I will plead ignorance here and tell you I’ve never read “Emma,” or seen any of the film, PBS or BBC adaptations of it. Austen just isn’t my thing, really, but I respect her place as a huge and enduring literary figure, and actually do regret the gap in my literary knowledge. Back inmy early 20s, when I was working a night job at Shakespeare and Co., on lower Boradway in NYC, my focus was really on Faulkner, Nabokov, Cormac McCarthy, Russel Hoban and a plethora of great Russians. Perhaps when my daughter gets a little older, and I have time to read a real book in large chunks, I’ll pick up Austen. Oh well.
The books are expected to bring about 50,000 pounds, or $100,000, depending on the exchange rate when the sale takes place June 24.