Austen, Brontë, Eliot

Nineteenth-Century Reviews of Emma

• “My greatest anxiety at present is that this fourth work should not disgrace what was good in the others. But on this point I will do myself the justice to declare that, whatever may be my wishes for its success, I am strongly haunted with the idea that to those readers who have preferred Pride and Prejudice it will appear inferior in wit, and to those who have preferred Mansfield Park, inferior in good sense. … [in response to petition by librarian for a learned, clergyman character] – The comic part of the character I might be equal to, but not the good, the enthusiastic, the literary. Such a man’s conversation must at times be on subjects of science and philosophy, of which I know nothing; or at least be occasionally abundant in quotations and allusions which a woman who, like me, knows only her own mother tongue, and has read little in that, would be totally without the power of giving. … 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.” Jane Austen to librarian of Prince Regent. Dec. 11, 1815 .

• “We … bestow no mean compliment upon the author of Emma, when we say that, keeping close to common incidents, and to such characters as occupy the ordinary walks of life, she has produced sketches of such spirit and originality, that we never miss the excitation which depends upon a narrative of uncommon events …. In this class she [i.e., Austen] stands almost alone. … The narrative of all her novels is composed of such common occurrences as may have fallen under the observation of most folks; and her dramatis personae conduct themselves upon the motives and principles which the readers may recognize as ruling their own and that of most of their acquaintances.” Sir Walter Scott, Quarterly Review October 1815.

• “Whoever is fond of an amusing, inoffensive and well principled novel, will be well pleased with the perusal of Emma. It rarely happens that in a production of this nature we have so little to find fault with. … We are not the less inclined to speak well of this tale, because it does not dabble in religion; of fanatical novels and fanatical authoresses we are already sick.” British Critic July, 1816

• “…the story shows wonderful knowledge of female character, and is severe on the little foibles of women with a severity which no man would dare to use. Emma, the heroine, is treated almost mercilessly. In every passage of the book she is in fault for some folly, some vanity some ignorance, -- or indeed for some meanness. … nowadays we dare not make our heroines so little. Her weaknesses are plain to us, but of her strength we are only told; and even at last we hardly know why Mr Knightley loves her.” Anthony Trollope in the end papers of his copy of Emma 1865.

• I frankly confess that I never could endure Mr Knightley. He interfered too much, he judged other people rather too quickly and too harshly, he was too old for Emma, and being the elder brother of her elder sister’s husband, there was something incongruous in the match which I could never bring myself to approve. … Mr Knightley … is an eminently respectable hero – too respectable, in fact, to be a hero at all … and I should have disputed his claim to the position had he not satisfactorily established it beyond all possible doubt by marrying the heroine. But I have never felt satisfied with the marriage, and feel very sure that Emma was not nearly so happy as she pretended. I am certain that he frequently lectured her, was jealous of every agreeable man that ventured to say a civil word to her, and evinced his intellectual superiority by such a plethora of eminently suitable conversations, as either speedily hurried her to an untimely grave, or induced her to run away with somebody possessed of an inferior intellect, but more endearing qualities.” Lord Brabourne (editor of Letters of Jane Austen), 1884.