Emma - Jane Austen

Emma - Jane Austen

Volume - 1

The novel “Emma” opens in the small village, Highbury in England after the happy occasion of the Westons’ marriage. Twenty-one year old Emma Woodhouse is consoling her father because the bride, Miss. Anne Taylor is their friend and previously governess. Neighbour Mr. George Knightley stops by to see how Mr. Woodhouse and Emma are surviving. Emma gaily reminds the men that she had predicted the match between Miss. Anne Taylor and Mr. Weston. Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston’s son with his former wife, who was raised by his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, was unable to attend the wedding, but he has written a letter to   Mrs. Weston (Anne Taylor, his step-mom) a letter promising to visit Randalls soon. People of Highbury are anxious to meet him.

Mr. Woodhouse, a hypochondriac who prefers to be at home, enjoys the company of friends and neighbours. One evening a card game is held at Hartfield, the Woodhouse home. Among those in attendance are school mistress Mrs. Goddard and her student in her boarding school, Harriet Smith, a pretty young lady with “questionable” parentage. Emma immediately sees Harriet as a project for her matchmaking schemes. When Harriet reveals her interest in Mr. Robert Martin, a successful young farmer, Emma dissuades her, commenting on Mr. Robert Martin’s low class (social status). Emma persuades Harriet Smith to consider Mr. Elton, the Vicar of Highbury instead of Mr. Robert Martin. Mr. George Knightley disapproves Emma’s relationship with Harriet, knowing that Harriet’s flattering will only encourage Emma’s reckless behaviour. While sketching portrait of Harriet, Emma arranges for her protegee and Mr. Elton to spend some time with one another. Mr. Elton volunteers to take the portrait to London to have it framed. Soon after, Harriet confides that Mr. Martin has written a letter proposing marriage with her. Emma manipulates Miss Harriet to refuse the proposal. Mr. Knightley is furious with Emma’s interference in this regard. He accused Emma that she is harming Harriet by implanting a misplaced sense of superiority in her. While walking with Miss Harriet Smith, Emma professes her desire to remain unmarried. She is unconcerned about becoming an old maid like impoverished family friend Miss Bates because Emma is fortunate to be a wealthy woman.

In the mean time the winter arrives, the Woodhouses prepare Hartfield for a visit of her older sister Isabella and her family, who live in London, for the holidays. On Christmas Eve, the Woodhouses,  and the Knightleys visit the Weston’s home, Randalls. John Knightley, her brother-in-law, warns Emma that Mr. Elton is interested in her. Emma disagrees, but later that evening, Phillip Elton seizes the opportunity to profess his love for her while scoffing at the idea of a match with Harriet. Insulted by Emma’s refusal, Mr. Elton leaves Highbury for a visit to Bath. Realising the harm she has done to Harriet, Emma changes her assessment of Mr. Elton, realising her is pursuing money rather than love.

Volume – 2

When Emma and Harriet visit their poor neighbours, Miss and Mrs. Bates, Miss Bates shares a letter form her niece, Miss Jane Fairfax. Like Mr. Frank Churchill, Miss Jane Fairfax also raised by guardians after being orphaned. Miss Jane Fairfax is an accomplished, educated young lady, and Emma has always resented hearing about her. Miss Jane Fairfax has been ill, and rather than travel to Ireland with her guardians, the Campbells, she plans to stay for a while with the Bates. Emma, letting her imagination carry her away, creates a scenario in which Jane Fairfax has feelings for the Campbell’s new son-in-law Mr. Dixon and hence she has chosen to remain in England. Emma feels some sympathy for Miss Fairfax, who due to lack of fortune is destined to become a governess, but her sympathy is overridden by ungracious feelings towards Miss Jane Fairfax, for which Mr. Knightley expresses his disappointment. 

Highbury receives news that Mr. Elton is marrying a wealthy young woman, Miss Augusta Hawkins, from Bath. Emma is unimpressed by the newly wed Mrs. Elton, perceiving her to have “no name, no blood, no alliance”. Emma breaks the news to Harriet, who is already shaken from seeing Mr. martin and his sister in the town. Emma takes Harriet to visit the Martins, but still disapproves of a match between Mr. Robert Martin and Harriet Smith. When Frank Churchill arrives at Hartfield the next morning, he flirts with Emma and soon Mr. Weston hopes for a match between Emma and Frank. However, Emma, without realising it, finds herself comparing Frank Churchill and the more ideal, Mr. Knightley.

