Jane Austen Writing Challenge

Here are some of my favourite things about Emma:
1. The plot: The heroine of Emma (1815) is a lovable, privileged and confident busybody and matchmaker whose errors get her into trouble and almost ruin the happiness of her friend Harriet Smith and herself as she neglects her own emotional needs. Fortunately, Emma learns the error of her ways with the help of her old friend Mr. George Knightley whom she eventually marries, and both she and Harriet have happy endings.
2. The setting in the beauty of the Regency countryside with cute villages and historic houses.
Farming is a topic of the novel, not least because Harriet Smith eventually follows her own inclination and marries farmer Robert Martin despite Emma’s interference trying to secure her a wealthier match, but because farming is also a source of wealth for landowner Mr. George Knightley. The two Knightley brothers, John and George, discuss improvements to George Knightley’s estate due to take place in spring, when the better weather meant alterations were desirable in preparation for increasing the harvest:
‘The plan of a drain, the change of a fence, the felling of a tree, and the destination of every acre for wheat, turnips, or spring corn, was entered into with as much equality of interest by John as his cooler manners rendered possible’.
Mr Knightley is not only astute in improving the productivity of his estate but he is kind in sharing its bounty and gives apples from his orchard to poorer members of the community like Mrs and Miss Bates and Jane Fairfax.
The countryside is also a place for recreation and exploring the surroundings during walks or carriage excursions is mentioned taking place in many households, even that of fashionable and snobbish Mrs. Elton:
“My brother and sister have promised us a visit in the spring or summer at farthest,’ continued Mrs. Elton; “and that will be our time for exploring. While they are with us, we shall explore a great deal, I dare say… When people come into a beautiful country of this sort, you know, Miss Woodhouse, one naturally wishes them to see as much as possible’.
The barouche-landau was a luxurious open-topped, four-wheeled carriage driven as an elite pastime. Mrs. Elton’s repeated mentions of the carriage to attempt to make herself sound superior are nauseating to her listeners.
One place which Mrs Elton is eager to explore is Mr. Knightley’s home of Donwell Abbey as “Donwell was famous for its strawberry-beds, which seemed a plea for the invitation: but no plea was necessary; cabbage-beds would have been enough to tempt the lady, who only wanted to be going somewhere.”
Donwell becomes the setting for a famous strawberry picnic in which Emma learns a lesson after Mr. Knightley tells her that her ungraciously teasing of poor Miss Bates was “badly done”.
The countryside is also the source of more innocent and instinctive enjoyment and there is a lovely glimpse of how the sunny weather and emergence of spring flowers can impact on the well-being of those enjoying them:
‘When she looked at the hedges, she thought the elder at least must soon be coming out; and when she turned round to Harriet she saw something like a look of spring, a tender smile even there’.