Mr. Knightley's Diary - Amanda Grange

★★★★★★★★★★ (9/10)

Continuing in the same vein as the last post, I return to Amanda Grange and her wonderful diaries of the men in Jane Austen's novels.  This time around we come to Mr. Knightley - the down-to-earth, upstanding gentleman-hero of Emma.  He's one of my favorite male characters, and not just from Austen novels, so I may be a bit biased when it comes to my feelings for this novel.  However, I do think that Grange did another fantastic job entering the mind of Mr. Knightley; she kept to the original novel, but gave the reader a look into Mr. Knightley's deeper feelings, hopes, and fears.

I've always felt that Mr. Knightley was one of the more difficult characters to understand in Emma.  On the surface, he is very settled in his ways, has a fulfilling life, and enjoys the company of the Woodhouses, but never seems to have any inclination to become more a part of the family than a true friend.  Since Emma was born, Mr. Knightley acted more like a brother and role model for her, and was the only person who would tell Emma when she was in the wrong.  In this respect, he was highly influential to Emma's personal character, and continued to be a check on her own behavior.  

Getting into Mr. Knightley's Diary, I feel that Grange really comprehended the difficulties and confusions that Mr. Knightley faced.  As Emma grew up, his feelings naturally changed, but not in a way anyone could have expected. His conversations with Mrs. Weston about Emma seemed to sway back and forth between warm admiration of Emma as a person and criticism of her actions.  Even in his private thoughts, thanks to Grange, Mr. Knightley is not quite sure what to make of his emotions.  His is one of the most heart-wrenching struggles to read about because he constantly tries to convince himself that he should explain his feelings, then persuades himself that he should never say a word.  Emma is no help to him, either.  She is witty and friendly, but her age and situation in life lead her to have no cares for the type of relationship that Mr. Knightley envisions. It also does not bode well that there is such a gap in their ages, or that their siblings (his brother and her sister) are already married to each other.  I still think it's strange for a person to marry someone their already related to by marriage (i.e. Emma marrying her sister's husband's brother). 

Regardless of my own feelings about the nature of the match, I am still intrigued by Mr. Knightley as a character.  In Emma, I believed him to be a strong person, greatly enmeshed in helping those around him, and dedicated to seeing to his own business personally instead of foisting it off on an underling. In Grange's diary for him, I see these qualities again, but there is something else about him that makes him more endearing.  I get a sense of gentleness, compassion, understanding, and great forbearance towards nearly everyone.  While these may or may not be implied in Austen's novel, I feel that all of these qualities are necessary in order to understand his feelings, misgivings, and foibles in his own mind.

I especially liked the conversations between Emma and him after they become engaged, and I felt so much pity for him because of Emma's flakiness.  In Austen's novel, there is a debate over what to do about Mr. Woodhouse, as he wouldn't be able to bear being alone at Hartfield if Emma married. Still, what Grange portrayed made Emma's character even worse than my original opinion of Emma made her out to be. She changes her mind multiple times each day about whether or not she should marry Mr. Knightley. She knows that she loves him, but she cannot bring herself to be decisive.  Mr. Knightley is constantly in mental agony from her wavering behavior; I'm in agony over her behavior! It feels like it takes weeks for Emma to accept and propose Mr. Knightley's solution that they all live at Hartfield until Mr. Woodhouse passes away.  The fact that it took so long for Emma to believe it would work is astounding, and I think that Grange captures Emma's selfishness and inconstancy with this episode.

As usual, another highly engaging novel by Grange that leaves me waiting to read another one of her "diaries." I give Mr. Knightley's Diary full marks for creativity because there was a good deal that Grange would have had to imagine (such as Knightley's conversations with his steward, among other things), and I appreciate Grange's devotion to not changing the original storyline. But, it is that time again, so -- on to the next novel!