title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 29 October 2009, chairman Paul Duffen resigned his position with the club, and was replaced by former chairman Adam Pearson on 2 November 2009. On 15 March 2010, manager Phil Brown was put on gardening leave after a run of four defeats left Hull in the relegation zone. Brown's replacement was former Crystal Palace and Charlton boss Iain Dowie, and the appointment was met with some disbelief by supporters who were hoping for a "bigger name" replacement. Hull City's relegation from the Premier League was confirmed on 3 May 2010, after a 2–2 draw at Wigan Athletic. Both Brown and Dowie had their contracts terminated, and Leicester City's Nigel Pearson was confirmed as the new manager.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: A reported block on player transfers into the club, set in place by the Hull City board on 28 July 2010 until transfers out would substantially reduce the £39 million-per-year wage bill, at first cast doubt on the new manager's efforts to build a squad capable of a quick return to the Premier League; nevertheless, Pearson brought several transfers and loan signings into the club in his bid to strengthen the squad for the season's campaign. The team set a new club record on 12 March 2011 with 14 away matches unbeaten, breaking a previous record held for over 50 years. This 17-match streak was finally broken by Bristol City on the last day of the 2010–11 season, Hull losing the match 3–0.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 15 November 2011, Nigel Pearson left the club to return to Leicester. Nick Barmby was appointed as his successor, but was sacked in May 2012 after publicly criticising the club's owners in an interview given to a local newspaper. In the same month, the club's consultancy agreement with Adam Pearson was terminated. On 8 June 2012, Steve Bruce was appointed manager of the club on a three-year deal, and he guided Hull back to the Premier League by drawing with League champions Cardiff City on the final day of the season.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 13 April 2014, the club reached its first FA Cup Final after defeating Sheffield United 5–3 in the semi-final at Wembley Stadium. Their place in the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, regardless of whether they won the 2013–14 FA Cup, was confirmed on 3 May as Everton's failure to win meant that Hull's FA Cup Final opponents Arsenal would compete in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League, leaving Hull City to enter in the Europa League third qualifying round, in their first ever European campaign. The FA Cup final on 17 May saw Hull go 2–0 up within the first ten minutes, before losing 3–2 after extra time.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 31 July 2014, Hull made their debut in European competition, in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round, with a 0–0 draw against Slovakian side FK AS Trenčín before winning the second leg 2–1 a week later. An error from keeper Allan McGregor gave them a 1–0 loss away to Belgian outfit Lokeren in the first leg of their play-off tie on 21 August 2014 with the second leg at home ending in a 2–1 victory, but away goals marked the end of Hull's first foray into European football.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In March 2015, Steve Bruce signed a further three-year deal with the club. Hull were relegated from the Premier League after the 2014–15 season, finishing eighteenth with 35 points after a 0–0 draw against Manchester United, along with Newcastle United securing their Premier League Status after beating West Ham United 2–0. In October 2015 Hull beat Leicester City in a penalty-shootout to take them through to their first ever quarter-final appearance in the Football League Cup. The club reached the Championship play-offs and on 28 May 2016 beat Sheffield Wednesday 1–0 to return to the Premier League.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 22 July 2016, Bruce resigned from his position as manager due to an alleged rift with the club's owners and Mike Phelan was appointed caretaker manager. In October 2016, Phelan became Hull's permanent head coach but he was sacked just 3 months later on 3 January 2017 after a poor run of results. Marco Silva was appointed as his replacement two days later but he could not prevent relegation at the end of the season.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Following relegation Silva resigned, and on 9 June 2017, the club announced the appointment of Leonid Slutsky as the new head coach. However, after a poor run of results Slutsky left by mutual consent in December 2017. He was replaced by former Southampton boss Nigel Adkins who led the team to avoid relegation and finish 18th at the end of the season. The following season, despite being in the relegation zone after 19 games, an upturn in form saw the Tigers finish in 13th place. However, Adkins resigned at the end of the season after rejecting a new contract.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 21 June 2019, Grant McCann was appointed as head coach on a one-year rolling contract. In a season delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Hull started well but lost 16 of their last 20 games, a run that included an 8–0 hammering at Wigan. On 22 July 2020, Hull were relegated to League One. On 24 April 2021, Hull were promoted back to the Championship at the first time of asking after a 2–1 victory away at Lincoln City. The following week, a 3–1 win at home to Wigan Athletic saw the Tigers crowned EFL League One Champions.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 19 January 2022, following months of negotiations and speculation, Turkish media mogul Acun Ilıcalı and his company Acun Medya, completed a takeover of the club, ending the club's controversial 11 year ownership under the Allam family. The club sat 19th in The Championship at the time that the takeover was announced.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 27 January 2022, Shota Arveladze was announced as the new head coach. Hull achieved Championship survival in the 2021–22 season with a 19th-place finish. On 30 September 2022, Arveladze was sacked after a run of four league defeats and Andy Dawson was appointed as interim head coach. On 3 November 2022, the club announced Liam Rosenior as the new head coach on a two-and-a-half-year deal.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: For most of the club's history, Hull have worn black and amber shirts with black shorts. These black and amber colours are where Hull's nickname, "The Tigers", originated from. However, in the club's first match against Notts County in 1904, white shirts were worn, with black shorts and black socks. During their first season in the League, Hull wore black and amber striped shirts and black shorts, which they continued to wear until the Second World War with the exception of the 1935–36 season, in which they wore sky blue shirts. Following the end of the Second World War, Hull spent another season wearing sky blue, but changed to plain amber shirts, which they wore until the early 1960s, when they swapped back to stripes.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: During the mid-1970s, and early 1980s, the strip was constantly changing between the two versions of plain shirts and stripes. During the late 1980s, red was added to the kits but its duration went no further than this.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: The early 1990s featured two "tiger skin" designs, which have since featured in several articles listing the "worst ever" football kits. The 1998–99 season introduced a kit with cross-fading amber and white stripes, another experiment that proved unpopular. After the start of the 21st century, the club wore plain amber shirts until 2004, when the club celebrated its centenary by wearing a kit similar to the design of the one worn 100 years ago.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In 1935, Hull City's first shirt badge mirrored the familiar three crowns civic emblem of Kingston-upon-Hull, which was displayed on the sky blue shirts worn in the 1935–36 season. Following that season, the team went without wearing a badge until 1947, when the club crest depicted a tiger's head in an orange-shaded badge. This was worn up until 1957, when it was changed to just the tiger's head. This was worn for three years, when the shirt again featured no emblem. Then, in 1971, the club returned to showing the tiger's head on the shirt, which was used for four years. In 1975, the tiger's head was granted as a heraldic badge by the College of Arms to the English Football League for use by Hull City (blazoned as ""A Bengal tiger's head erased proper""). Subsequently, the club's initials of HCAFC were shown for four years on the shirt. After this, a logo with the tiger's head with the club's name underneath was used from 1979 until 1998. The next logo, which remains the club's current logo, features the tiger's head in an amber shield with the club's name, along with the club's nickname, "The Tigers".


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Hull changed their crest in June 2014, becoming one of few English league teams without the club name on their crest.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: From the close of the 2017–18 season a supporter-led process of redesigning the club crest took place with a new crest, to be used from the start of the 2019–20 season, being revealed in February 2019. This would be similar to the previous design but with the club name at the top and a different shape.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In August 2013, owner Assem Allam announced that the club had re-registered as "Hull City Tigers Ltd," and that the team would be marketed as "Hull City Tigers," removing the "Association Football Club" that had been part of the name since the club's formation in 1904. Vice-chairman Ehab Allam said "AFC" would remain on the club badge for the 2013–14 season, but removed the "AFC" after.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In response, a Premier League spokesman said, "We have not been informed of a change in the name of the actual club. They will still be known as Hull City as far as the Premier League is concerned when results or fixtures are published."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: According to its chairman, by 2014, the club would be further renamed "Hull Tigers," because, as he claimed, "in marketing, the shorter the name the more powerful [it is]," while "Association Football Club" made the name too long. Allam stated he dislikes the word "City", as it is too "common" and a "lousy identity", since it is associated also with other clubs, such as Leicester City, Bristol City and Manchester City. He told David Conn of "The Guardian" that "in a few years many clubs will follow and change their names to something more interesting and I will have proved I am a leader," adding that if he were the owner of Manchester City, he would change their name to "Manchester Hunter."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Allam justified the intended name change as part of his plans to create "additional sources of revenue" for the club, after Hull City Council refused to sell him the stadium freehold so he could develop, as he had stated, "a sports park" on the site. The council has refused to sell in order, as they stated, "to preserve the annual Hull Fair held on the adjacent car park." After the collapse of the negotiations, Allam stated: "I had in mind £30 million to spend on the infrastructure of the club, to increase the stadium by 10,000 and to have commercial activities around the stadium — cafeterias, shops, supermarkets — to have all this to create income for the club so that in the future it can be self-financing and not relying on me." He asked rhetorically, "What if I dropped dead tomorrow?"


