Miss Austen's Emma, a Prelude

Without Jane Fairfax, Miss Austen could not have written Emma. Had Jane not arrived, Frank Churchill would never have visited Highbury. Without him, the heroine could not have reached her final understanding with the hero. Yet Jane Fairfax remains a shadowy figure, an enigma. No one denied her either beauty or exceptional accomplishments. At the same time, she appeared so withdrawn, guarded in her behaviour and remote that it proved impossible for anyone to obtain an opinion from her on any topic. Emma lurched between pity for a penniless orphan and exasperation for a rival. How could such a paradoxical character have arisen? However did she scrape an acquaintance with Frank Churchill? That is what the present offering intends to reveal.