Tag Archives: Emma

Jane Austen’s Thematic Use of Cards

By Robin Bates | Published: March 13, 2024

In which I share a talk I will be giving on the thematic significance of card playing in Jane Austen’s novels.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged card playing, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sanditon, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

Austen’s Revolutionary Style

By Robin Bates | Published: November 20, 2023

Austen may have innovated a way to blend satire with romance as a way to protect us from heartbreak.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Emma Bovary, free indirect style, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gustave Flaubert, Henry Fielding, Horace, ironic romance, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Tom Jones | Comments closed

Austen on the Simple Country Life

By Robin Bates | Published: May 22, 2022

In the strawberry picking scene in “Emma,” Austen wields her satiric pen to take apart social climber Mrs. Elton.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged class anxiety, Gustave Flaubert, indirect style, Jane Austen, Madame Bovary | Comments closed

Austen Has Some of Lit’s Best Mean Girls

By Robin Bates | Published: February 4, 2021

I survey the meaning of some of my favorite literary mean girls.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Cat's Eye, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Mean Girls, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Robber Bride, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

The USPS and Conspiracy Theories

By Robin Bates | Published: August 26, 2020

As controversies swirl around the postal service, Pynchon’s “Crying of Lot 49” seems relevant. So does Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Crying of Lot 49, Donald Trump, Eudora Welty, Jane Austen, Louis DeJoy, mail sabotage, Thomas Pynchon, U.S. Postal Service, Why I Live at the P.O. | Comments closed

Sanditon’s Disappointing Ending

By Robin Bates | Published: February 26, 2020

While filled with allusions to the previous novels, the televised “Sanditon” is in the end a let-down. I explore why.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged adaptations, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sanditon, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

Card Playing in Jane Austen

By Robin Bates | Published: October 22, 2019

Card playing shows up in all of Jane Austen’s major novels but means different things at different times.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Cards, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

Reading Aloud Enhances Relationships

By Robin Bates | Published: December 28, 2016

Couples reading aloud to each other can create a special intimacy, as George Eliot and George Henry Lewes realized in the 19th century. The radio and then television brought an end to that activity.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, Jane Austen, reading aloud | Comments closed

Hillary Clinton as Emma Woodhouse

By Robin Bates | Published: May 23, 2016

Hillary Clinton shares certain characteristics with Emma Woodhouse. (And far fewer with Lady Macbeth.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, Jane Austen, politics | Comments closed