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Supporters' groups expressed opposition to the name change. Bernard Noble, chairman of Hull City's official supporters club said he was disappointed, although he agreed that Allam had saved the club from liquidation and that it was "his club". Blogger Rick Skelton called the name change "a pointless exercise" and said, "Mr Allam's assertion that the name 'Hull City' is irrelevant and too common, is as disgusting a use of the English language as his new name for the club." Before the first home match of the season on 24 August 2013, a group of supporters marched in protest against the name change, and unfurled a banner that read, "Hull City AFC: a club not a brand". Allam dismissed complaints by the fans, stating "nobody questions my decisions in my business."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In a comment published on 1 December 2013 in "The Independent" in response to supporters' chants and banners of "City Till We Die", Allam said, "They can die as soon as they want, as long as they leave the club for the majority who just want to watch good football." The supporters responded with chants of "We're Hull City, we'll die when we want" during that day's home match against Liverpool. Manager Steve Bruce credited the controversy for creating " a fantastic atmosphere" but added, "I have got to have a conversation with him because I don't think he quite understands what it means in terms of history and tradition." However, Bruce also said that, because of the money Allam had invested in the club, "If he thinks Hull Tigers is his way forward then we have to respect it."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 11 December 2013, a spokesman for Hull City announced that the club had formally applied to the Football Association to have its name changed to "Hull Tigers" from the 2014–15 season onwards. The FA Council, which has "absolute discretion" in deciding whether to approve the plan or not, stated the next day that it would follow a "consultation process" with stakeholders, "including the club's supporter groups."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Some brand and marketing experts have come out in support of the name change. Nigel Currie, director of sports marketing agency Brand Rapport, stated that "the whole process has been conducted badly with the supporters, but [the name change] is a pretty sound idea." Simon Chadwick, professor of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing at the Coventry University Business School, opined that the objective of opening up lucrative new markets for shirt sales, merchandise and broadcast deals shows commercial vision and could bring benefits, but "this needs to be backed up by a proper marketing strategy and investment." He said, "it's no use thinking changing the name or the colour of the shirt will pay instant dividends." David Stern, commissioner of the National Basketball Association in the United States, warned: "I would say a wise owner [of a sports club] would view his ownership as something of a public trust, in addition to the profit motive, and you really do want to allow the fans a little bit more input than I think is being allowed, with respect to Hull."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 17 March 2014, the FA membership committee advised that the name change application be rejected at the FA Council meeting on 9 April. In response, the club published a statement saying the FA was "prejudiced" and criticised the committee's consultation with the City Till We Die opposition group. The following week, the club opened a ballot of season ticket holders over the name change. Opponents of the name change criticised as "loaded" the questions, which asked respondents to choose between "Yes to Hull Tigers with the Allam family continuing to lead the club", "No to Hull Tigers" and "I am not too concerned and will continue to support the club either way", on the grounds that voters were not given the option to reject the name while keeping the Allam family as owners. Of 15,033 season ticket holders, 5,874 voted in all, with 2,565 voting in favour of the change and 2,517 against, while 792 chose the "not too concerned" option.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On 9 April 2014, the FA Council announced its decision, carried by a 63.5% vote of its members, to reject the club's application for a name change. The club responded by stating it will appeal the decision. However, since there is no appeal process with the FA and its Council, the decision is final. On 11 September 2014, Allam confirmed an appeal has been submitted to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He also held a news conference confirming the club had been put up for sale due to the English FA's decision on 9 April 2014.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In October 2014, interviewed by the BBC, Allam confirmed that he would "not invest a penny more in the club" unless he is allowed to change the club's name to Hull Tigers. In the same interview, Allam said, "I have never been a football fan. I am still not a football fan. I am a community fan."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In March 2015, an independent panel appointed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the decision of the Football Association Council to block the name change "cannot stand" on account of the process having been "flawed."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In July 2015, the Football Supporters Federation confirmed that a 70/30 decision was made in favour of Hull City A.F.C. not changing their name after an FA vote.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Between 1904 and 1905, Hull City played their home games at the Boulevard. This ground was used by Hull on a contract which allowed them to use it when not used for Rugby League, at a cost of £100 per annum. Hull built their own ground, Anlaby Road, which was opened in 1906. With the threat of the rerouting of the railway line through the Anlaby Road ground, the club was convinced it needed to secure its future by owning its own ground. They negotiated the deal for land between Boothferry Road and North Road in 1929, which was financed by a £3,000 loan from the FA. Due to the club's financial difficulties, no work took place for three years, and development then stopped until 1939. In that year a proposal to build a new multi-purpose sports stadium on the site temporarily halted the club's plans to relocate, but when this plan failed the club resolved to continue with the stalled development of the site, in anticipation of moving to the new stadium in 1940. The outbreak of war, however, meant that the redevelopment again came to a halt, as the site was taken over by the Home Guard.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: During the Second World War, Anlaby Road was damaged by enemy bombing, the repair cost of which was in the region of £1,000. The Cricket Club served notice to quit at the same time, and so in 1943 the tenancy was officially ended. Hull were forced to return to the Boulevard Ground from 1944 until 1945 because of the poor condition of the planned stadium at Boothferry Road. The new stadium was finally opened under the revised name of Boothferry Park on 31 August 1946.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Hull City, along with one of the city's rugby league sides, Hull F.C., moved into the newly built KC Stadium in 2002. The KC Stadium was named "Best Ground" at the 2006 Football League Awards.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: According to a 2003 poll, Hull City fans consider their main rival to be Yorkshire neighbours Leeds United.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: The club also has a traditional rivalry with Sheffield United. In 1984, Sheffield United won promotion at Hull City's expense with the teams level on points and goal difference and separated only by goals scored, with 33 of United's goals scored by former Hull City striker Keith Edwards. City's final game of the season against Burnley had been rescheduled due to bad weather and took place after their promotion rivals had finished their campaign; Hull went into the game knowing that a three-goal victory would mean promotion, but in front of a crowd which included a number of United fans could manage only a 2–0 win, ensuring that United went up instead.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Distant rivals include teams from across the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, Scunthorpe United and Grimsby Town. With Scunthorpe's promotion from League One, the 2007–08 Championship season saw the return of a "Humber Derby". Additionally, Lincoln City and non-league York City are said to consider Hull amongst their rivals.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: In the club's annual report for the 12-month period up to 31 July 2009, auditors Deloitte stated that £4.4 million had gone out of the club and stadium company to owner Russell Bartlett's holding companies in loans, while at least £2.9 million of it was used in the take-over itself of the club. A further £560,000 was paid, according to the audit, by the stadium company to Bartlett's holding companies in "management fees," while at least £1 million was owed to him personally as a "salary". After the warning from Deloitte, Bartlett gave the club a £4 million loan, "which brought the money he had taken out and put in since taking over to about even."


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: The corporate entity that owns the football club, "The Hull City Association Football Club (Tigers) Ltd," is currently owned by Allamhouse Limited, a privateF, limited-liability company with a share capital of £10 million (), registered in Jersey. The beneficial owners of Allamhouse Limited, established in 2009, are the Allam family.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: On an "Opacity Score" of 100, where zero indicates complete openness and 100 complete secrecy, the company which owns the club has been rated by Christian Aid at 87.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Hull City's corporate accounts, , show a £25.6 million loss, on revenues of £11 million, after player and management costs of "just under £23 million." The club has "future tax losses" available of more than £45 million. Another Assam Allam company, Allam Marine, also wholly owned by Allamhouse Limited, revealed in its 2012 accounts that "utilisation of tax losses from group companies" reduced its tax liability by £3.8 million over 2011 and 2012.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: As reported, HM Revenue and Customs are in the process of an inquiry at Hull City AFC, as part of the British tax authorities' targeting of football clubs over "tax-free payments to players under image rights' deals and the provision of benefits in kind. For Hull City AFC, the provision for benefits in kind was reported at £682,000 as of July 2011, growing to £810,000 by July 2012.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Andy Davidson holds the record for Hull City league appearances, having played 579 matches. Garreth Roberts comes second, having played 487 matches. Chris Chilton is the club's top goalscorer with 222 goals in all competitions; Chilton also holds the club record for goals scored in the League (193), FA Cup (16) and League Cup (10).


