6 Reasons to Get Lost in St. Crispian’s This Autumn

Photo by Ninety Seven Years

If you’ve spent much time in certain (growing) corners of Instagram lately, chances are good that you’ve heard of the book series, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. Following the life and (mis)adventures of a spunky, orphaned young woman in 1880s London, this series has been called a combination of L. M. Montgomery, Jane Austen, and P. G. Wodehouse.

Having read all of those authors, I can concur that this series holds delightful elements of all three of those, but also a certain inimitable something that has caused Emma M. Lion to take the literary fiction world somewhat by storm in the last several years, inspiring devotees in all corners. 

As a bibliophile wife and mother, I’m on my fourth read of the entire (currently eight book) series, but they’re also loved by my sound engineer (with an eyebrow piercing) sixteen-year-old son, my gravel-biking husband, and my two starry-eyed early teen daughters.

Whatever it is, Emma M. Lion, in her quirky London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s, has quickly drawn a following the world over. (The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion are currently slated to be translated into nineteen different languages and counting!)

While I’m not usually one to encourage others to pursue something just because everyone else is, as a reader who discovered Emma before she was trending, I’m here to tell you why spending your autumn in St. Crispian’s will be one of the most delightful reading decisions you can make this year. 

Reason #1: Literary references abound!

One of the first things we discover about Emma in the pages of Volume 1, is that she used to have an incredible library she inherited from her father after he died, but is very sadly now bereft of it. Throughout all the volumes, Emma is on an ongoing quest to rebuild that library, and each volume closes with a list detailing “The Personal Library of Emma M. Lion As It Currently Stands”.

This love of books and accumulating them is obviously a regular theme, but references to and quotes from Shakespeare, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charlotte Brontë, Walt Whitman, Robert Louis Stevenson and others pepper the pages, and their ideas are thoroughly discussed. The local Anglican vicar, Hawkes (one of my very favorite characters!), regularly quotes poetry and always has a book under his arm. In short, these books are a bibliophile’s dream.

Reason #2: The humor is unmatched

As I mentioned, I’m currently on my fourth read through the series, and when I regularly chortle with delight while reading, my husband teases me that even after so many re-reads, I still find the Emma books so funny. What can I say? I find sarcasm hilarious, and in a format where we’re meant to be reading someone’s personal journal and their thoughts and impressions on their life and those around, Emma doesn’t hold back her opinions.

Her obsessed-with-high-society Aunt Eugenia is another source of humor in her extreme level of petty selfishness and shallow narcissism. And then, as the books progress, Emma’s banter with a certain young duke is a continuing delight to read.

Reason #3: Real issues aren’t shied away from

Despite the humor and all the ridiculous scrapes that Emma finds herself in (The Drunken Duck!), The Unselected Journals aren’t just fluff and sunshine. Being an orphan and left at the mercy of unsympathetic relatives, Emma is obviously well-acquainted with grief, but early on in the series we also find out that her first love was tragically killed in war.

Throughout the series, issues of alcoholism, war and everything that comes along with that, child abuse, drowning your sorrows in a life of crime, scandal, and others come to the surface in the lives of those close to Emma. Each of these issues are dealt with frankly and forthrightly, without resorting to toxic positivity and bypassing.

Essentially, Emma’s Journals are supposed to be her real life, and real life is always a bittersweet combination of the brutal and beautiful, the hard and the good.

Reason #4: Emma is all of us

As I mentioned earlier, the Emma books delight a wide variety of all ages, genders, and lives, and I think that’s because most, if not all, of us can relate to Emma in some way. In the same way that the indomitable Ramona Quimby (creation of author Beverly Cleary) said what many of us thought and experienced as young children, Emma’s journaling observations of her life and experiences often highlight what we all think, but none of us say. And discovering that quality in literature can be heady and addicting, making us feel seen, even if it’s just by an imaginary young woman from Victorian England.

Reason #5: St. Crispian’s is delightful

No good protagonist is anything without their friends and foes, and Emma is the same. Outside of an utterly delightful and enlightening foray to Stonecrop in the second half of Volume 8, the vast majority of Emma’s time is spent in her (fictional) neighborhood of St. Crispian’s located in the (real-life) district of Primrose Hill in London.

While Beth Brower’s world-building here doesn’t necessarily rival Tolkien (because who could?!), it’s thorough enough that maps have been made and color-coded to help us hard-core aficionados. Lapis Lazuli House, The Cleopatra, Thrush’s Victory, Jacob’s Well, The Reed and Rite, et. al. are enchanting, and their colorful backdrop to the story adds so much.

Reason #6: The question we all want to know: Who will Emma end up with?!

And finally: the love interest angle. While I certainly wouldn’t classify the Emma books as romance novels, because they’re about life, they do include romance, some more than others.

Without giving away too much, several books into the series, we see the formation of the Alchemy, a foursome made up of Emma and three men. Many Emma fans speculate that she’ll eventually marry one of these three men, and I have yet to come across someone who finishes the current series and isn’t squarely on a certain “team” regarding who they think would be the best match for Emma. A specific event early on in Volume 8 emphasizes the fact that there are “Two paths leading to a love. Both true.” which further adds to the intrigue.

Beth Brower has said that her plan is to write 24-25 volumes (each one covers two months of Emma’s life, adding up to four years), so it could be a good while until we have the final answer. Yet another reason to keep reading!

In short…

Well, I could go on, but I think that’s a good start. I hope that these reasons have piqued your interest, and you’re inspired to pick up Volume 1 (or start listening to it…the audiobooks are narrated by actor Genevieve Gaunt of Harry Potter fame and they’re very well done!). One note of warning: the series can seem like it starts out slowly, but each book is truly better than the last. So if you’re unsure after reading the first one, give it until the end of Volume 3 or so, and I’m guessing by then you’ll be thoroughly enthralled. Enjoy!