Insufferable woman

INSUFFERABLE

“Insufferable woman!” was her immediate exclamation. “Worse than I had supposed. Absolutely insufferable! Knightley! I could not have believed it. Knightley! never seen him in her life before, and call him Knightley! and discover that he is a gentleman! A little upstart, vulgar being, with her Mr. E., and her caro sposo, and her resources, and all her airs of pert pretension and under-bred finery. Actually to discover that Mr. Knightley is a gentleman! I doubt whether he will return the compliment, and discover her to be a lady. Emma Woodhouse on Augusta Elton, Emma, Chapter 32

You go girlfriend! Bet you wish you could say it straight to her face. But decourum and common courtesy prevent your first best instinct. (Oh drat!) But if you said exactly what you were thinking, instead of a witty, subliminal, between the lines, over their head, delayed put-down, zinging repartee, it would not be a Jane Austen novel! Right?

Jane Austen is often accused (by the unenlightened minority) of being that ‘insufferable woman‘ who was a prim boring spinster writing puffy parlor pulp, whose plots are indistinguishable from each other, whose characters are namby-pamby wimps, and whose ultimate from the grave revenge was the feminist satisfaction of tormenting the male half of the world by making their mothers, girlfriends, wives, and daughters compare them against that perfect pinnacle of proud manhood, – – MR. DARCY.

Yea, rrrright! This attitude will not be bourne!

With this excellent example from the novel Emma of how our daintily gloved Jane can dole it out like the big boys, how can you classify her as prim and boring? Emma is a feisty, fallible, and intriguing creature that could only have been imagined by a strong willed writer, totally in command of the of her talent. So there!

Doubt my position? Please peruse the refereed discussion and discover if you love or loath Jane Austen? Is our Jane the “virgin of the vicarage” or “the authorial equivalent of crack cocaine“? Hark, ye of little faith and heed the truth, or a close facsimile of it in this excellent on-line debate presenting the opposing views of two accomplished British journalists Toby Young and Frances Wilson. Be prepared to fume over the folly and cheer the praise!

*Illustration by William C. Cooke, “A little upstart vulgar being”, Emma, Chapter 32, published by J.M. Dent & Company, London (1892)