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: The club's widest victory margin in the league was their 11–1 win against Carlisle United in the Third Division North on 14 January 1939. Their biggest win in the top flight was achieved on 28 December 2013, with a 6–0 victory over Fulham.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Their heaviest defeat in the league was 8–0 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1911, a record which was equalled against Wigan Athletic on 14 July 2020 in the EFL Championship. Their heaviest top flight defeat was a 7–1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on 21 May 2017.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Hull City's record home attendance is 55,019, for a match against Manchester United on 26 February 1949 at Boothferry Park, with their highest attendance at their current stadium, the KC Stadium, 25,030 set on 9 May 2010 against Liverpool for the last match of the season.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: The highest transfer fee received for a Hull City player is up to £22 million from West Ham for Jarrod Bowen. The highest transfer fee paid for a player is £13 million for Ryan Mason from Tottenham Hotspur.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Hull City Reserves play in the Reserve League East Division.<ref name="Hull City AFC Reserves 2010/11"></ref> The team plays home fixtures at the Church Road Ground, home of North Ferriby United. Hull City Juniors play in the Football League Youth Alliance, playing their home fixtures at Winterton Rangers' home stadium.


title: Hull City A.F.C.

text: Hull City Women play in the Northern Combination Women's Football League. In the 2006–07 season, the team finished seventh in the table with 33 points.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Emma is a novel about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings, written by Jane Austen. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. The novel was first published in December 1815, with its title page listing a publication date of 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England. "Emma" is a comedy of manners.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the first sentence, she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition... had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.


title: Emma (novel)

text: "Emma", written after Austen's move to Chawton, was her last novel to be published during her lifetime, while "Persuasion", the last complete novel Austen wrote, was published posthumously.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Emma Woodhouse's friend and former governess, Miss Taylor, has just married Mr. Weston. Having introduced them, Emma takes credit for their marriage and decides that she likes matchmaking. After returning home to Hartfield with her father, Emma forges ahead with her new interest against the advice of her friend Mr. Knightley, who is also brother-in-law to Emma's elder sister Isabella. She attempts to match her new friend Harriet Smith to Mr. Elton, the local vicar. Emma persuades Harriet to refuse a marriage proposal from Robert Martin, a respectable, educated, and well-spoken young farmer, though Harriet likes him. Mr. Elton, a social climber, mistakenly believes Emma is in love with him and proposes to her. When Emma reveals she believed him attached to Harriet, he is outraged, considering Harriet socially inferior. After Emma rejects him, Mr. Elton goes to Bath and returns with a pretentious, "nouveau-riche" wife, as Mr. Knightley expected he would do. Harriet is heartbroken, and Emma feels ashamed about misleading her.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston's son, arrives for a two-week visit and makes many friends. Frank was adopted by his wealthy and domineering aunt and has had few opportunities to visit before. Mr. Knightley tells Emma that, while Frank is intelligent and engaging, he has a shallow character. Jane Fairfax also arrives to visit her aunt, Miss Bates, and grandmother, Mrs. Bates, for a few months before starting a governess position due to her family's financial situation. She is the same age as Emma and has received an excellent education by her father's friend, Colonel Campbell. Emma has remained somewhat aloof with her because she envies Jane's talent and is annoyed by everyone, including Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley, praising her. The patronising Mrs. Elton takes Jane under her wing and announces that she will find her the ideal governess post before it is wanted. Emma feels some sympathy for Jane's predicament.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Emma decides that Jane and Mr. Dixon, Colonel Campbell's new son-in-law, are mutually attracted, and is the reason she arrived earlier than expected. She confides this to Frank, who met Jane and the Campbells at a holiday resort a year earlier; he apparently agrees with Emma. Suspicions are further fuelled when a pianoforte, sent by an anonymous benefactor, arrives for Jane. Emma feels herself falling in love with Frank, but it does not last to his second visit. The Eltons treat Harriet poorly, culminating with Mr. Elton publicly snubbing Harriet at the ball given by the Westons in May. Mr. Knightley, who had long refrained from dancing, gallantly asks Harriet to dance. The day after the ball, Frank brings Harriet to Hartfield, as she fainted after a rough encounter with local gypsies. Emma mistakes Harriet's gratitude to Frank as her being in love with him. Meanwhile, Mrs. Weston wonders if Mr. Knightley is attracted to Jane, but Emma dismisses the idea. When Mr. Knightley says he notices a connection between Jane and Frank, Emma disagrees, as Frank appears to be courting her instead. Frank arrives late to a gathering at Donwell in June, while Jane departs early. The next day at Box Hill, a local scenic spot, Frank and Emma are bantering when Emma, in jest, thoughtlessly insults Miss Bates.


title: Emma (novel)

text: When Mr. Knightley scolds Emma for insulting Miss Bates, she is ashamed. The next day, she visits Miss Bates to atone for her bad behaviour, impressing Mr. Knightley. During the visit, Emma learns that Jane accepted a governess position from one of Mrs. Elton's friends. Jane becomes ill and refuses to see Emma or receive her gifts. Meanwhile, Frank has been visiting his aunt, who dies soon after his arrival. Now he and Jane reveal to the Westons that they have been secretly engaged since autumn, but Frank knew his aunt would disapprove of the match. Maintaining the secrecy strained the conscientious Jane and caused the couple to quarrel, with Jane ending the engagement. Frank's easygoing uncle readily gives his blessing to the match. The engagement is made public, leaving Emma chagrined to discover that she had been so wrong.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Emma believes Frank's engagement will devastate Harriet, but instead, Harriet says she loves Mr. Knightley, and though she knows the match is too unequal, Emma's encouragement and Mr. Knightley's kindness have given her hope. Emma is startled and realises that she is also in love with Mr. Knightley. Mr. Knightley returns to console Emma from Frank and Jane's engagement, thinking her heartbroken. When she admits her foolishness, he proposes, and she accepts. Harriet accepts Robert Martin's second proposal, and they are the first couple to marry. Jane and Emma reconcile, and Frank and Jane visit the Westons. Once the mourning period for Frank's aunt ends, they will marry. Before the end of November, Emma and Mr. Knightley are married with the prospect of "perfect happiness."


title: Emma (novel)

text: Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist of the story, is a beautiful, high-spirited, intelligent, and somewhat spoiled young woman from the landed gentry. She is twenty when the story opens. Her mother died when she was young. She has been mistress of the house (Hartfield) since her older sister got married. Although intelligent, she lacks the discipline to practise or study anything in depth. She is portrayed as compassionate to the poor, but at the same time has a strong sense of class status. Her affection for and patience towards her valetudinarian father are also noteworthy. While she is in many ways mature, Emma makes some serious mistakes, mainly due to her lack of experience and her conviction that she is always right. Although she has vowed she will never marry, she delights in making matches for others. She has a brief flirtation with Frank Churchill; however, she realises at the end of the novel that she loves Mr. Knightley.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mr. Knightley is a neighbour and close friend of Emma, aged 37 years (16 years older than Emma). He is her only critic. Mr. Knightley is the owner of the estate of Donwell Abbey, which includes extensive grounds and farms. He is the elder brother of Mr. John Knightley, the husband of Emma's elder sister Isabella. He is very considerate, aware of the feelings of the other characters, and his behaviour and judgment are extremely good. Mr. Knightley is furious with Emma for persuading Harriet to turn down Mr. Martin, a farmer on the Donwell estate; he warns Emma against pushing Harriet towards Mr. Elton, knowing that Mr. Elton seeks a bride with money. He is suspicious of Frank Churchill and his motives; he suspects that Frank has a secret understanding with Jane Fairfax.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston's son by his first marriage, is an amiable young man, who, at age 23, is liked by almost everyone, though Mr. Knightley sees him as immature and selfish for failing to visit his father after his father's wedding. After his mother's death, he was raised by his wealthy aunt and uncle, the Churchills, at the family estate of Enscombe. His uncle was his mother's brother. By his aunt's decree, he assumed the name Churchill on his majority. Frank is given to dancing and living a carefree existence, and is secretly engaged to Miss Fairfax at Weymouth, although he fears his aunt will forbid the match because Jane is not wealthy. He manipulates and plays games with the other characters to ensure his engagement to Jane remains concealed.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Jane Fairfax is an orphan whose only family consists of her aunt, Miss Bates, and her grandmother, Mrs. Bates. She is a beautiful, bright, and elegant woman, with the best of manners. She is the same age as Emma. She is extraordinarily well-educated and talented at singing and playing the piano; she is the sole person whom Emma envies. Colonel Campbell, an army friend of Jane's father, felt responsible for Jane, and has provided her an excellent education while she has shared his home and family since she was nine years old. She has little fortune, however, and is destined to become a governess – an unpleasant prospect. The secret engagement goes against her principles and distresses her greatly.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Harriet Smith, a young friend of Emma, just seventeen when the story opens, is a beautiful but unsophisticated girl. She has been a parlour boarder at a nearby school, where she met the sisters of Mr. Martin. Emma takes Harriet under her wing early on, and she becomes the subject of Emma's misguided matchmaking attempts. She is revealed in the last chapter to be the natural daughter of a decent tradesman, although he is not a gentleman. Harriet and Mr. Martin are wed. The now wiser Emma approves of the match.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Robert Martin is a well-to-do, 24-year-old tenant farmer who, though not a gentleman, is a friendly, amiable and diligent young man, well esteemed by Mr. George Knightley. He becomes acquainted and subsequently smitten with Harriet during her 2-month stay at Abbey Mill Farm, which was arranged at the invitation of his sister, Elizabeth Martin, Harriet's school friend. His first marriage proposal, in a letter, is rejected by Harriet under Emma's direction and influence, (an incident which puts Mr. Knightley and Emma in a disagreement with one another). Emma had convinced herself that Harriet's class and breeding were above associating with the Martins, much less marrying one. His second marriage proposal is later accepted by a contented Harriet and approved by a wiser Emma; their joining marks the first of the three happy couples to marry in the end.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Philip Elton is a good-looking, initially well-mannered, and ambitious young vicar, 27 years old and unmarried when the story opens. Emma wants him to marry Harriet; however, he aspires to secure Emma's hand in marriage to gain her dowry of £30,000. Mr. Elton displays his mercenary nature by quickly marrying another woman of lesser means after Emma rejects him.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Augusta Elton, formerly Miss Hawkins, is Mr. Elton's wife. She has 10,000 pounds, but lacks good manners, committing common vulgarities such as using people's names too intimately (as in "Jane", not "Miss Fairfax"; "Knightley", not "Mr. Knightley"). She is a boasting, pretentious woman who expects her due as a new bride in the village. Emma is polite to her but does not like her. She patronises Jane, which earns Jane the sympathy of others. Her lack of social graces shows the good breeding of the other characters, particularly Miss Fairfax and Mrs. Weston, and shows the difference between gentility and money.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mrs. Weston was Emma's governess for sixteen years as Miss Anne Taylor and remains her closest friend and confidante after she marries Mr. Weston. She is a sensible woman who loves Emma. Mrs. Weston acts as a surrogate mother to her former charge and, occasionally, as a voice of moderation and reason. The Weston and the Woodhouse families see each other almost daily. Near the end of the story, the Westons' baby Anna is born.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mr. Weston is a widower and a business man living in Highbury who marries Miss Taylor in his early 40s, after buying a house called Randalls. By his first marriage, he is father to Frank Weston Churchill, who was adopted and raised by his late wife's brother and his wife. He sees his son in London each year. He married his first wife, Miss Churchill, when he was a captain in the militia, posted near her home. Mr. Weston is a sanguine, optimistic man, who enjoys socialising, making friends quickly in business and among his neighbours.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Miss Bates is a friendly, garrulous spinster whose mother, Mrs. Bates, is a friend of Mr. Woodhouse. Her niece is Jane Fairfax, daughter of her late sister. She was raised in better circumstances in her younger days as the vicar's daughter; now she and her mother rent rooms in the home of another in Highbury. One day, Emma humiliates her on a day out in the country, when she alludes to her tiresome prolixity.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mr. Henry Woodhouse, Emma's father, is always concerned for his health, and to the extent that it does not interfere with his own, the health and comfort of his friends. He is a valetudinarian (i.e., similar to a hypochondriac but more likely to be genuinely ill). He assumes that a great many things are hazardous to his health. His daughter Emma gets along with him well, and he loves both his daughters. He laments that "poor Isabella" and especially "poor Miss Taylor" have married and live away from him. He is a fond father and fond grandfather who did not remarry when his wife died; instead he brought in Miss Taylor to educate his daughters and become part of the family. Because he is generous and well-mannered, his neighbours accommodate him when they can.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Isabella Knightley (née Woodhouse) is the elder sister of Emma, by seven years, and daughter of Henry. She is married to John Knightley. She lives in London with her husband and their five children (Henry, 'little' John, Bella, 'little' Emma, and George). She is similar in disposition to her father, and her relationship to Mr. Wingfield, (her family's physician) mirrors that of her father's to Mr. Perry.


