Every time I think about reading Emma, I seriously stop and consider, "Do I want to live through the Box Hill chapter?" Sometimes, frankly, the answer is "no." All the memories of stupid & hurtful things I've said while trying to be funny come back, Austen is just that good. I suppose reading this chapter builds my character, but there are days I don't want my character built that much!
In all seriousness, this chapter is why I stopped blogging about Emma in 2011. Of course, at the time I was dealing with S's high school graduation and a pending divorce, but still . . . it just seemed like too much awfulness to have to write about on top of everything else. And I pretty spent day after day for a few weeks trying to work up to it, but couldn't, and nearly fell entirely away from blogging. So I know what you're talking about!
Still, there are other bits to focus on in the chapter - like the "shadow story" of Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill and their weird proxy conversation.
I'm actually glad I'm not the only one who feels that way about this chapter, I thought maybe I was being morbidly over-sensitive. I can certainly see how you wouldn't have wanted to deal with it in the midst of everything else that was going on.
Now that we are over this hurdle, we can move forward to more fun bits!
I've said before, and I'll say it again: this novel is about character development for Emma. This is exactly what she needs to grow further, and as we all know, growth is painful.
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Still, there are other bits to focus on in the chapter - like the "shadow story" of Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill and their weird proxy conversation.
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Now that we are over this hurdle, we can move forward to more fun bits!
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