Allegra: Where's the heat between Emma and Mr. Knightley? There's no animal passion. Look at Frank Churchill and Miss Fairfax. You can tell they're really in love because they behave so badly.
Sylvia: And that's good?
Allegra: Emma and Mr. Knightley, you just never feel the sex.
Bernadette: Still, I think Mr. Knightley's very yummy. Don't you? He may be my favorite of all the Austen men.
Prudie: Sans passion I'amour n'est rien. That's not Jane's theme, is it?
Jocelyn: Jane?
Bernadette: That's cozy.
Prudie: What we're meant to see is not the lack of passion so much as the control of it, and the not giving in.
Bernadette: Apres moi, le deluge. But Prudie's right, it is in all the novels. Sense and Sensibility, obviously. Oh, and then there's Maria's infidelity in Mansfield Park.
Sylvia: I forgot there's infidelity in Mansfield Park.
Jocelyn: Austen's all about keeping it zipped.
Grigg: Yeah, but isn't physical attraction one of the ungovernable forces? You know, like gravity. That's what we like about it. You know, downhill, release the brakes, loosen your grip, and...
Allegra: Yeah. Love makes people crazy.
Sylvia: It does not excuse bad behavior.
Bernadette: I agree. And Mr. Knightley is violently in love. "Violently!" His word. And yet, he's never anything but a gentleman.
Allegra: Yeah, a gentleman who scolds people.
Grigg: Not everyone. You know, just Emma, just the woman that he loves.
Prudie: C'est vrai. C'est typique. A man can do whatever he likes to the woman he loves.
Jocelyn: I don't think that's what Austen's saying. Actually, Emma stops being crazy when she falls for Mr. Knightley. It's the event of the book. Love is an act of sanity.
Grigg: One thing that I noticed about Emma is the sense of menace. The Gypsies, Jane Fairfax's boating accident, Mr. Woodhouse's worries.
Prudie: Austen's entire thesis is that none of these things are real, Grigg. I mean, Emma, she acts on the basis of her fantasies.
Allegra: Yes, Grigg, I'm afraid you've just entirely missed the point.
Jocelyn: You know, I've read that the Emma plot, the humbling of the pretty, know-it-all girl is the most popular plot of all time.
Bernadette: Yes, universally satisfying.
Allegra: Okay. Well, what bothered me was how Emma kept forcing her friend Harriet on Mr. Elton. And then she finds out who Harriet's father is, and suddenly, "Ew!" She's lucky to get the farmer.
Prudie: I think Jane was being ironic there. I think some readers might miss that.
Allegra: Emma's a snob.
Jocelyn: Please. People are instinctively drawn to partners who are their near equal in looks. The pretty marry the pretty, the ugly the ugly. To the detriment of the breed, in my opinion.
Bernadette: God, you're such an Emma. Isn't she? You'd love to pair up the whole world, from dogs to people.
Sylvia: Put me together with Daniel.
Jocelyn: And you had beautiful children.
妙语佳句，活学活用
1. animal passion
“兽欲”，也即“性欲”。
2. I think Mr. Knightley's very yummy.
Yummy 这里可以解释为“很有趣的”。
3. Sans passion I'amour n'est rien.
法语，翻译成英语是“Passion without love is nothing.”，汉语是“没有爱的激情什么也不是”。
4. What we're meant to see is not the lack of passion so much as the control of it, and the not giving in.
奥斯汀想展示给我们的不是缺乏激情，而是控制这种激情，不屈服于激情。
这里的so much as意思是“rather than, rather that, but actually”，例如：It wasn’t that John was lazy and fat so much as the sky was blue and he wanted to play. 约翰不是又胖又懒，而是天很蓝（天气很好），他想出去玩。
5. Apres moi, le deluge.
法语，英文是“After me, the deluge.”，中文直译是“在我之后，洪水滚滚而来。”据说是法王路易十五（1710 – 1774）所说，一般将它作为1789年法国大革命的语言。
6. Austen's all about keeping it zipped.
这句话是说“奥斯汀把这些都隐藏起来”。
7. It does not excuse bad behavior.
“这不能成为做坏事的借口。”
8. C'est vrai. C'est typique.
法语，英文是“That's true. This is typical.”中文：这是事实。这是典型的。Prudie 总是忘不了要显示一下自己的与众不同，有点神经质，这和她的成长经历有关。