The wealthy merchants, the Coles send out invitations to a dinner party which Emma plans to boycott until it seems she is the only Highbury resident not invited. When the invitation arrives, Emma accepts. Dinner gossip at the party focuses on a new piano that has arrived for Miss. Jane Fairfax. When Mr. Knightley shows concern for Jane’s health, Mrs. Weston tells Emma that she suspects George and Jane may become a couple. Frank seizes upon an idea for the Westons to host a dance at the Crown Inn, but he is called home before it can be held. When he comes to say goodbye, Emma believes Frank has fallen in love with her. Though she wonders if she, too, may be attracted, Emma ultimately decides she feels only friendship. When Emma and Harriet visit the newly wed Mrs. Elton, Emma is struck by the woman’s coarse behaviour. But as social graces dictate, she is compelled to host a dinner party in the bride’s honour.



Volume - 3 

When Frank Churchill returns to the party with his ill aunt, he plans to resume the dance at the Crown Inn. Mr. and Mrs. Elton purposefully humiliate Miss Harriet Smith at the dance, and Mr. Knightley steps in and asks Harriet to dance with him. Emma is struck by his gracious behaviour. The next morning, Frank arrives at Hartfield carrying Harriet, who has fainted after being surrounded by gypsies. Now Emma plots a match between Mr. Churchill and Miss Smith. Later, when Harriet confides to Emma that she is still in love with Elton and  admires him as a superior man. Emma assumes that she refers to Frank Churchill. Meanwhile, George Knightley sees signs that Frank Churchill is attracted to Jane Fairfax and is using Emma unfairly.

When a proposed trip to Box Hill at the sea is postponed, Mr. Knightley suggests strawberry picking at his farm instead. During the outing, Mrs. Elton announces that he has secured a position for Jane Fairfax. The Box Hill trip is rescheduled for the next day, but the group seems to lack of spirit. Frank and Emma monopolise the conversation with rude chatter, and in the midst of it, Emma insults Miss Bates. Mr. Knightley once again admonishes Emma, and advises that she must develop model gracious behaviour, particularly when dealing with friends in challenging circumstances. Ashamed of her behaviour, Emma visits Miss Bates early in the next morning. While being there, Emma learns Jane has suddenly accepted the governess position arranged by Mrs. Elton. George Knightley announces he is leaving for London to visit John Knightley and Isabella. He is heartened to hear of Emma’s visit to Miss Bates. When news arrives that Mrs. Churchill has died. Emma resumes her plan to match Frank and Harriet. She also feels remorse over her treatment of Jane Fairfax and attempts to make amends on multiple occasions, only to be refused. Several days later, Mrs. Weston, who is expecting a baby, confides to Emma and the news that Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax have been secretly engaged for several months. Emma realises that once again, as with Mr. Elton, she has misjudged a man’s character. She has also injured Harriet, who had been overlooked by two would-be suitors. However, Harriet explains that it is not Frank she admires, but George Knightley. In an instant, Emma realising that she herself has loved Mr. Knightley all along. Emma spends the next week attempting to “understand her own heart,” ashamed of her behaviour towards Harriet and Jane, and fearful of how she may have lost the esteem of Mr. Knightley. Emma regrets that she did not be friend to Jane, rather than to Harriet, and recognises her vanity and arrogance in attempting to “arrange everybody’s destiny.” George Knightley returns, and Emma confesses her “blindness.” Assuring him she has never loved Frank, Emma admits her character defects. Mr. Knightley professes that despite any flaws, he has loved her since she was thirteen. Emma and George become engaged, even though Emma realises that she cannot leave her father. Mrs. Weston shares a letter from Frank explaining the trickery and admitting his fault. Emma feels genial towards Frank again and shares the letter with George. Mr. Knightley offers a solution to the issue with Mr. Woodhouse by suggesting that he wanted to live at Hartfield with both Emma and her father. Emma agrees, but is still concerned about Harriet, whom she arranges to have visit Isabella and John Knightley in London, there Harriet again meets and accepts Robert Martin. After multiple neighbourhood robberies, Mr. Woodhouse sees the benefit of Mr. Knightley’s residence at Hartfield, and finally, Miss Emma Woodhouse and Mr. George Knightley are united in “perfect happiness.”

