clergyman to Sea as the Friend of some distinguished Naval Character about a Court.” This situation would yield “many interesting Scenes of Character & Interest.”
Austen never authored this book, but Clarke did inspire her to write the hilarious “Plan of a Novel, According to Hints from Various Quarters.” This imaginary novel features a clergyman, “the most excellent Man that can be imagined, perfect in Character, Temper & Manners.” His daughter, too, is faultless, “very highly accomplished, understanding modern Languages & (generally speaking) everything that the most accomplished young Women learn.” Father and daughter “converse in long speeches, elegant Language—& a tone of high, serious sentiment.” The clergyman tells his daughter about his life, including “his going to sea as a Chaplain to a distinguished Naval Character about the Court, his going afterwards to Court himself, which introduced him to a great variety of Characters.”
There was more. After the clergyman is driven from his parish “by the vile arts of some totally unprincipled and heartless young Man,” he and his daughter move from country to country. Men fall in love with the daughter wherever she goes, and she receives many proposals of marriage. She also encounters the hero, who is perfect in every way, but who is prevented from addressing her by his high level of refinement. The daughter is repeatedly kidnapped by the villain of the story only to be rescued by her father and the hero, who harbors a secret love for her. She is “often reduced to support herself & her Father by her Talents & work for her Bread;—continually cheated & defrauded of her hire, worn down to a Skeleton, & now & then starved to death.”
Father and daughter end up in Kamschatka (the Russian Far East), where the clergyman “after 4 or 5 hours of tender advice & parental Admonition to his miserable Child, expires in a fine burst of Literary Enthusiasm.” Then, after “at least 20 narrow escapes,” the daughter crawls back to her native land, “runs into the arms of the Hero himself,” and, because this is a Jane Austen story, “they are happily united.”
Austen displayed her sense of humor again in her fourth published novel, Emma.
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“IF I LIVE TO BE AN OLD WOMAN...”
There are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.
—PERSUASION
WHAT HAPPENS when a young woman claims to act on her intuition bu
t is really guided by a vivid imagination? This question drives the action—and much of the humor—in Emma.
In the village of Highbury lives Emma Woodhouse, who is rich, clever, and nearly twenty-one. She shares a fine country home with her father, an aging, worrying hypochondriac. As the story begins, Emma’s beloved governess, Miss Taylor, has just married Mr. Weston. More a family friend than an employee, Miss Taylor had let the motherless Emma do pretty much as she liked. “The real evils indeed of Emma’s situation eight were the power of having rather too much of her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself,” Austen explained.
One person offers Emma wise guidance, even though she hates to admit that what he says is right. Mr. Knightley is a wealthy neighbor and a friend to both Mr. Woodhouse and Emma.
Emma considers herself an expert in matters of the heart. After all, she correctly predicted that Miss Taylor would marry a neighbor, Mr. Weston (something everyone else had also foreseen). Needing a project, she sets out to find a wife for Mr. Elton, the local minister. She chooses Harriet Smith, a girl born with “the stain of illegitimacy,” whose unknown father pays her board at a nearby school. Harriet is sweet and docile rather than clever. She is someone Emma can easily mold and direct.
After Emma persuades Harriet to turn down a marriage proposal from an honest farmer, she finds signs of Mr. Elton’s affection for the girl wherever she looks. Mr. Elton wishes to see Emma draw Harriet’s likeness—this is one clue. He composes a riddle in verse, the answer to which is courtship—this is another. Mr. Knightley hints that the minister might actually be in love with Emma, and he warns her against encouraging his attention. Emma rejects this foolish notion, expecting that Mr. Elton will soon propose to her friend. When his proposal comes, though, it is addressed not to Harriet, but to Emma. Mr. Knightley was right.
Mrs. Elton makes sure that people notice her pearls in an illustration from a 1909 edition of Emma.
At first Emma is taken aback; then she is furious at being so deceived. Mr. Elton reacts to her unexpected rejection by hurrying away to Bath. He soon returns engaged to someone else, a lady “in possession of an independent fortune, of so many thousands as would always be called ten.” Before long, he introduces to Highbury his showy, self-important new wife. “How do you like my gown?—How do you like my trimming?” Mrs. Elton asks, only to claim in the next breath, “Nobody can think less of dress in general than I do.”
Someone else also comes to Highbury that year. Frank Churchill is Mr. Weston’s son from his first marriage. Years earlier, after his mother died, Frank was adopted by a rich aunt and uncle, much as Edward Austen was adopted by the Knights. The Westons hope for a union between Frank and Emma, but Emma feels no love for this young man. Instead, she thinks that he might be just the right husband for her friend. When Harriet admits to feeling an attachment to a man of higher rank, Emma is sure she means Frank and resolves to see her plan carried out.
Emma herself may not love Frank, but she likes to gossip with him about another girl, Jane Fairfax. Jane is an orphan staying in Highbury with her grandmother and aunt. Miss Bates, Jane’s aunt, is a well-meaning chatterbox and a woman who had Austen’s sympathy. Miss Bates’s “youth had passed without distinction, and her middle life was devoted to the care of a failing mother, and the endeavour to make a small income go as far as possible.”
Jane Fairfax is penniless and will soon seek a job as a governess. She is at least Emma’s equal in learning and accomplishments and would be a more suitable friend than Harriet Smith. But to befriend Jane might mean confronting her own shortcomings, so Emma has fun at her expense instead.
