{"id":190621,"date":"2025-12-14T01:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T01:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/190621\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T01:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T01:11:10","slug":"badly-done-emma-jane-austen-needed-only-a-picnic-to-torment-her-readers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/190621\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Badly done, Emma!\u2019 Jane Austen needed only a picnic to torment her readers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jane Austen<\/a>, who was born 250 years ago on Tuesday, on December 16th, 1775, wrote satire, comedy of manners, marriage plots, social realism, Gothic parody and, of course, horror.<\/p>\n

As multiple stage and screen adaptations have made plain for modern audiences, the pioneering novelist is responsible for one of the most squirm-inducing scenes in all of English literature. Watch, or read, between your fingers. Grip your armrest for support. The episode in question features \u2013 there\u2019s no way to sugarcoat this \u2013 a picnic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a very fine day for Box Hill; and all the other outward circumstances of arrangement, accommodation, and punctuality, were in favour of a pleasant party,\u201d is how the seventh chapter of Emma begins.<\/p>\n

A very fine day. All set up for a pleasant party. Are those suppressed memories returning yet?<\/p>\n

\u201cSeven miles were travelled in expectation of enjoyment, and every body had a burst of admiration on first arriving,\u201d Austen writes, tormenting us some more.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a dread-inciting \u201clanguor\u201d. Four pages later the ominous words land with chilling simplicity: \u201cEmma could not resist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today the thriving Austen industry thinks nothing of bringing ardent admirers \u2013 empire-line dresses optional but, let\u2019s be honest, preferred \u2013 to the scene of Emma\u2019s catastrophic self-own. Brave Janeites can join organised day trips to the Surrey spot where the writer once imagined a social carnage so excruciating that it leaves our heroine \u201cagitated, mortified, grieved\u201d and in tears.<\/p>\n

As a veteran of a record-breaking Regency promenade at the Jane Austen Festival<\/a> in Bath in 2009, I\u2019m all in favour of cosplay, especially if it means I can combine a bonnet, lace fan and very large pint in one photograph. But a picnic at Box Hill? Why not swing by Hanging Rock while you\u2019re at it? It\u2019s obviously a wretched scheme. The view would scream of past blunders and \u2013 Austen adaptations being much like buses, or proposals in Pride and Prejudice \u2013 future blunders, too.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Following the footsteps of Jane Austen in Bath, hotbed of 1800s gossip and novel plotsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

For Emma will publicly insult Miss Bates. She will cast doubt on her poor friend\u2019s ability to say \u201conly three\u201d dull things, even though it\u2019s her own flirting partner, Frank Churchill, who is being tediously verbose. She will repay good-natured self-deprecation with a cutting joke, delivering a disasterclass in punching down.<\/p>\n

Alas, some Austen adaptations are unable to resist overegging everything. They tip Emma from a clever, endearing but scornful person into a nasty, self-pitying idiot. Alternatively, they dwell on Miss Bates\u2019s pained response for so long that you can\u2019t help wondering if she\u2019s milking it.<\/p>\n

What I like most about how Austen wrote her picnicageddon is that Emma\u2019s jibe, though it wounds Miss Bates, seems as if it\u2019s about to pass off without wider comment. Mr Knightley is grave, but when is he not? Eventually, Emma herself grows tired of \u201cflattery and merriment\u201d and wishes she were alone. As she waits for her carriage home, there\u2019s a false lull.<\/p>\n

But we haven\u2019t suffered through every agonising second of the picnic faux pas for nothing. We\u2019ve got a dramatic pay-off to savour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was badly done, indeed!\u201d Mr Knightley chastises Emma in the middle of his long speech about her absent compassion and general rich-girl cluelessness.<\/p>\n

Successive screenplays mean the admonishment is now fondly remembered in a slightly different form.<\/p>\n

\u201cBadly done, Emma!\u201d Jeremy Northam rebukes Gwyneth Paltrow<\/a> in the Miramax film from 1996. She does a little shame-cry, then he repeats his verdict, whispering \u201cbadly done\u201d over her shoulder like a paternalistic truth-teller who is not angry, just disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was badly done, Emma. Badly done, indeed,\u201d Mark Strong growls at Kate Beckinsale<\/a>\u2019s back after he puts her in her carriage in ITV<\/a>\u2019s small-screen take, also from 1996. Beckinsale is barely afforded the opportunity to defend herself, which Book Emma makes a spirited attempt to do, even though (or, more likely, because) she knows Mr Knightley is right.<\/p>\n

Universal\u2019s 2020 film<\/a> loses marks for sticking precisely to Austen\u2019s line, which now sounds wrong without the invocation of Emma\u2019s name. It gains them for the performance of Johnny Flynn, who appears wholly stung by Anya Taylor-Joy<\/a>\u2019s unfeeling behaviour. He\u2019s evidently only reprimanding her because he loves her.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s a clear winner, and it\u2019s the BBC<\/a> series from 2009.<\/p>\n

As Romola Garai<\/a>, the best of all Emmas, hears Jonny Lee Miller approach, she seems to sense that some remonstration is coming. Miller hesitates but gets his first \u201cbadly done, Emma\u201d out early and soon settles into the task of scolding her, throwing in a second one after everything else is out of his system. Garai argues back but is left floundering by a log. Five stars.<\/p>\n

This harrowing mess will ultimately be resolved with a dose of self-knowledge followed by the apparent \u201cperfect happiness of the union\u201d. Austen knew we could only take so much abject misunderstanding. But, just like this full year of celebrations to mark her birth, that happiness, perfect or otherwise, has been earned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jane Austen, who was born 250 years ago on Tuesday, on December 16th, 1775, wrote satire, comedy of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7208,1578,93,18923,61,60,8642,21288,66432,7241,102471],"class_list":{"0":"post-190621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-anya-taylor-joy","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gwyneth-paltrow","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-itv","15":"tag-jane-austen","16":"tag-kate-beckinsale","17":"tag-laura-slattery","18":"tag-romola-garai"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}