title: Emma (novel)

text: John Knightley is Isabella's husband and George's younger brother, 31 years old. He is an attorney by profession. Like the others raised in the area, he is a friend of Jane Fairfax. He greatly enjoys the company of his family, including his brother and his Woodhouse in-laws, but is not a very sociable sort of man. He is forthright with Emma, his sister-in-law, and close to his brother.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mr. Perry is the apothecary in Highbury who is never shown directly speaking but spends a significant amount of time responding to the health issues of Mr. Woodhouse. He and Mrs. Perry have several children. He is also the subject of a discussion between Miss Bates and Jane Fairfax that is relayed in a letter to Mr. Frank Churchill that he inadvertently discloses to Emma. He is described as an "...intelligent, gentlemanlike man, whose frequent visits were one of the comforts of Mr. Woodhouse's life."


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mrs. Bates is the widow of the former vicar of Highbury, the mother of Miss Bates and the grandmother of Jane Fairfax. She is old and hard of hearing, but is a frequent companion to Mr. Woodhouse when Emma attends social activities without him.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mr. & Mrs. Cole have been residents of Highbury for several years, but have recently benefited from a significant increase in their income that has allowed them to expand the size of their house, number of servants and other expenses. Despite their "low origin" in trade, their income and style of living have made them the second most prominent family in Highbury, next to the Woodhouses at Hartfield. They host a dinner party that is a significant plot element.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mrs. Churchill was the wife of the brother of Mr. Weston's first wife. She and her husband, Mr. Churchill, live at Enscombe and raised Mr. Weston's son, Mr. Frank Churchill. Although never seen directly, she makes demands on Frank Churchill's time and attention that prevent him from visiting his father. Her disapproval is the reason that the engagement between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax is kept secret. Her death provides the opportunity for the secret to be revealed.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Colonel and Mrs. Campbell were friends of Jane Fairfax's late father. Since Jane was their guest for extended visits, they took over her education in preparation for her serving as a governess when she grew up. They provided her every advantage possible, short of adoption, and were very fond of her.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mrs. Goddard is the mistress of a boarding school for girls in which Harriet Smith is one of the students. She is also a frequent companion to Mr. Woodhouse along with Mrs. Bates.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mr. William Larkins is an employee on the Donwell Abbey estate of Mr. Knightley. He frequently visits the Bateses, bringing them gifts, such as apples, from Mr. Knightley.


title: Emma (novel)

text: "Emma" was written after the publication of "Pride and Prejudice" and was submitted to the London publisher John Murray II in the autumn of 1815. He offered Austen £450 for this plus the copyrights of "Mansfield Park" and "Sense and Sensibility", which she refused. Instead, she published two thousand copies of the novel at her own expense, retaining the copyright and paying a 10% commission to Murray. The publication in December 1815 (dated 1816) consisted of a three-volume set in duodecimo at the selling price of £1.1s (one guinea) per set.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Prior to publication, Austen's novels had come to the attention of the Prince Regent, whose librarian at Carlton House, a Mr. Clarke, showed her around the Library at the Prince Regent's request, and who suggested a dedication to the Prince Regent in a future publication. This resulted in a dedication of "Emma" to the Prince Regent at the time of publication and a dedication copy of the novel sent to Carlton House in December 1815.


title: Emma (novel)

text: In America, copies of this first publication were sold in 1818 for $4 per copy, as well as an American edition published by Mathew Carey of Philadelphia in 1816. The number of copies of this edition are not known. A later American edition was published in 1833 and again in 1838 by Carey, Lea, and Blanchard. A French version was published in 1816 by Arthus Bertrand, publisher for Madame Isabelle De Montolieu. A second French version for the Austrian market was published in 1817 Viennese publisher Schrambl.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Richard Bentley reissued "Emma" in 1833, along with Austen's five other novels, in his series of Standard Novels. This issue did not contain the dedication page to the Prince Regent. These editions were frequently reprinted up until 1882 with the final publication of the Steventon Edition. "Emma" has remained in continuous publication in English throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In addition to the French translation already mentioned, "Emma" was translated into Swedish and German in the nineteenth century and into fifteen other languages in the twentieth century including Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, German and Italian.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Prior to publishing, John Murray's reader, William Gifford, who was also the editor of the "Quarterly Review", said of the novel that "Of "Emma" I have nothing but good to say. I was sure of the writer before you mentioned her. The MS though plainly written has yet some, indeed many little omissions, and an expression may now and then be amended in passing through the press. I will readily undertake the revision." Early reviews of "Emma" were generally favourable, and were more numerous than those of any other of Austen's novels. One important review, requested by John Murray prior to publication and written by Sir Walter Scott, appeared anonymously in March 1816 in the "Quarterly Review", although the date of the journal was October 1815. He writes:The author is already known to the public by the two novels announced in her title page, and both, the last especially, attracted, with justice, an attention from the public far superior to what is granted to the ephemeral productions which supply the regular demand of watering- places and circulating libraries. They belong to a class of fictions which has arisen almost in our own times, and which draws the characters and incidents introduced more immediately from the current of ordinary life than was permitted by the former rules of the novel..."Emma" has even less story than either of the preceding novels...The author's knowledge of the world, and the peculiar tact with which she presents characters that the reader cannot fail to recognize, reminds us something of the merits of the Flemish school of painting. The subjects are not often elegant, and certainly never grand: but they are finished up to nature, and with a precision which delights the reader.Two other unsigned reviews appeared in 1816, one in "The Champion," also in March, and another in September of the same year in "Gentleman's Magazine." Other commenters include Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, singer and entertainer who was a contemporary of Austen's; he wrote to Samuel Rogers, an English poet, in 1816:"Let me entreat you to read "Emma -" it is the very perfection of novel-writing – and I cannot praise it more highly than by saying it is often extremely like your own method of describing things – so much effect with so little effort!"


