EMMA by Jane Austen

The English language has come a long way in the last couple of hundred years. Everything from the way people speak to the way people write has changed. This is especially obvious when one reads the classics. My venture into this area of literature started with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The reason? I had to see what all the fuss about Jane Austen was. Of course, I wasn't impressed. I just couldn't understand what was going on. While I did get the gist of the story, I couldn't understand the situation or the characters. I just couldn't retain information long enough for the superfluous writing to get to the point.

But slowly I managed to force myself through the book and then moved on to Sense and Sensibility. By now, I knew what to expect from Austen. To state the obvious, her writing style and language is very different from what is written today. But soon enough, I learned to appreciate and even enjoy Austen’s writing.

Something that the older books have that today’s book don’t really have is the soft elegance that is contained within the meticulous and detailed words written by the authors. While there may be nothing wrong with most books published today, I often feel like we’ve lost an art that cannot be very easily learned today.

When I began reading Emma, I wasn’t entirely sure how Emma’s vivaciousness and bubbliness would come through in such a form of writing. But it did. Slow and steady reading, with a lot of patience and concentration got me through the book. It was like learning to savor each scene as it was read. There were times when I would laugh out loud while reading. Such was the effect it had on me once I could understand Austen’s writing.

To contrast the slightly archaic style of writing are the characters. In their basic forms, Emma and Knightley really are like many characters in books and movies today. Complete opposites who fall in love with each other—one is bubbly and hyper while the other is mature and serious. I suppose that sort of pairing is something that won’t go out of fashion for a while.

As for the story itself, of course, no one today can really comment on it since it is considered one of the classics. And really, I see no problem with it. In today’s terms, Emma would be a sort of romantic novel.

Going back to Austen’s style of writing, most people whom I have met do not have the interest to appreciate such things. They simply dismiss it as something that is too complicated and gibberish-like for them. To them, I would only say this, Austen’s Emma give us a glimpse into the everyday practices of life back in her time. A time where propriety and manners were considered important. A time where the language used was less crude and intentions were conveyed more elegantly. And once a person takes the time to understand the writing, they would discover a literary world that is not only artfully expressed, but also just as captivating and even nail-biting as some of the popular literary works of our present time.