Daniel Shellenbarger’s Reviews > Emma > Status Update
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 30% done
"You are very fond of bending little minds" Oh, is that right EMMA, Mr. Knightley is the one bending little minds, is he? The level of self-delusion at work here is simple astonishing. Mr. Knightley is pretty much the ONLY character in the book she's not trying to manipulate (because he's too smart for it). I summon the Kryptonian Literature Crimes Council! Let her be judged guilty and thrown into a space triangle!
— Jul 19, 2025 11:25AM
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Daniel’s Previous Updates
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 90% done
Frank Churchill poisoned Mrs. Churchill, open and shut case: the timing fits, he had the motivation, I'm sure a sneaky clever young fellow like him could come up with the means, and given Mrs. Churchill's history of medical complaints, I'm sure there were plenty of medicines he could've tampered with... and he got away with it. No one even suspected. He murdered his aunt to be with the woman he loved.
— Jul 25, 2025 08:53AM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 85% done
Oh my gosh, sound the trumpets, we actually have a plot!
— Jul 25, 2025 07:53AM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 70% done
Two things I've figured out about this book that I find strange: First, Emma, the protagonist, is the least dramatically-involved character in it as most of the plot happens to other people. Second, the book is far more interested in its characters than it is in telling a story. The characters are very memorable and I've chuckled to myself imagining how I'd cast them, but the story is BLAH, almost nothing happens.
— Jul 24, 2025 08:39AM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 66% done
Also, I insist that Miss Bates have someone who follows behind her with a good-size padded stick and gives her a bit of a whack every few sentences to force her to take a breath and start a new paragraph.
— Jul 24, 2025 06:42AM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 66% done
Anyone else want to raze and burn Maple Grove to the ground and salt the earth underneath it in hopes that Mrs. Elton will never mention it again? Oh, better idea, invite the Royal Society of Effete British Snobs to Maple Grove and have them just absolutely excoriate the place, make it a public byword so anyone who so much as mentions it becomes a social pariah. THAT might work.
— Jul 24, 2025 06:33AM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 65% done
Ha, good progress, and I met a character (Mrs. Elton) I disliked more than the heroine, so that always helps. it's like Austen realized the best way to make Emma likeable was to introduce a character like Emma but without any of her positive points and who takes her foibles to more of an extreme. Still, the story could DEFINITELY do with a locked room murder mystery.
— Jul 22, 2025 05:57PM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 62% done
There IS a character in this book with whom I readily identify: John Knightley: dislikes socializing, just wants to be at home with his comforts, and hates being dragged along to parties.
— Jul 22, 2025 05:39PM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 58% done
Hmmm, Emma doesn't like Mrs. Elton because she's opinionated and snobbish and wants to run everybody's affairs... that sounds awfully familiar... Now I wonder WHO else in this book is like that? WHO!?!!? Do YOU know who it could be EMMA? I'll give you a hint: it's not the interdimensional shapeshifting cosmic horror pianoforte.
— Jul 22, 2025 04:44PM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 57% done
Mr. Woodhouse is... an interesting character. He is so one-note in his personality that he's basically a running gag, but he's also such a wet blanket that the gag isn't really that funny a lot of the time. He's like if Marvin the Robot from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was less self-aware, had no sarcastic wit, and thought he was the life of the party.
— Jul 22, 2025 03:54PM
Daniel Shellenbarger
is 51% done
Oh my gosh, I almost forgot, and the Spanish Inquisition! Unfortunately, with her predilection for manipulation and jumping to conclusions, Emma would probably get along swimmingly with them
— Jul 21, 2025 04:19PM