title: Emma (novel)

text: A contemporary Scottish novelist, Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, wrote to a friend, also in 1816:"I have been reading "Emma", which is excellent; there is no story whatever, and the heroine is not better than other people; but the characters are all true to life and the style so piquant, that it does not require the adventitious aids of mystery and adventure."


title: Emma (novel)

text: There was some criticism about the lack of story. John Murray remarked that it lacked "incident and Romance"; Maria Edgeworth, the author of "Belinda", to whom Austen had sent a complimentary copy, wrote:there was no story in it, except that Miss Emma found that the man whom she designed for Harriet's lover was an admirer of her own – & he was affronted at being refused by Emma & Harriet wore the willow – and "smooth, thin water-gruel" is according to Emma's father's opinion a very good thing & it is very difficult to make a cook understand what you mean by "smooth, thin water-gruel"!!


title: Emma (novel)

text: Austen also collected comments from friends and family on their opinions of "Emma". Writing several years later, John Henry Newman observed in a letter about the novel:Everything Miss Austen writes is clever, but I desiderate something. There is a want of body to the story. The action is frittered away in over-little things. There are some beautiful things in it. Emma herself is the most interesting to me of all her heroines. I feel kind to her whenever I think of her...That other women, Fairfax, is a dolt- but I like Emma.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Later reviewers or commenters on the novel include Charlotte Brontë, George Henry Lewes, Juliet Pollock, Anne Ritchie, Henry James, Reginald Farrer, Virginia Woolf, and E.M. Forster. Other reviewers include Thomas Babington Macauley who considered Austen to be a "Prose Shakespeare", and Margaret Oliphant who stated in "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine" in March that she prefers "Emma" to Austen's other works and that it is "the work of her mature mind". Although Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" is the most popular of her novels, critics such as Robert McCrum suggest that "Emma is her masterpiece, mixing the sparkle of her early books with a deep sensibility" and John Mullan has argued that "Emma" was a revolutionary novel which changed the shape of what is possible in fiction" because "The novel bent narration through the distorting lens of its protagonist’s mind".


title: Emma (novel)

text: The British critic Robert Irvine wrote that unlike the situation in Austen's previous novels, the town of Highbury in Surrey emerges as a character in its own right. Irvine wrote that: "In "Emma", we find something much closer to a genuinely communal voice, a point of view at work in the narrative that cannot be reduced to the subjectivity of any one character. This point of view appears both as something perceived by Emma, an external perspective on events and characters that the reader encounters as and when Emma recognises it; and as an independent discourse appearing in the text alongside the discourse of the narrator and characters". Irvine used as an example the following passage: "The charming Augusta Hawkins, in addition to all the usual advantages of perfect beauty and merit, was in possession of as many thousands as would always be called ten; a point of some dignity, as well as some convenience: the story told well; he had not thrown himself away-he had gained a woman of £10,000 or therebouts; and he had gained with delightful rapidity-the first hour of introduction he had been so very soon followed by distinguishing notice; the history which he had to give Mrs. Cole of the rise and progress of the affair was so glorious". Irvine points out the adjective "charming" appears to the narrator speaking, but notes the sentence goes on to associate "perfect" with "usual", which he pointed out was an incongruity. Irvine suggested the next sentence "would always be called ten" is in fact the voice of the community of Highbury, which wants the fiancée of Mr. Elton to be "perfect", whom the narrator sarcastically calls the "usual" sort of community gossip is about a new arrival in Highbury, whom everyone thinks is "charming". Since the character of Mrs. Elton is in fact far from "charming", the use of the term "charming" to describe her is either the gossip of Highbury and/or the narrator being sarcastic.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Likewise, the Australian scholar John Wiltshire wrote that one of Austen's achievements was to "give depth" to the "Highbury world". Wiltshire noted that Austen put the population of Highbury as 352 people, and said that although clearly most of these people do not appear as characters - or at best as minor characters - Austen created the impression of Highbury as a "social commonwealth". Wiltshire used as an example of Mr. Perry, the town apothecary who is frequently mentioned in the town gossip, but never appears in the book, having a "kind of familiarity by proxy". Wiltshire also notes the scene where Emma and Harriet visit a poor cottage on the outskirts of Highbury; during their walk, it is made clear from Emma's remarks that this part of Highbury is not her Highbury.


title: Emma (novel)

text: The character of Frank is a member of the "discursive community" of Highbury long before he actually appears, as his father tells everyone in Highbury about him. Emma forms her judgement of Frank based on what she hears about him in Highbury before she meets him. Irvine wrote that Austen's use of three different voices in "Emma"—the voice of Highbury, the narrator's voice, and Emma's voice, can at times make it very confusing to the reader about just who is actually speaking. However, Irvine wrote that one accepts that the voice of Highbury is often speaking, then much of the book makes sense, as Emma believes she has a power that she does not, to make Frank either love or not via her interest or indifference, which is explained as the result of the gossip of Highbury, which attributes Emma this power.


title: Emma (novel)

text: This is especially the case as Emma is born into the elite of Highbury, which is portrayed as a female-dominated world. Irvine wrote that Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice" and Fanny Price in "Mansfield Park" enjoy the moral authority of being good women, but must marry a well-off man to have the necessary social influence to fully use this moral authority whereas Emma is born with this authority. Emma herself acknowledges this when she says to Harriet that she possesses: "none of the usual inducements to marry...Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want". However, political power still resides with men in the patriarchal society of Regency England as the book notes that Mr. Knightley is not only a member of the gentry, but also serves as the magistrate of Highbury. Emma clashes with Knightley at the beginning of the novel over the all-important "distinctions of rank", namely does Harriet Smith belong with the yeoman class together with Robert Martin, or the gentry class that Emma and Knightley are both part of. Knightley declares his respect for both Smith and Martin, but argues that as part of the yeomen class, neither belongs with the gentry, while Emma insists on including her best friend/protegee in with the gentry. In Regency England and in "Emma", the term friendship describes a power relationship where one higher party can do favors for the lower party while the term "claim intimacy" is a relationship of equals. Mrs. Elton has "friendship" with Jane Fairfax while she "claims intimacy" with Mr. Knightley. The use of these terms "friendship" and "claim intimacy" refers to the question of who belongs to the local elite. Neither Emma nor Mr. Knightley question the right of the elite to dominate society, but rather their power struggle is over who belongs to the elite, and who has the authority to make the decision about whom to include and whom to exclude, which shows that in a certain sense that Emma is just as powerful socially as is Mr. Knightley. Further complicating this power struggle is the arrival of Mrs. Elton, who attempts to elevate Jane Fairfax into the elite. This is cruel as Jane is not rich enough to properly belong to the elite, and Mrs. Elton is showing Jane a world to which she can never really belong, no matter how many parties and balls she attends. In addition to her annoyance at Mrs. Elton's relationship with Jane, Emma finds Mrs. Elton an "upstart", "under-bred" and "vulgar", which adds venom to the dispute between the two women. Mrs. Elton is only a first generation gentry, as her father bought the land that she grew up on with money he had raised in trade. Her snobbery is therefore that of a "nouveau riche", desperately insecure about her status. When Mrs. Elton boasted that her family had owned their estate for a number of years, Emma responds that a true English gentry family would count ownership of their estate in generations, not years.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Of Emma's two rivals for social authority, one shares a common class while the other a common sex. The marriage of Emma to Mr. Knightley consolidates her social authority by linking herself to the dominant male of Highbury and pushes Mrs. Elton's claims aside. Irvine wrote: "On this view, and in contrast to Austen's two previous novels, "Emma" works to legitimate established gentry power "defined in opposition to" an autonomous feminine authority over the regulation of social relations, and not through the vindication of such autonomous authority". However, as the novel goes, such a reading is countered by the way that Emma begins to take in the previously excluded into the realm of the elite, such as visiting the poor Miss Bates and her mother, and the Coles, whose wealth stems from trade. Likewise, Jane Fairfax, who is too poor to live off her wealth and must work as a governess, which excludes her from the female social elite of Highbury, does marry well after all, which makes her story the only one of real feminine worth triumphing over the lack of wealth in "Emma".


