Currently I’m reading the JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) collection of essays for the year 2007. The topic of each composition is EMMA. I’m finding these musings on the clever Miss Emma Woodhouse to be fascinating and am enjoying the different perspectives on Emma and the cast of characters with whom she rubbed shoulders. Though some of the opinions are more strongly represented than others, they all begin to build within me a greater respect for my real-life heroine, Jane Austen.
As with any heroine, however, I wonder if she was aware of all the genius with which she is credited. I rather think she had as least as much intuition as understanding in her very clever writings about the people she created for us to enjoy. More genius than she realized, I think.
