Trailer for the new Emma

[ppeatfruit]

Anyone actually going to watch it on the strength of this? I'm only interested because Miranda is in it, playing Mrs Elton I'm assuming.

Where'sThat It's as if the over 50s (etc) (and those who would like a calmer approach) are ignored by the majority of the media. It's even more annoying because we're the majority of their listeners and viewers.

Well said, ppeatfruit! Couldn't agree more 😊

We should begin a pressure group

Just want to say @TheMarzipanDildo that I agree about Clueless being a great modern version although Cher (character not the singer ) is distinctly more likeable than the new film Emma.

As for the age issue re Mr Knightley, it's curious that Oliver Chris, who plays Mr John Knightley, is older than Johnny Flynn. My recollection is that John Knightley must be the younger brother because Emma is always concerned about the fact that her little nephew (Isabella's son) will be the heir to Donwell Abbey. I'm assuming the Knightley family don't own two huge estates.

Emma's Mr Knightley was the older brother. But of course, if he didn't marry and have a family, then her nephew would inherit. Of course he could have married anyone (just think how she panicked when she thought he was interested in her "project", Harriet.

It wasn't just her love interest she didn't want to lose, it was her nephew's inheritance.

Would Emma have inherited Hartfield? I can't recall it having been entailed...

I tried having a flick through the early chapters of Emma @ageingdisgracefully to see if there was any mention in the text, but I can't see anything specific about the legal position in relation to Hartfield. I know Emma tends to insist that she won't get married because she wants to be in charge of her own fate and, being wealthy, sees no need to marry. She is very much the mistress of Hartfield and takes the place that her mother would once have occupied. I really don't know what inheritance rights women possessed in those days, but I do wonder if having an older sister would have affected Emma's entitlement. Most property in those days seemed to go to the closest living male relative, so I suppose, if that were the case, it might go to Isabella's son as well, as Mr Woodhouse's grandson - lucky boy!

A very quick google suggests that women could own property, and Emma could have inherited Hartfield if her father left it to her in his will. However, that would have been another reason she would have chosen not marry, as she would probably not wish to pass it all to her husband upon marriage even if he was Johnny Flynn as Mr Knightley

Any input from experts on Regency inheritance law gratefully received...

That's what I thought, rhubarb01.

There doesn't appear to be an issue of Hartfield having been entailed, or willed to Emma, as such. I DO think it was possible to leave a property to a woman and maybe Emma would have inherited as her sister was married to a landowner herself.

In marrying Knightley she was instrumental in joining the estates together. I don't think it was a love match as such - it was a pragmatic move imho, as most marriages were then. Two estates joining together - one with land and one without much - would have been seen as a great success. So cash-poor Knightley gets a rich wife and land-strapped Emma gets a land-rich husband. Result.

One of the most interesting parts of Emma is the way that our heroine brushes aside the fact of Harriet's parentage where Mr Elton and Churchill's futures were concerned, but is extremely upset when she imagines her marrying HER (Emma's) Knightley.

IMO JA does write it as a love match, the very fortunate marrying of their properties too is sort of by the way.

I think that too, ppeat

Thanks Schady

Mind - I've always thought he was slightly creepy . . .

His younger brother is married to Emma's much-older sister (she's about ten years older, I think - Knightly about another 8-10 years older than that), he's known Emma since infancy and he's long been in love with her . . .

. . . just a bit creeeeepy, to my cynical, bad mind . . . .

Well I saw the film yesterday and rather enjoyed it. However, I did thin k they had made Harriet Smith too stupid and dozy, especially with her silly running. I can't imagine why Emma would cultivate such a friendship, even as a project. I don't recall it being so in the book (which I am now inspired to re-read)

I expect i'll enjoy it too, then.

It was pretty central to the book Fuzzy.

I saw it today, it was very amusing. I laughed aloud at some points, though not as much as the group of women a few rows behind Knightley was the standout for me.

I think the genius of JA's writing is that it can be read and enjoyed on so many levels.

So for some it's comedy, for others it's romance and for some it's a cynical and satirical dig at the mores of the times.

Isn't Knightley about 14yrs olderthan Emma?

I do get the feeling that he isn't really interested until she starts behaving in what he considers to be an appropriate way.

Yes Schady to our much more cynical modern minds it IS a bit weird.

Oh no diddl As Schady says he has loved her since infancy. It 's because he has tried to give her the judgement that her fond governess/mother subsitute and doting father have not done. She has put up with it !!!

I have just reread Mansfield Park and in that book JA is much more interested in the 'education' or moulding of a person's morality from childhood. Laying personality traits at the feet of people's parents/upbringers totally. Genetics were not heard of then of course., she would be fascinated by them.

"he has loved her since infancy."

That's weird though, isn't it`?

Fairenuff I don't mean the whole Harriet thing, I meant the way the film has portrayed her as being particularly daft. I don't recall extreme daftness in the book.

I thought Harriet was as thick as pigs hit in the book Fuzzy? (Though to be fair, JA may not have used those exact words . . . ) I always had the impression that she had to be reminded to breathe in and out, and that her assists were her beauty and the fact that her father (whoever he may have been) was "someone", so she had a degree of good breeding.

She wasn't the brightest bulb.

*pigshit, not pigs hits

I are also dim bulb, it seems

Fuzzy Not extreme but she is very slow on the uptake when Elton leaves the love puzzle for her/Emm who has to explain it carefully to her. Maybe she had the Georgian unrecognised version of dyslexia.