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"Well! This is brilliant indeed!"
Hugh Thomson
1905
Photomechanical reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing
14 by 8.5 cm (5 ⅜ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted
Jane Austen, Emma, facing page 289.
See below for passage illustrated and commentary.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Miss Bates and Miss Fairfax, escorted by the two gentlemen, walked into the room; and Mrs. Elton seemed to think it as much her duty as Mrs. Weston’s to receive them. Her gestures and movements might be understood by any one who looked on like Emma; but her words, every body’s words, were soon lost under the incessant flow of Miss Bates, who came in talking, and had not finished her speech under many minutes after her being admitted into the circle at the fire. As the door opened she was heard —
“So very obliging of you! — No rain at all. Nothing to signify. I do not care for myself. Quite thick shoes. And Jane declares — Well! (as soon as she was within the door) Well! This is brilliant indeed! This is admirable! Excellently contrived, upon my word. Nothing wanting. Could not have imagined it. So well lighted up! — Jane, Jane, look! — did you ever see any thing? Oh, Mr. Weston, you must really have had Aladdin’s lamp. Good Mrs. Stokes would not know her own room again. I saw her as I came in; she was standing in the entrance. ‘Oh! Mrs. Stokes,’ said I — but I had not time for more.” She was now met by Mrs. Weston. “Very well, I thank you, ma’am. I hope you are quite well. Very happy to hear it. So afraid you might have a headache! seeing you pass by so often, and knowing how much trouble you must have. Delighted to hear it indeed. — Ah! dear Mrs. Elton, so obliged to you for the carriage; excellent time; Jane and I quite ready. Did not keep the horses a moment. Most comfortable carriage. Oh! and I am sure our thanks are due to you, Mrs. Weston, on that score. Mrs. Elton had most kindly sent Jane a note, or we should have been. — But two such offers in one day! — Never were such neighbours. I said to my mother, ‘Upon my word, ma’am.’ [Chapter XXXVIII, 287]
Thomson excels at revealing characters by juxtaposition and contrast. Here, for example, the figure of loquacious Miss Bates, Jane Fairfax’s aunt, is readily identifiable from her gesture and facial expression. The precise moment realised is evident from the caption on p. 288, drawn from dialogue on p. 287, the image opposite the two-page monologue of the garrulous Miss Bates herself in Chapter XXXVIII. We gather from the context that the young, somewhat plainly dressed woman to the rear is Jane Fairfax, with Frank Churchill just in advance of her, head tilted as he looks slightly back at her. The other fashionably dressed male would appear to be Mr. Weston. The others mentioned here — Emma, Mrs. Elton and Mrs. Weston, to say nothing of Dr. and Mrs. Hughes, Mr. and Mrs. Otway, Mr. George and Mr. Arthur, are not shown. Thomson has preferred to focus on these four characters, bringing out the contrast between the rambling Miss Bates and her polite listener, and the subdued Jane Fairfax, and her secret admirer — who immediately afterwards returns to his "station" beside Emma.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Austin Dobson. With forty pen-and-ink illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The Novels of Jane Austen. London: Macmillan, 1896, rpt. 1905.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. R. Brimley Johnson. With coloured illustrations by C. E. Brock. The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906. 2 vols.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. George Justice. 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.
Austen, Jane. Emma: An Annotated Edition. Ed. Bharat Tandon. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard U. P., 2012.
Last modified 28 May 2026