Jane Austen

Whilst using the "machine that is changing my life" I like watching DVDs or something on the Apple TV. Over the past week or so I've been watching the latest version of Emma by Jane Austen.  I'm a bit of a Jane Austen fan.  After finishing this Emma, I realised that I had three other versions, plus 2 versions of each of Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility; 3 versions of Persuasion (my favourite Austen book); and one version of Northanger Abbey (my least favourite anyway!).  I've also got the Jane Austen Book Club, Lost in Austen and Becoming Jane.  Rachel asked me why people kept making different versions of the same story.  I tried to explain that each version interprets each of the stories in different ways and focusses on different things - and sometimes even tries to make the set look more "realistic" than previous versions.  I love it when a new version comes out of these fantastic stories.  And I'm not exactly sure why but it must be something about a slightly different take on a storyline that I love!

I've realised that whilst I don't particularly like Emma, she is the heroine I'm most like; and whilst I love Persuasion, Anne Elliot is the heroine I'm most different from.  And how weird am I that I even analyse that (there are sites on the internet that actually have assigned Myers Briggs personality types to all of the Jane Austen characters - I'm not that into Myers Briggs to get into it!)

Anyway, I didn't think I was going to enjoy the latest Emma, but I found it grew on me and I was very sad when it finished.  (For the record, it was 4 episodes of one hour each.)

So today I am grateful for the writings of Jane Austen.  I've certainly got a lot of enjoyment from her stories and I'm one of the millions who has.  I wonder if she ever realised how well-known she would end up...