Frank confides that he has met Jane Fairfax before, and Emma reveals her suspicion that Jane is secretly loved by the new husband of a close friend. There is evidence: someone has anonymously sent Jane a piano. Who else could have surprised her like this?
The people of Highbury gather socially and reveal their fine points and flaws. The Westons host a ball, and at one point in the evening, Harriet Smith is left without a partner. Mr. Elton is free to dance—his wife has partnered with someone else—yet he rudely ignores Harriet. He judges it beneath him to dance with a girl of such murky parentage. Luckily for Harriet, Mr. Knightley steps forward and asks her to dance, revealing his better manners and kind, considerate nature.
Summer comes, and Mr. Knightley invites his neighbors to his estate to pick berries. One thing clouds the happy outing, however. Mrs. Elton has intruded into Jane Fairfax’s life and has found a post as governess for her. She won’t leave the subject alone and pressures the girl to take the job. Jane, who dreads the day when she must begin supporting herself, leaves the party early.
The next day, the same group ventures to Box Hill, a spot known for its scenic beauty. This time, Emma is the person who behaves badly. She lets Frank Churchill flirt openly with her, and she thoughtlessly insults Miss Bates. Later, Mr. Knightley takes Emma to task for her behavior, and she is ashamed. “Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck,” Austen wrote. “How could she have been so brutal, so cruel to Miss Bates!”
By recognizing the power of her words to hurt other people, Emma takes a big step toward growing up. Like Elizabeth Bennet, she is learning to know herself and finding the lesson painful. “Emma felt the tears running down her cheeks almost all the way home, without being at any trouble to check them, extraordinary as they were.” When the next morning she goes to the Bates home to apologize, she learns that Jane has accepted the position that Mrs. Elton found for her, but the thought of entering the “governess-trade” has made Jane ill.
Then something happens to change Jane’s fate. Frank’s aunt, Mrs. Churchill, dies, and a private matter becomes public knowledge. Highbury learns that for months, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax have been secretly engaged. With his aunt dead, Frank is free to follow his heart and marry Jane. Mrs. Churchill would have opposed the match, but her husband will not.
After marrying off one of Highbury’s eligible young women, Jane Austen turned her attention to the other two. Harriet feels no heartbreak upon learning of Frank’s engagement, because, as she tells Emma, the gentleman she cares for is Mr. Knightley. This news troubles Emma; could Mr. Knightley be fond of Harriet, too? “Till now that she was threatened with its loss, Emma had never known how much of her happiness depended on being first with Mr. Knightley, first in interest and affection.” Acknowledging that it would pain her to see Mr. Knightley attached to another woman, Emma understands that she loves him.
Happily for Emma, Mr. Knightley soon joins her as she walks in the garden. She fears that he will speak of Harriet, but instead he asks Emma to be his wife. As in Pride and Prejudice, Austen stepped back at this crucial point in the story, writing, “What did she say?—just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.” Readers can only imagine Emma’s words of love. Harriet overcomes her regret at not being Mr. Knightley’s chosen one and marries the steadfast farmer.
Jane Austen let her readers imagine her lovers’ most tender moments, but viewers of the 1996 film Emma saw Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley (Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam) marry and kiss.
Jane Austen wrote down readers’ reactions to Emma, just as she had done for Mansfield Park. She noted that Cassandra liked the new novel better than Pride and Prejudice, but Mansfield Park remained her favorite. Mrs. Austen disagreed, calling Emma “more entertaining than MP. [Mansfield Park]—but not so interesting as P. & P.” In Jane’s mother’s opinion, none of the characters in Emma could compare to Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice. Austen’s rich aunt and uncle, the Leigh-Perrots, “saw many beauties” in Emma, “but could not think it equal to P. & P.—Darcy and Elizabeth had spoilt them for anything else.”
Martha Lloyd thought Emma “as clever as either of the others, but did not receive so much pleasure from it as from P. & P—& M P.” Anne Sharp was “pleased with the Hero
ine for her Originality,” and delighted with Mr. Knightley She “called Mrs. Elton beyond praise,” but felt “dissatisfied with Jane Fairfax.”
Austen’s friend Martha Lloyd was photographed sometime after 1839. She married in 1828, at age sixty-three, becoming Frank Austen’s second wife.
Fanny Knight “could not bear Emma herself.” She called Mr. Knightley “delightful” and thought she might like Jane Fairfax if she knew her better. Fanny loaned the novel to a friend, who wrote, “I am at Highbury all day, & I can’t help feeling I have just got into a new set of acquaintance.”
Austen’s observant nephew Edward, her brother Edward’s oldest son, was quick to point out an error. He noted that Austen had managed to make Mr. Knightley’s apple trees bloom several weeks late, on the day of strawberry picking in July.
Sir Walter Scott, the novelist of action and adventure, reviewed Emma in 1815. He wrote that in this newest book, as in all her work, “the author displays her peculiar powers of humour and knowledge of human life.” She presents “to the reader, instead of the splendid scenes of an imaginary world, a correct and striking representation of that which is daily taking place around him.”
Tastes change, and a novelist of a later generation, Anthony Trollope, called Emma “very tedious.” He found the dialogue too long and sometimes unnecessary. Of Emma herself, he wrote: “Her weaknesses are all plain to us, but of her strength we are only told; and even at the last we hardly know why Mr. Knightley loves her.” Trollope had to admit, though, that the story shows “wonderful knowledge of female character.”
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