In 2023, we are reading through Emma. In every episode, we will be covering approximately five chapters of the book, and also looking at one character in detail, and some aspect of the historical context. Each episode will finish with a discussion about one of the adaptations (or modernisations or continuations or variations) of the book.
| Episode | Character | Historical | Popular culture |
| Episode 1: Chapters 1-5 | Mr Woodhouse | Boarding schools | Emma (1972, BBC) |
| Episode 2: Chapters 6-10 | The Martin family | Vicars and parish business | Emma (1996, Miramax) |
| Episode 3: Chapters 11-15 | Mr Elton | Apothecaries | Emma (1996, ITV) |
| Episode 4: Chapters 16-21 | Miss Bates | Army widows and orphans | Emma (2009, BBC) |
| Episode 5: Chapters 22-26 | Mr and Mrs Weston | Social structure and practices | Emma (2020, Working Title) |
| Episode 6: Chapters 27-31 | Harriet Smith | Illegitimacy | Clueless (1995, Paramount) |
| Episode 7: Chapters 32-36 **TO COME** | Mrs Elton | Governesses | Emma Approved (2013, Pemberley Digital) |
| Episode 8: Chapters 37-41 **TO COME** | Mr Knightley | Poverty and Poor Laws | The Emma Agenda (2017, Quip Modest Productions) |
| Episode 9: Chapters 42-45 **TO COME** | Emma Woodhouse | Education | Reflecting on screen adaptations |
| Episode 10: Chapters 46-50 **TO COME** | Frank Churchill | Watering places | Book modernisations |
| Episode 11: Chapters 51-55 **TO COME** | Jane Fairfax | Magistrates | Retellings from another point of view |
Map of Highbury
When preparing for this season of the podcast, we came across the below hypothetical map of Highbury, created by Professor Penny Gay of the University of Sydney, and reproduced with her permission.
The map was drawn in the 1980s and published in Penny Gay’s work Jane Austen’s Emma (Horizon Studies in Literature) Sydney University Press, 1995. More information about it is available in ‘A Hypothetical Map of Highbury‘, Persuasions Online, Volume 36, No. 1, Winter 2015.
Map of locations
Below is a Google map of the places mentioned in Emma, including approximate locations of the houses.
Colour coding:
- Blue is Knightleys and Woodhouses
- Red is Westons and Churchills
- Yellow is Campbells, Dixons and Jane Fairfax
- (Orange is used for Weymouth, where Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax met)
- Purple is Eltons
- Brown is Martins
- Green is other locations mentioned, visited or lived in