Details

Title

Emma

Author

Austen, Jane

Place of Publication

New York

Publisher

Dent

Copyright Date

1815 Show more1815-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
1815-01-01T00:00:00.000Z Show less

Date of Publication

1815 Show more1815-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
1815-01-01T00:00:00.000Z Show less
1906 Show more1906-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
1906-01-01T00:00:00.000Z Show less

Collection

Scans provided by and used with permission of Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library. From the L.M. Montgomery Collection.

Note

Like any good reader of her time, Montgomery had read Jane Austen. While Montgomery doesn’t talk much about the novels in her journals or fiction, she does reference it once. In a journal entry from November 24, 1924, Montgomery notes that she is sick of everything –she’s sick of the battles and discussions over church union, sick of Sunday School planning, and sick of being ill, as she had been through the fall. “There are some things I am not sick of however and one of them is Jane Austen’s novels. I’ve been reading Emma. When I think of it and Flaming Youth [a 1923 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams] the contrast is as between a mad-house and a decent home.” (‘L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1922–1925, p. 300). Finally, Montgomery’s copies of two of Jane Austen’s novels, both this “Emma” and her : “Pride and Prejudice” reveal more than meets the eye. On the surface, the two volumes appear like a perfect matched set with gilt, ruby covers. But closer inspection shows that Montgomery acquired (or at least inscribed) her copy of Pride and Prejudice in 1904, and her Emma in 1912. Clearly, she sought out these matching editions to complete her library.

Genre

novel