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Mr Eston lives alone? My first impulse is to think of that as a little odd. I’m also of the impression that he’s kinda young.

OH I see. We’re doing a Mean Girls-style tour of the cafeteria, and we’re finding out who Mr Woodhouse sits with at lunch. So first we’re introduced to young Mr Eston, who lives alone, for some reason, apparently reluctantly. Then it’s a trio of ladies.

OH thank you. This is very helpful. I made the mistake of assuming the servants were also people. bsky.app/profile/cdrl...

Anyway, three ladies also hang out a lot with the Woodhouses. They’re carted back and forth so often that Mr Woodhouse completely takes for granted what an endeavor that is, but if it happened only once a year he would get it.

I’m getting the sense that Mr Woodhouse is very gently daffy.

Mrs Bates is an old vicar’s old widow who is very old, and she lives with her daughter, Miss Bates, who is not Old-old, but she is old enough that it’s an impediment to her prospects. Also Miss Bates is mid in every respect, except that she is incredibly convivial, which people seem to like.

I feel like the book is giving us a foil to Emma in Miss Bates. They’re both affable, but Emma is young, pretty, clever, and rich. Miss Bates is middle-aged, plain, not especially sharp, and has no money.

But Miss Bates is so overwhelmingly affable and good-natures that people love her in spite of her being aggressively mid, and I can’t decide if that’s a little mean on the part of the book.

Is Emma the character as judgmental as Emma the book? This is such a frank and unkind description of Miss Bates, apparently a gijinka of a subtly scented votive candle.

Now we have Mrs Goddard, who runs a school, but not a very good school. She is also very mid, but very kindly and caring to her students. Okay, so this really is the world as Emma sees it in the narrative.

MISS TAYLOR IS MRS WESTON, FINALLY!!! Good job, Woodhouses. I assume this means they’re briskly trotting through the stages of grief toward a dull, warm acceptance.

LMAO Mrs Goddard asks if she can bring a young Miss Smith to the card-table gathering at the Woodhouses, to which Emma graciously approves, and here we find out that Emma finds the gatherings very boring.

The very chipper air of responsibility and care for Mr Woodhouse’s happiness suddenly tripping into to a moment where Emma is like, “OH THANK GOD a young person!” has me rolling 😆

“Harriet Smith was the natural daughter of somebody.” Okay.

OH NO bsky.app/profile/virg...

Harriet Smith is described as, essentially, a Kewpie (shout out to my girl, Rose O’Neill!!!), which Emma seems to enjoy in a “Daddy can I pretty please have this dolly” sort of way.

Okay, so Emma knows the Martins are good and decent people, but she’s still like, “REGARDLESS, Harriet must have better influences than those people—better influences such as, I suppose, my-own-self.

Oh my god Mr Woodhouse and his vapors wishing the pretty table settings just didn’t have all that food on it 😭😭😭

Wait GRUEL???

What is gruel.

Oh my god Mr Woodhouse is directing everybody’s meals by the guidance of his own frail constitution, and it is deeply aggravating.

“Have an egg! A soft-boiled egg. A small egg. A completely harmless, small, soft-boiled egg. Also have a tart. BUT just a LITTLE tart. Just a little.” Sir, you are eating like a prison inmate.

Emma believes she has made a positive impression on Harriet, which is sweet. It also occurs to me that Emma stays through all of these social engagements to ensure that she can counterbalance her extremely finicky father so the guests don’t leave feeling negatively about him!!!