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Silas Marner - George Eliot

Silas Marner - George Eliot

In the village of Raveloe lives a weaver named Silas Marner. The local people view him with distrust because he comes from a distant part of the country. In addition, he lives completely alone, and he has been known to have strange fits. For fifteen years he has lived like this.

Fifteen years earlier, Silas was a respected member of a church at Lantern Yard in a city to the north. His fits were regarded there as a mark of special closeness to the Holy Spirit. He had a close friend named William Dane, and he was engaged to marry a serving girl named Sarah. But one day the elder deacon fell ill and had to be tended day and night by members of the congregation, as he was a childless widower. During Silas' watch, a bag of money disappears from a drawer by the deacon's bed. Silas' knife is found in the drawer, but Silas swears he is innocent and asks that his room be searched. William Dane finds the empty bag there. Then Silas remembers that he last used the knife to cut a strap for William, but he says nothing to the others.

In order to find out the truth, the church members resort to prayer and drawing of lots, and the lots declare Silas guilty. Silas, betrayed by his friend and now by his God, declares that there is no just God. He is sure that Sarah will desert him too, and he takes refuge in his work. He soon receives word from Sarah that their engagement is ended, and a month later she marries William Dane. Soon afterward Silas leaves Lantern Yard.

He settles in Raveloe, where he feels hidden even from God. His work is at first his only solace, but soon he begins to receive gold for his cloth; the gold gives him a kind of companionship. He works harder and harder to earn more of it and stores it in a bag beneath his floor. His contacts with humanity wither. Once he gives help to a woman who is ill by treating her with herbs as his mother taught him, but this action gives him a reputation as a maker of charms. People come for miles to ask his help, and he cannot give any. As a result, he is believed to cause other misfortunes and be in league with the devil. After that, Silas is more alone than ever.

The greatest man of Raveloe is Squire Cass. His wife is dead, and his sons are left to their own devices. Some trouble results from this: the eldest son, Godfrey, has made a hasty marriage with a woman of poor reputation, and the second son, Dunstan, is blackmailing Godfrey to keep their father from knowing. Godfrey has given Dunstan some rent money from one of his father's tenants; now the Squire wants the money, so Godfrey gives Dunstan his horse to sell to raise the cash.

On the way to the hunt where he hopes to sell the horse, Dunstan passes the weaver's cottage. This sight gives him the idea of borrowing the money from Marner, but he rather likes the idea of vexing his brother, so he continues to the hunt and makes the sale. However, instead of turning over the horse at once, he rides in the chase and kills the animal on a stake.

Dunstan begins to walk home. It becomes dark and foggy before he can reach there, and in the darkness he comes to Marner's cottage. Dunstan goes there to borrow a lantern and to try to get some money out of the weaver. He finds no one there. Searching around the floor, he soon finds where the money is hidden. He replaces the bricks that had covered it and carries the money away.

Silas has poor eyesight, and on his return he finds nothing wrong until he goes to take out his money to count it. When he cannot find it, he feels that once again he has been robbed by an unseen power. However, he clings to the hope that there was a human thief, and he goes off to the village inn to find the constable.

At the inn, the conversation has been of ghosts, and when Silas bursts in he himself is momentarily taken for a ghost. But Silas is so worked up that it is apparent he is no ghost, and when he tells of the robbery, there is immediately sympathy for him. His helplessness removes any feeling that he is connected with the devil. Some of the men set out after the constable.

The news of the robbery spreads quickly, and there is soon general agreement that the thief must have been an itinerant peddler who had been in the neighborhood: no other stranger has been noticed, and no local person could be suspected. Dunstan's disappearance is not thought strange because that has happened before. Godfrey is not surprised either, for he soon learns that Dunstan has killed his horse. Now he decides to tell his father of his marriage. He leads up to this by telling of his horse and of the rent money that he had given Dunstan; but he gets no farther, for his father explodes with anger, which leaves Godfrey in a worse position than ever.

Silas is now treated with some consideration by his neighbors. Dolly Winthrop, especially, visits Silas and tries to coax him into attending church, at least on Christmas. However, Silas finds no connection between local religious customs and those he knows of, and Christmas finds him at home as usual.

