Jane Austen

Poem keeps an eye out for the garlic planting crew: Kris, Darrah & Allie while the rams roam in the field beyond; and beyond them in the far wood, camouflaged archers stealthily wait for deer to wander within the 25 yard range of their bows to slay with sharp arrows. 

And me on his fine Fall day, while I washed yarn to dye this week in the dye studio which is about 100 paces from the garlic field, I listened to Jane Austen's Emma being read by Juliet Stevenson on an iPad, my dye studio computer.

Austen noted before she began writing that, "I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like."  Early in the story, matchmaker Emma persuades Harriet to reject the proposal of Robert Martin, a well-to-do farmer for whom Harriet clearly has feelings.  "Poor dear Harriet," you sigh as Emma cleverly convinces her easily led friend to refuse this suitor; and truly, you  begin to dislike Emma for her meddling.

How could Jane Austen have liked  her protagonist?  That question should keep me involved with the novel even more than finding out what-happens-next.