Posted by Erin on June 13, 1997 at 00:47:02:
In reply to Re: Did you suspect? posted by Katariina on June 12, 1997 at 10:30:04
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] ] To Anyone Out There: When you read Emma for the first time, did you suspect the truth about Frank and Jane? Or were you "doomed to blindness" like Emma. I'm interested to know. I can't remember at all my own degree of cleverness but someone probably spoiled it for me by telling me the plot anyway.
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] I had an idea that they knew each other better than they let others understand but I didn't really think there would be anything like that.
] I think that's one of the best things with JA: you just never guess and never suspect anything before you know, and then it seems so obvious that you feel stupid and have to read the book again, knowing what's going to happen. But that is also a problen with adapting her books, because you can easily spoil the fun by telling too much.
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Likewise, I was completely dupped about Jane and Frank in the book. After I read the introduction to my edition, in which the author presented the idea of reading _Emma_ as a mystery, I wondered if I where to read it again, could I find the 'clues' or hints and piece together Jane and Frank's former involvement, before it is acutally revealed. This after all, is my idea of a mystery --the answer is already given, before its final resolution in the plot.
It is interesting to note that we had a discussion about this on the P&P2 board recently; we applied the same question to certain movements in P&P: could we glimpse, in his egnigmatic inscrutability, of Darcy's commitment to Lizzy? Could we predict his actions? Needless to say, we were divided on the issue --not only as to the possiblity of reading P&P as a mystery, but reading Emma as one.
Erin