Reading Austen in America by Juliette Wells

When my English department colleagues are talking about language, it can be a code word for, “our students don’t appreciate the language.” But there were so many times with this edition where I really had to think about how to convey what Jane Austen had conveyed. I hope people who choose this edition will choose to read it for pleasure. Now I think the best way to read Austen is slowly, not with a deadline.

But going that slowly, with that quality of attention, I had an amazing experience with the novel’s artistry of language. As I prepared this edition, I was not expecting to find any surprises. Sometimes you go to meetings and conferences, gain a new perspective, so you re-read it. It is impossible to count! There are so many thorough readings and then quick, “I’m teaching this!” re-readings. How many times would you say you’ve read it at this point? It was not like I read Emma and the heavens opened and I was like, “This is my life’s work!” Instead, our teacher asked if Austen could be considered a feminist and we said, “Well, kinda, sorta.” When I was assigned to read Emma in college, I said, “I know this.” I was full of myself for having read it before and being able to pay attention to all the clues about Jane Fairfax Juliette Wells: I was a junior in high school, at science and technology magnet high school. We discussed the pleasures and frustrations of the novel that is regarded as Austen’s greatest achievement - with one of her most difficult heroines.įlavorwire: When did you first read Emma?

The beautifully bound paperback contains lots of context for the uninitiated (particularly the uninitiated American) reader, with little mini-essays on subjects like dancing, health, and social class in Austen’s time, as well as a guide to reading Emma, a glossary and spelling guide, maps, and original plates from early editions of the novel.įlavorwire talked with the editor of the new edition, Juliette Wells, an English professor who studies and teaches Austen at Goucher University (which has a notable collection of Austen papers and memorabilia). But today, a stunning new annotated edition of the novel arrives from Penguin Classics, transitioning a summer of Clueless into a winter of Emma. In a sense, pop culture already kicked off an Emma retrospective when we celebrated 20 years of Clueless, the beloved adaptation. As a result, the novel’s 200th anniversary season will last all of this fall and into 2016, ending a year from now with the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Emma-themed conference in Washington, DC. Jane Austen’s Emma was published at the very end of 1815.

Reading Austen in America by Juliette Wells