title: Emma (novel)

text: There are numerous parallels between the main characters and plots of "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma": Both novels feature a proud central character, respectively, Darcy and Emma; a critical future spouse, Elizabeth and Mr. Knightly; an easily swayed friend, Bingley and Harriet; an almost-thwarted marital ambition, Jane and Martin; a dependent relative, Georgiana and Mr. Woodhouse; and a potential object of matrimony who is a wrong choice for the central character, Anne de Bourgh and Frank Churchill. These pairs suggest that "Emma" may have been a gendered reversal of the earlier novel. Such reversals were familiar to Austen through the works of favored authors like Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and William Shakespeare.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Austen is thought to have switched gender in some of her earlier work as well. Her cousin Eliza Hancock may have been her inspiration for the character Edward Stanley in "Catharine, or the Bower," one of her youthful pieces, showing her the "trick of changing the gender of her prototype." In "Pride and Prejudice", Thomas Lefroy, a charming and witty Irishman, may have been the basis for Elizabeth's personality, while Austen may have used herself as the model for Darcy's reserve and self-consciousness when among company, but open and loving demeanor when among close friends and family. Austen's selection of "Pride and Prejudice" as the basis for reversing gender in "Emma" may have been motivated by these earlier experiences and insights.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Reversing the genders of "Pride and Prejudice" in "Emma" allowed Austen to disturb paradigms and examine the different expectations society had of men and women; the elements she chose to include in "Emma" and how she chose to revise them yield a powerful but ultimately conventional commentary on the status of women. The novel's central concern with gender is often noted in the literature as themes like gendered space, romance, female empowerment, wealth, parenting, and masculinity.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Wiltshire wrote about Austen's use of "gendered space" in "Emma", noting the female characters have a disproportionate number of scenes in the drawing rooms of Highbury while the male characters often have scenes outdoors. Wiltshire noted that Jane Fairfax cannot walk to the post office in the rain to pick up the mail without becoming the object of village gossip while Mr. Knightley can ride all the way to London without attracting any gossip. Wiltshire described the world that the women of Highbury live in as a sort of prison, writing that in the novel "...women's imprisonment is associated with deprivation, with energies and powers perverted in their application, and events, balls and outings are linked with the arousal and satisfaction of desire".


title: Emma (novel)

text: The novel is set in England, but there are several references to Ireland, which were related to the ongoing national debate about the "Irish Question". In 1801, the Act of Union had brought Ireland into the United Kingdom, but there was a major debate about what was Ireland's precise status in the United Kingdom; another kingdom, province or a colony? Austen satirizes this debate by having Miss Bates talk about Mrs. Dixon's new house in Ireland, a place that she cannot decide is a kingdom, a country or a province, but is merely very "strange" whatever its status may be. Austen also satirized the vogue for "Irish tales" that become popular after the Act of Union as English writers started to produce picturesque, romantic stories set in Ireland to familiarize the English people with the newest addition to the United Kingdom. The travel itinerary that Miss Bates sketches out for the Campbells' visit to Ireland is satire of a typical "Irish tale" novel, which was Austen's way of mocking those who had a superficial appreciation of Irish culture by buying the "Irish tales" books that presented Ireland in a very stereotypical way. Austen further alludes to the Society of United Irishmen uprising in 1798 by having the other characters worry about what might happen to the Dixons when they visit a place in the Irish countryside called "Baly-craig", which appears to be Ballycraig in County Antrim in what is now Northern Ireland, which had been the scene of much bloody fighting between the United Irishmen Society and the Crown in 1798, an enduring testament to Ireland's unsettled status with much of the Irish population not accepting British rule. The American scholar Colleen Taylor wrote about Austen's treatment of the "Irish Question": "That Emma applies a distant and fictionalized Irish space to her very limited and dissimilar English circle, turning a somewhat ordinary English young woman, Jane Fairfax, into an Irish scandal, proves that the object of English humor is—for once—not the stage Irishman but the privileged English woman who presumes to know what he and his culture are really like."


title: Emma (novel)

text: In contrast to other Austen heroines, Emma seems immune to romantic attraction, at least until her final self-revelation concerning her true affections. Unlike Marianne Dashwood, who is attracted to the wrong man before she settles on the right one, Emma generally shows no romantic interest in the men she meets and even her flirting with Churchill seems tame. She is genuinely surprised (and somewhat disgusted) when Mr Elton declares his love for her, much in the way Elizabeth Bennet reacts to the obsequious Mr. Collins, also a parson. Her fancy for Frank Churchill represents more of a longing for a little drama in her life than a longing for romantic love. For example, at the beginning of Chapter XIII, Emma has "no doubt of her being in love", but it quickly becomes clear that, even though she spends time "forming a thousand amusing schemes for the progress and close of their attachment", we are told that "the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his side was that she "refused him"".


title: Emma (novel)

text: It is only Mr. Knightley who can willingly share the burden of Emma's father, as well as providing her with guidance, love and companionship. He has been in love with her since she was 13 years old, but neither he nor she have realized that there is a natural bond between them. He declares his love for her: "What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.".


title: Emma (novel)

text: In "Emma", Emma Woodhouse serves as a direct reflection of Jane Austen's feminist characterization of female heroines, in terms of both female individuality and independence (romantically, financially, etc.). In terms of romantic independence, Emma's father, Henry Woodhouse, very consistently preaches against the idea of marriage. He plays an integral role in Emma's own initial perception of matrimony, leading her to make use of her free time by becoming the town "matchmaker", which leaves her happily single and unwed for the majority of the novel. One of the predominant reasons Emma is able to live a comfortable and independent lifestyle is her gifted inheritance—given to her by a past family member—which allows her to depend on no one other than herself for a sustainable, wealthy, and self-sufficient life although she currently lives in her father's house. Austen portrays Emma as educated and capable, and extremely popular and well-liked in her hometown of Highbury.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Literary scholar Laurence Mazzeno addresses Austen's narrative in regard to female individualism and empowerment, stating, “…Austen deals honestly and with skill in treating relationships between men and women, and presents women of real passion – but not the flamboyant, sentimental kind that populate conventional romances...Austen is not "narrow" in her treatment of character, either; her men and women furnish as broad a view of humanity as would be obtained by traveling up and down the world...Austen was conservative in both her art and her politics – suggesting that, even from a woman's point of view, Austen was hardly out to subvert the status quo."


title: Emma (novel)

text: In the Bedford Edition of "Emma" edited by Alistair M. Duckworrth, there are five essays to accompany the text that discuss contemporary critical perspectives, one of which is about feminist criticism. The feminist criticism essay was written by Devooney Looser. In her essay, she asks the question whether Jane Austen was a feminist. She also states in her essay that one's answer to the question not only depends on how one understands Austen's novels, but also how one defines feminism.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Looser states that if you define feminism broadly as a movement relating to how women are limited and devalued within a culture then Austen's work applies to this concept of feminism. She states that if you define feminism as a movement to eradicate gender, race, class, and sexual prejudice and to agitate for change, then Austen's work does not really apply to this concept of feminism.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Emma is a wealthy young woman, having a personal fortune amounting to £30,000. This would be sufficient for her to live independently in the same style as she is accustomed to. As she herself points out, this means that there is no financial pressure on her to marry. This is in sharp contrast to the heroines of Austen's other novels, who all lack sufficient resources to maintain as single women the lifestyle in which they have been raised by the their families. This means that Emma has greater freedom of choice and behaviour, in some ways closer to that exercised by wealthy men of the time.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Mr. Woodhouse adopted a laissez faire parenting style when it came to raising Emma. In fact, most of the time it seems that Emma is parenting her father, taking on the role of both daughter and mother. Emma feels entirely responsible for the wellbeing of her father and therefore feels obliged to stay with him. Her father is a selfish but gentle man and does not approve of matrimony. If Emma were to marry he would lose his primary carer. This is not to say that Emma feels restrained by her father, in fact quite the opposite, Emma has the power over the world she inhabits. The narrator announces at the start of the novel: "The real evils of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much of her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments" (Austen, 1). Although Mr. Woodhouse is lacking as a father figure, Mr. Knightley acts as a surrogate father to Emma. Mr. Knightley is not afraid to correct Emma's behaviour and tell her what she needs to hear. Mr. Knightley reprimands Emma when he learns of her match-making and also later when Emma is extremely rude to Miss Bates. Still, the reader cannot ignore the developmental damage that has been caused by Mr. Woodhouse's indifferent parenting style as Emma struggles to form healthy adult relationships.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Class is an important aspect of the novel. The distinctions between the classes are made explicitly clear to the reader by Emma herself and by Austen's descriptions. The social class structure has the Woodhouses and Mr. Knightley at the top, the Eltons, the Westons, Frank Churchill, and even further down the line Harriet, Robert Martin, and the Bates family including Jane Fairfax. This social class map becomes important when Emma tries to match Mr. Elton and Harriet together. Harriet is not considered a match for Elton due to her lowly class standing, despite what Emma encourages her to believe. Emma's initial disregard for class standing (as regards Harriet at least) is brought to light by Mr. Knightley who tells her to stop encouraging Harriet.


title: Emma (novel)

text: The scholar James Brown argued that the much quoted line where Emma contemplates the Abbey-Mill Farm, which is the embodiment of "English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive" is in fact meant to be ironic. Brown wrote that Austen had a strong appreciation of the land as not only a source of aesthetic pleasure, but also a source of money, an aspect of pre-industrial England that many now miss. In this sense, the beauty of the Abbey-Mill Farm is due to the hard work of Mr. Knightley's tenant, the farmer Robert Martin, a man whom Emma dismisses as the sort of person "with whom I feel I can have nothing to do" while Knightley praises him as "open, straight forward, and very well judging". Brown argued that the disconnect between's Emma's contempt for Mr. Martin as a person and her awe at the beauty that is the result of his hard work was Austen's way of mocking those in the upper classes who failed to appreciate the farmers who worked the land.


