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Handsome, clever, and rich.
Thats how Austen introduces her.
Catherine Morland ofNorthanger Abbey: one of ten kids, poor.
Elizabeth Bennet ofPride and Prejudice: daughter to a spendy, unemployed dad with four other sisters in need.
(Live in a cottage?
They meet-cute their way into money.
Which makes her Austens most pleasurable heroine to watch.
Youre free to tent your fingers and judge the hell out of her because shes fair game.
This is Wealth on Display, and its hilarious.
Which is why the fun de Wilde has with Emma herself is the most potent.
We can loathe her and envy her in equal measure, a perfect heroine for the age of self-obsession.
The storys peak isnt, like with most Austen tales, at its proposal of marriage.
Maam, but there may be a difficulty.
Pardon me but you will be limited as to number only three at once.
In other words, the richest woman in town insults one of the poorest.
But finally, Emma doesnt get away with her belittling behavior.
Mr. Knightley, the one person whose approval she thrives on, scolds her and brings her to tears.
They are worthy of the good fortune that comes their way via estate-owning husbands.
Its because she knows that comfort comes from money.
But inEmma.its a delight to cackle at the lengths rich people go to to keep their worlds secure.
