I see your Austen, and raise you a Brontë.

Jane Eyre blows Emma out of the water.

By the by, does no one feel disturbed that the men are almost twice the age of the, and I say this deliberately, girls? Or that Mr Knightly, at 30 (by my calculations), fell in love with Emma when she was 13? True it may be that it may have been a paternal agape love that only realized as eros upon the imminent arrival of Frank Churchill when Emma was aged 21, but to my modern mind the notion is distasteful.

Mr Rochester is a man of about 38 and Jane is 18 when they meet.

In Chapter XIV Jane and Mr Rochester have a fireside chat. He says:

Then, in the first place, do you agree with me that I have a right to be a little masterful, abrupt, perhaps exacting, sometimes, on the grounds I stated, namely, that I am old enough to be your father, and that I have battled through a varied experience with many men of many nations, and roamed over half the globe, while you have lived quietly with one set of people in one house? (Emphasis added.)

Casting my mind upon the men of my acquaintance of the ages of nearly forty, I conclude that no such feelings as Jane and Emma have fostered towards their respective beaus may be harbored. Actually, the thought fills me with revulsion. And I am 24!

Cradle-snatching concerns aside, I feel I have not been so gripped before. The circumstances of the era paint the novel in an even more radical light, a comment that I only mean to be complimentary.

Read it!
(That is not to say that Emma is not an excellent read. Read that too.)

—
Project Gutenberg download link for Jane Eyre here.
Project Gutenberg download link for Emma here.

An entertaining article on the 2006 Jane Eyre movie adaptation, the six-pack adorned men of 300, nuclear war in Iran and Jane Eyre in general here.

Follow my (patchily recorded) literary journey at my Booktagger account here.