title: Emma (novel)

text: There is an abundance of food language in Jane Austen's "Emma". Food is given, shared, and eaten by characters in almost every chapter. Much research on Jane Austen's food language is found in Maggie Lane's book titled "Jane Austen and Food". Lane's text provides a general examination of the symbolism of food in Emma and invites further interpretations. Food is used as a symbol to convey class hierarchy, stereotypes and biases throughout the novel. The language and actions that surround food bring the characters of Highbury's inner circle closer together. For Emma Woodhouse, food is a symbol of human interdependence and goodwill. No one in Highbury is starving; everyone takes part in the giving and receiving of food. However, food is a strong class divider though it is rarely openly discussed by characters in the novel. There are a few instances when characters allude to lower class individuals outside of their well-fed society. For instance, when Emma discusses her charitable visit with a poor family, Harriet's encounter with the gypsy children, and Highbury's mysterious chicken thieves. For the most part, the poor in "Emma" are overlooked by the characters in the novel due to their socioeconomic status.


title: Emma (novel)

text: The constant giving and receiving of food in the novel does not occur without motive. Characters are either trying to climb the social ladder or gain the approval or affections of another. The interpretation of the giving and receiving of food in "Emma" can be taken in these different directions; however in terms of love: "The novel (...) is stuffed with gifts of food: Mr. Knightley sends the Bates family apples; Mr. Martin woos Harriet with some walnuts; and, to further her son's suit, Mrs. Martin brings Mrs. Goddard a goose". These gifts are not without motive, and food—as it pertains to Emma Woodhouse—only becomes interesting when it pertains to love. "[R]omance is a far more interesting subject than food. Emma quickly reduces the topic of eating to a run of the mill 'any thing,’ and arbitrary and empty screen that only becomes interesting when projected on by those in love". This becomes evident to the reader when Emma overestimates Mr. Elton's affections for Harriet from their engaging in conversation about the food at the Cole's party. Emma Woodhouse interprets food conversation and gifts of food as means of affection between two lovers.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Austen explores the idea of redefining manhood and masculinity with her male characters: particularly Mr. Knightley, Mr. Woodhouse, and Frank Churchill. In "Emma", Austen includes typical ideals of English masculinity, including, "familial responsibility, sexual fidelity, and leadership transition…” Mr. Woodhouse is portrayed chiefly as foolish and an incompetent father figure. Clark comments on Mr. Woodhouse's age and how this affects his masculine identity. He resists change and pleasure, yet he is still respected in the community. Mr. Knightley is Jane Austen's perfect gentleman figure in "Emma". He has manners, class, and money. Further, he is presented as, "a well-adjusted alternative to these more polarized understandings of masculinity seen in characters of John Willoughby and Edward Ferrars.”


title: Emma (novel)

text: The fictional Highbury is said to be in Surrey, from London and from Richmond. (It must not be confused with the real Highbury, which is north of Charing Cross, now part of inner London but in Austen's day was in Middlesex). Highbury was not modelled on a specific village; however, it is likely that it is modelled after several that Austen knew, such as Cobham and Box Hill. Leatherhead, Surrey, is another place that could have been a source of inspiration for Highbury. There is a Randalls Road in the town, which is an important name within "Emma". It has also been noted that there is a Mr Knightly mentioned in Leatherhead Church. Emma's sister Isabella and her family live in Brunswick Square, between the City of London and the West End; the fields had just been transformed at the turn of the century into terraces of Georgian houses. Richmond, where Frank Churchill's aunt and uncle settle in the summer, is now part of the Greater London area, but then was a separate town in Surrey.


title: Emma (novel)

text: Most of the other places mentioned are in southern England, such as the seaside resort towns of Weymouth, Dorset, Southend, and Cromer in Norfolk. Box Hill, Surrey, is still a place of beauty, popular for picnics. Bath, where Mr. Elton went to find a bride, is a well-known spa city in the southwest. The place furthest away is the fictional Enscombe, the estate of the Churchills, in the real Yorkshire, in the north.


title: Emma (novel)

text: The school is based on Reading Abbey Girls' School, which Austen and her sister attended briefly: "not of a seminary, or an establishment, or any thing which professed, in long sentences of refined nonsense, to combine liberal acquirements with elegant morality upon new principles and new systems – and where young ladies for enormous pay might be screwed out of health and into vanity – but a real, honest, old-fashioned Boarding-school, where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price, and where girls might be sent to be out of the way and scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies."


title: Emma (novel)

text: "Emma" has been the subject of many adaptations for film, TV, radio and the stage. The profusion of adaptations based on Jane Austen's novels has not only created a large fan base today but has also sparked extensive scholarly examination on both the process and effect of modernizing the narratives and moving them between mediums. Examples of this critical, academic work can be found in texts such as "Recreating Jane Austen" by John Wiltshire, "Jane Austen in Hollywood" edited by Troost and Greenfield, "Jane Austen and Co.: Remaking the Past in Contemporary Culture" edited by Pucci and Thompson, and "Adapting Jane Austen: The Surprising Fidelity of 'Clueless'" by William Galperin to name a few.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit as a member of the minor league Western League in 1894 and is the only Western League team still in its original city. They are also the oldest continuous one name, one city franchise in the AL.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Since their establishment as a major league franchise in 1901, the Tigers have won four World Series championships (, , , and ), 11 AL pennants (1907, 1908, 1909, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1968, 1984, 2006, 2012), and four AL Central division championships (2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014). They also won division titles in 1972, 1984, and 1987 as a member of the AL East. Since 2000, the Tigers have played their home games at Comerica Park in Downtown Detroit.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers constructed Bennett Park at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Avenue in Corktown (just west of Downtown Detroit) and began playing there in 1896. In 1912, the team moved into Navin Field, which was built on the same location. It was expanded in 1938 and renamed Briggs Stadium. It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961 and the Tigers played there until 1999.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: From 1901 to 2022, the Tigers overall win–loss record is 9,512–9,407 (a winning percentage of ). The franchise's best winning percentage was .656 in 1934, while its worst was .265 in 2003.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The franchise was founded as a member of the reorganized Western League in 1894. They originally played at Boulevard Park, sometimes called League Park. It was located on East Lafayette, then called Champlain Street, between Helen and East Grand Boulevard, near Belle Isle. In 1895, owner George Vanderbeck decided to build Bennett Park at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues, which would remain the team's base of operations for the next 104 seasons. The first game at The Corner was an exhibition on April 13, 1896. The team, now occasionally called the "Tigers," beat a local semi-pro team, known as the Athletics, by a score of 30–3. The Tigers played their first Western League game at Bennett Park on April 28, 1896, defeating the Columbus Senators 17–2.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: At the end of the 1897 season, Rube Waddell was loaned to the team to gain professional experience. After being fined, Waddell left Detroit to pitch in Canada.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: When the Western League renamed itself the American League for 1900, it was still a minor league, but the next year, it broke from the National Agreement and declared itself a major league, openly competing with the National League for players and for fans in four contested cities. For a while, there were rumors of the team relocating to Pittsburgh. However, these rumors were put to rest when the two leagues made peace in 1903 when they signed a new National Agreement.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers were established as a charter member of the now major league American League in 1901. They played their first game as a major league team at home against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 25, 1901, with an estimated 10,000 fans at Bennett Park. After entering the ninth inning behind 13–4, the team staged a dramatic comeback to win 14–13. The team finished third in the eight-team league.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: In 1905, the team acquired 18-year-old Ty Cobb, a fearless player with a mean streak, who came to be regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. The addition of Cobb to an already talented team that included Sam Crawford, Hughie Jennings, Bill Donovan and George Mullin quickly yielded results.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Behind the hitting of outfielders Ty Cobb (.350) and Sam Crawford (.323), and the pitching of Bill Donovan and Ed Killian (25 wins each), the Tigers went 92–58 to win the AL pennant in 1907 by 1.5 games over the Philadelphia Athletics. They moved on to their first World Series appearance against the Chicago Cubs.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Game 1 ended in a rare 3–3 tie, called due to darkness after 12 innings. The Tigers scored only three runs in the succeeding four games, never scoring more than one run in a game, and lost the Series, 4–0.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers won the AL by just a half-game over the 90–64 Cleveland Naps with a 90–63 record. Cobb hit .324, while Sam Crawford hit .311 with 7 home runs, which was enough to lead the league in the "dead ball" era.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Cubs, however, would defeat the Tigers again in the 1908 World Series, this time in five games. This would be the Cubs' last World Championship until 2016.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: In 1909, Detroit posted a 98–54 season, winning the AL pennant by 3.5 games over the Athletics. Ty Cobb won the batting triple crown in 1909, hitting .377 with 9 home runs (all inside-the-park) and 107 RBIs. He also led the league with 76 stolen bases. George Mullin was the pitching hero, going 29–8 with a 2.22 ERA, while fellow pitcher Ed Willett went 21–10. Mullin's 11–0 start in 1909 was a Tigers record for 104 years, finally being broken by Max Scherzer's 13–0 start in 2013.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: It was hoped that a new opponent in the 1909 Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates, would yield different results. The Tigers performed better in the Fall Classic, taking Pittsburgh to seven games, but they were blown out 8–0 in the decisive game at Bennett Park.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers dropped to third place in the American League in 1910 with an 86–68 record. They posted 89 wins in 1911 to finish second, but were still well behind a powerhouse Philadelphia Athletics team that won 101 games. The team sunk to a dismal sixth place in both the 1912 and 1913 seasons. A bright spot in 1912 was George Mullin pitching the franchise's first no-hitter in a 7–0 win over the St. Louis Browns on July 4, his 32nd birthday.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Cobb went into the stands in a May 15, 1912, game to attack a fan that was abusing him, and was suspended. Three days later, the Tigers protested the suspension by fielding a team of replacement players against the Philadelphia Athletics. They lost 24–2. During this five-season stretch, Cobb posted batting averages of .383, .420, .409, .390 and .368, winning the AL batting title every year.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: In 1915, the Tigers won a then-club record 100 games, but narrowly lost the AL pennant to the Boston Red Sox, who won 101 games. The 1915 Tigers were led by an outfield consisting of Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, and Bobby Veach that finished #1, #2, and #3 in RBIs and total bases. Cobb also set a stolen base record with 96 steals in 1915 that stood until 1962, when it was broken by Maury Wills. Baseball historian Bill James has ranked the 1915 Tigers outfield as the greatest in the history of baseball. The only team in Tigers' history with a better winning percentage than the 1915 squad was the 1934 team that lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers dropped to third place in 1916 with an 87–67 record, and would remain mired in the middle of the AL standings the rest of the decade, never winning more than 80 games. In the late teens and into the 1920s, Cobb continued to be the marquee player, though he was pushed by budding star outfielder Harry Heilmann, who went on to hit .342 for his career.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Hughie Jennings left the Tigers after the 1920 season, having accumulated 1,131 wins as a manager. This stood as a Tiger record until 1992, when it was broken by Sparky Anderson. Cobb himself took over managerial duties in 1921, but during his six years at the helm, the Tigers topped out at 86 wins and never won a pennant.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: In 1921, the Tigers amassed 1,724 hits and a team batting average of .316, the highest team hit total and batting average in AL history. That year, outfielders Harry Heilmann and Ty Cobb finished #1 and #2 in the American League batting race with batting averages of .394 and .389, respectively. The downfall of the 1921 Tigers, however, was the absence of good pitching. The team ERA was 4.40. Without pitching to support the offense, the 1921 Tigers finished in sixth place in the American League at 71–82, 27 games behind the New York Yankees.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: On August 19, 1921, Cobb collected his 3,000th career hit off Elmer Myers of the Boston Red Sox. Aged 34 at the time, he is still the youngest player to reach that milestone, also reaching it in the fewest at-bats (8,093).


