"Sir John's satisfaction in society was much more real; he delighted in collecting about him more young people than his house would hold and the noisier they were the better he was pleased. He was a blessing to all the juvenile part of the neighbourhood for in summer he was for ever forming parties to eat cold ham and chicken out of doors, and in winter his private balls were numerous enough for any young lady who was not suffering under the insatiable appetite of fifteen"
Yes I am reading Sense and Sensibility and the above paragraph explains my absence from Random because, as in Emma, my "engagements have increased". My daughter has been over from Australia for four months and all has been parties, banquets and balls (well, perhaps not a ball…). We did go to the seaside too though Cromer not Weymouth and nobody fell off a boat…
While all this was going on I have been having a Janeathon and reading Austen as I could not really find the time for exploring the latest offerings by the publishing houses. Come September and when the nights draw in, I shall be settling down to my reading.
This post is about Emma which is one of my favourite of Austen. Persuasion remains dear to my heart and always will, but I find Emma delightful. She gets everything so wrong and mucks up simply everything, and yet at the end when she realises just what mistakes she has made, she is honest to herself. I simply love her. And after reading the book I embarked on an Emmathon and pulled up all the adaptations of Emma I could find. Here are my thoughts:
I loved the BBC adaptation of Emma with Romola Garai but I know it garnered a mixed response, largely to do with the fact that great chunks of the script were not Jane but newly written. I decided this week to revisit other adaptations and I sat and watched the Gwyneth Paltrow version which I have 
not viewed for some time. What struck me straight away was just how strangulated Ms Paltrow's speaking voice sounded – while striving to sound English Upper Class she merely sounded as if she had got something stuck in her throat and this, coupled with a permanently wet look on her face, made me not like her as much as I had hitherto. Mr Woodhouse a bit too genial and amusing to be believable and Toni Collette not totally convincing as Harriet, but but but – yes, the thing that makes it all worthwhile, not just Jeremy Northam as Mr Knightley, gorgeous though he is – Juliet Stevenson as Mrs Elton. Absolutely spot on.
One thing I cannot let pass about this particular version is Ewan MacGregor as Frank Churchill, sporting a hair style which just takes your breath away in its awfulness and a reminder, for me anyway, of what a boring actor he is.
So then I turned to a version made some ten years ago with Kate Beckinsale as the heroine.This was not available anywhere but hooray for You Tube. There it was. She has it just about right, more matter of fact about her snobbishness and selfishness and more honest about her shortcomings. Samantha Morton as Harriet, excellent; Bernard Hepton as Mr Woodhouse, also excellent; Prunella Scales as Miss Bates, no comment needed here on just how wonderful she was and then we have Mark Strong as Mr Knightley. Now in real life this actor is totally bald so obviously he had to sport a full 
head of hair and I must admit I was totally fascinated by its luxuriance and the way it floated in the wind. However, not as bad as Ewan McGregor's syrup and this actor has the most gorgeous brown eyes and when he said to Emma 'I have lectured you and you have borne it as no other woman in England' and looked at her, I sat on my sofa and went all thing…
The only drawback of this well nigh perfect version is the Mrs Elton, played by an actress whose name escapes me (she was one of Bingley's sisters in P&P) who had the most peculiar accent which fluctuated wildly between Irish and American. Not quite sure why.
Some few years back I watched a version of Emma made in 1972 with Doran Goodwin as Emma and I remember her being very very good, though her Mr Knightley looked nearer 50 than 40. It was shown on BBC4 and I watched it with great interest to see if it held up, and it did. At the same time I picked up a version of Sense and Sensibility that I remember watching yonks ago and that was pretty poor, pace so funereal you wanted to fall asleep. Also on You Tube. Here is what I said about it at the time:
"OK, apart from the pace, which was funereal, MY DEAR the vowels, the prunes and prisms and plummy pronunciation. All too much to bear. Everything was so beautifully modulated, the lines were spoken with a reverence suitable for a service in the local Cathedral and it was all so niminy piminy and without any life at all. I really could not believe what I was hearing.
The next thing I noticed was the hair, particularly those of the men. Willoughby as befitting the cad and bounder had gold locks, fairly long and casual and the actor playing him looked rather like a young Rik Mayall when he was a bit gorgeous; Edward's hair was flat and seemingly glued to his head (the actor is also totally bald now) but the best of the lot was Colonel Brandon. Curled and pomaded and masses of it, side whiskers the lot The last hair that fascinated me so much was that of an American actor, Cliff Robertson, in the 1970s Robert Redford movie, Three Days of the Condor (great film) where he looked like he had a back combed ferret on his head. I could not take my eyes off Colonel Brandon in this adaptation".
(NB – I know this post is about Emma but these comments on S&S also apply to the adaptations I have been watching – shows how TV presentation has changed)
The latest Emma had Jonny Lee Miller as Mr Knightley with a very close crop, probably the Brutus which 
was fashionable at the time, and all the characters had much less puffed up hair than in other versions. Even Pride and Prejudice, infinitely great in its Firthdom, has more hair than later adaptations…
Out of the three I have seen, in the end I plump for the Kate Beckinsale offering. About 90% pure Jane Austen and any additional dialogue fits in beautifully and just so well done. Of course, no surprise as this adaptation was done by none other than Andrew Davies who I think deserves to be knighted for his gift for bringing the classic to life for us all to enjoy.
But, no matter how enjoyable and wonderful all these are in their various ways, nothing beats returning to the original text. I know the most famous Austen opening line is 'It is a truth universally acknowledged…" and everyone knows it and it sets the scene in one utterly perfect sentence, but read this one:
"Miss Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her"
I think this might just pip a universal truth to the post as far as I am concerned and I also admit that I might like Emma more than Elizabeth Bennett…..
More to come on TV adaptations as I shall be watching the Winselt, Thompson, Grant, Rickman Sense and S when I have finished my read.
PS I have not mentioned the last movie of Emma which I really disliked. Even the wonderful Bill Nighy as Mr Woodhouse could not redeem it and why the director thought it a good idea for Emma to have a nose bleed after Knightley's declaration remains one of life's great mysteries.
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