Classics Club Book #12: Emma by Jane Austen

The last time I read Jane Austen’s Emma was long before I had seen the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow. Since then I’ve seen the movie maybe half a dozen times, as it’s become one of my girls’ favorites. Because I’ve seen it so many times, the movie has overshadowed the book in my memory. So as I picked up my Kindle to read the novel for my Classics Club Challenge I was curious about how different the two might be and how the movie would stand up next to the book. I am pleased to say that the movie and the book complement each other quite well. While I have a few quibbles with the movie, overall I think it stays true to the spirit of the book and the characters. However, there are a few key differences that show once again that a movie is never as good as the book.

First, the Emma Woodhouse of Austen’s novel comes across as more immature than Gwyneth Paltrow’s portrayal of her in the movie. Even though Paltrow was only twenty-four when she played the twenty-one-year-old, she seems older to me than the Emma of the novel. Austen’s Emma seems more naive and spoiled, which adds to her character.

The other main difference that struck me was how much Frank Churchill’s background is fleshed out in the novel. His character fits in much more naturally in the novel than in the movie, where Ewan McGregor and his horribly styled hair seem to just pop up out of nowhere.

The final thing that occurred to me as I read the book was just how ahead of her time Jane Austen was as an author. Though she predated writers like Dickens, Tolstoy, and Hugo, Austen’s writing is much more concise, much more direct, much more modern–so much so that Emma could almost be filmed scene by scene exactly as written.

For modern readers, Emma is perhaps the most accessible of all the 19th century classics, and those who like the movie will like the book even more.

Emma by Jane Austen
First edition London: John Murray, 1815
Kindle edition Open Road Media, 2014
Print length: 577 pages