Quotations Weblog

Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken is the story of the second heroine of Jane Austen’s Emma. I hate the story of Emma. The main character was someone who I detested and reading the book wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as Jane Austen’s other works. I wished that the story would have followed Jane Fairfax instead. She seemed so much more interesting.

Joan Aiken’s portrayal of Jane Fairfax was almost perfect. To make it perfect, the trip to the West Indies would have been more than a few sentences. Five years of Jane’s life was summarized by the sentence:

The lawsuit proved, as legal matter invariably do, far more difficult and slower to settle than had been apprehended; nearly five years passed before the family were able to return to London.

Such adventurous a girl as Jane would have had much to tell about the West Indies had the author deigned to write about them, but the most exciting time of Jane’s life was ignored by Ms. Aiken as much as the people of Highbury.

The book is well-written, but there were no quotable phrases in the book. Some authors are quotable and some are not. I happily read the book, but I didn’t underline any meaningful passages as I did.

Joan Aiken is the famous and prolific children’s book author of the Wolves of Willoughby Chase series, but Jane Fairfax is an adult level book. She has written several other Jane Austen story continuations. In almost every one, she has taken the story of a relatively minor character and told us more:

• Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed – Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons, is finished by Joan Aiken

• Mansfield Revisited – What happened to the other characters in Mansfield Park?

• The Youngest Miss Ward – Yet another visitation to the characters of Mansfield Park.

• Eliza’s Daughter – A sequel to Sense and Sensibility

• Lady Catherine’s Necklace – Pride and Prejudice sequel following Anne de Bourgh and the freedom that she feels when Lady Catherine is kidnapped.