Christmas and New Year's are the time of special festivals in Raveloe. The most important celebration is the New Year's dance at Squire Cass' home. There, Godfrey is unable to keep himself away from Nancy Lammeter, the girl he has always intended to marry. Although he knows it is wrong, and that the news of his marriage must come out soon, he determines to enjoy himself with Nancy while he can. Nancy, for her part, wants to marry Godfrey, but his strangeness has made her cool toward him, and when he asks her forgiveness, she says only that she will be glad to see anyone reform.

Meanwhile Godfrey's wife, Molly, has become determined to revenge herself for his treatment of her, and she sets out with their child to confront him at the dance. She loses her way in the snow, and at last she fortifies herself with opium, to which she has become addicted. The opium only makes her drowsier, and Molly sinks down in the snow. Her child slips from her arms. It is attracted to a light that comes from the open door of Marner's cottage, where the weaver stands, unaware of the child's presence. He has been looking out to see if his money might return and has been stricken by one of his fits. When he awakes, he sees gold by his hearth and thinks his money has come back, then he discovers that the gold is the hair of a child. At last he overcomes his wonder enough to realize that the child has come in out of the snow, and there outside he discovers Molly's body.

Silas takes the child and hurries to Squire Cass' house to get the doctor. His entrance causes Godfrey both fear and hope because he recognizes the child as his own, and he hopes that he may be free at last. He goes with Doctor Kimble and finds that the woman Marner found is indeed his wife and that she is dead.

The woman is buried that week, a stranger to everyone but Godfrey. Silas feels that the child has been sent to him, and he is determined to keep it. This determination causes even warmer feeling for him in Raveloe, and he is given much well-meant advice. Dolly Winthrop gives him real aid with the child and offers some old clothes that belonged to her son Aaron. Godfrey is glad enough to have the child cared for. He gives money for its support but never claims it as his own.

Silas names the child Hepzibah — Eppie for short — after his mother and little sister. He finds that, unlike his gold, Eppie makes him constantly aware of the world and of other men. He gives her his wholehearted love, and everywhere he finds kindness from the other villagers.

Sixteen years pass. Nancy and Godfrey are married, and Eppie has grown into a beautiful young woman. Silas is liked and respected in Raveloe. His life with Eppie has been close and happy, and Mr. and Mrs. Cass have done much for them. Dolly Winthrop has become Eppie's godmother, and she is a close friend of Silas. The two of them have discussed his old problem at Lantern Yard and considered the great differences in religion between the two places. Now Dolly's son Aaron wishes to marry Eppie, and Eppie has agreed — if Silas can live with them. She has been told of her mother, but she knows nothing of any other father, and she cannot bear to be parted from Silas.

Godfrey and Nancy, however, are childless. Their one child died in infancy. Their childlessness is a great trouble to Godfrey, who has always wanted children. At one time he wished to adopt Eppie, but Nancy refused, feeling that it would be going against Providence to adopt a child when none was given naturally. Nancy has tried to make up to Godrey in other ways, and their marriage has been happy but for this one thing. Godfrey was afraid to tell her that Eppie was his own child.

On this particular Sunday, Nancy is thinking over these old problems when Godfrey becomes very much upset. The Stone Pits near Marner's cottage are being drained, and Dunstan's body has been found there with Silas' gold. Godfrey is forced to tell Nancy that his brother was a thief. At the same time, his newfound honesty convinces him that all truths come out sooner or later, and he admits that Eppie is his own child. Instead of being disgusted with him, Nancy is sorry that she refused to adopt Eppie sooner. The two of them go that night to Marner's cottage to claim Eppie.

Eppie, however, does not wish to be claimed. Both she and Silas feel that no claim of blood can outweigh their years of life together. She does not want to leave Silas nor to be rescued from her low station and the prospect of marriage to a workingman. At last Godfrey goes home bitterly disappointed. He feels that he is being punished now for his earlier weakness, but he is determined to try to do his duty at last and to do all he can for Eppie even though she has refused him.

Now that he has his gold, Silas feels able to return to Lantern Yard to try to settle the matter of the old theft. He goes there with Eppie, but they find everything changed. The chapel is gone, a factory set in its place. Only the prison is left to remind Silas that this was where he once lived. He returns home no wiser than when he set out; but he agrees with Dolly that there is reason to have faith in spite of the darkness of the past.

Eppie and Aaron are married on a fine sunny day, with the wedding at Mr. Cass' expense. The young couple comes to live with Silas at his cottage, where the villagers join in agreement that Silas has been blessed through his kindness to an orphaned child

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