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers continued to field good teams during Ty Cobb's tenure as player-manager, finishing as high as second in 1923, but lack of quality pitching kept them from winning a pennant. Harry Heilmann hit .403 in 1923, becoming the last AL player to top .400 until Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. In 1925, Heilmann collected six hits in a season-ending doubleheader to win the batting title, finishing at .393 to Tris Speaker's .389.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Cobb announced his retirement in November 1926 after 22 seasons with the Tigers, though he would return to play two more seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Though the Tigers struggled with mediocre records in the seven years following Cobb's departure, they were building a solid foundation, adding slugging first baseman Hank Greenberg and pitchers Tommy Bridges and Schoolboy Rowe to a lineup that already included second baseman Charlie Gehringer.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: In 1927, Harry Heilmann flirted with a .400 batting average all year, eventually finishing at .398 and winning his fourth AL batting title.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Following the 1933 season, the Tigers added perhaps the final piece of the puzzle, acquiring catcher Mickey Cochrane from the Philadelphia Athletics to serve as player-manager.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers won the 1934 AL pennant with a 101–53 record, at the time a team record for wins, and still the best win percentage (.656) in team history. The Tigers infield (Hank Greenberg and Charlie Gehringer, along with shortstop Billy Rogell and third baseman Marv Owen) accumulated 462 runs during the season, with Gehringer (214 hits, .356 average) leading the way. Schoolboy Rowe led a strong pitching staff, winning 16 straight decisions at one point of the season and finishing with a 24–8 record.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers would fall in the 1934 World Series in seven games to the "Gashouse Gang" St. Louis Cardinals. After winning a tight battle in Game 5 with a 3–1 decision over Dizzy Dean, Detroit took a 3–2 series lead, but would lose the next two games at Navin Field (Tiger Stadium). For the second time in a World Series Game 7, Detroit folded. St. Louis scored seven times in the third inning off starter Elden Auker and a pair of relievers, while Dean baffled the Tiger hitters en route to an 11–0 victory. The final game was marred by an ugly incident. After spiking Tigers third baseman Marv Owen in the sixth inning, Cardinals left fielder Joe Medwick had to be removed from the game for his own safety by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis after being pelted with debris from angry fans in the large temporary bleacher section in left field.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers 1935 lineup featured four future Hall of Famers (Hank Greenberg, Mickey Cochrane, Goose Goslin and Charlie Gehringer). Although they did not challenge the 1934 team's 101 wins, their 93–58 record was good enough to give them the AL pennant by three games over the New York Yankees. Greenberg was named AL MVP after hitting .328 and leading the league in home runs (36), extra-base hits (98) and RBIs (168). Incredibly, Greenberg's RBI total was 48 higher than the next closest player (Lou Gehrig, with 120). The Tigers also got strong contributions from Gehringer (.330), Cochrane (.319) and starting pitchers Tommy Bridges (21–10) and Elden Auker (18–7).


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers finally won their first World Series, defeating the Chicago Cubs, 4–2. Game 6 concluded with Goslin's dramatic walk-off RBI single, scoring Cochrane for a 4–3 victory.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Despite being forecast to win the American League pennant again in 1936, the Tigers fell to a distant second place behind the New York Yankees both that season and in 1937. The team fell further down the standings with an 84–70 record in 1938 and an 81–73 record in 1939. Hank Greenberg nevertheless provided some excitement for Tigers fans in 1938 by challenging the single-season home run record held by Babe Ruth (60). He went into the season's final weekend against the Cleveland Indians with 58 home runs, tied with Jimmie Foxx for the most by a right-handed batter at the time, but he failed to homer.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: During the final week of the 1938 season, the Tigers presciently held out doubts about a pennant in 1939, but figured that 1940 would be their year.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: In a tight three-team race, the 90–64 Tigers won the 1940 AL pennant by one game over the Cleveland Indians and two games over the New York Yankees. Prior to the season, first baseman Hank Greenberg was persuaded to move to left field to make room for Rudy York, whom the Tigers had deemed no longer suitable to be their catcher. The move proved successful. York hit .316 with 33 home runs and 134 RBIs. Greenberg batted .340 and slammed 41 home runs while driving in 150. Greenberg won his second AL MVP award, becoming the first major leaguer to win the award at two different positions. Charlie Gehringer batted .313 while collecting 101 walks (for a .428 on-base percentage) and scoring 108 runs.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Bobo Newsom was the ace of the Tiger pitching staff in 1940, going 21–5 with a 2.83 ERA. An unlikely hero on the mound this season was 30-year-old rookie Floyd Giebell. Making just his third major league start on September 27, Giebell was called upon to pitch the pennant-clinching game against Bob Feller of the Indians. Feller surrendered just three hits, one being a 2-run homer by Rudy York, while Giebell blanked the Tribe for a 2–0 victory.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers lost the 1940 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in seven games. Despite a heroic effort by Bobo Newsom, the Tigers came up short in the deciding game, losing 2–1. Newsom's father had died in a Cincinnati hotel room after watching his son win Game 1. An inspired Newsom won Game 5 and pitched Game 7 on just one day's rest. This was the third time the Tigers had lost a World Series in a deciding seventh game.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: With Hank Greenberg serving in World War II for all or parts of the 1941–1944 seasons, the Tigers struggled to recapture the glory of 1940. They finished no higher than fifth place in 1941–1943, but did manage a second-place finish in 1944, largely on the strength of pitchers Hal Newhouser and Dizzy Trout, who won 29 and 27 games, respectively. Newhouser, who was 29–9 with a 2.22 ERA, won the first of his two consecutive AL MVP awards this season. The Tigers were in first place as late as September 18, but would finish one game behind the St. Louis Browns for the AL pennant.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: With the end of World War II and the timely return of Hank Greenberg and others from the military, the Tigers won the AL pennant by just 1.5 games over the Washington Senators with an 88–65 record. Virgil Trucks returned from the U.S. Navy in time to pitch innings of 1-run ball in the pennant-clinching game, with starter Hal Newhouser pitching the final innings in relief. Newhouser won the pitching triple crown, leading the AL in wins (25), ERA (1.81) and strikeouts (212). He became the first pitcher in the history of the AL, and still the only pitcher as of 2021, to win the MVP Award in two consecutive seasons.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: With Newhouser, Trucks and Dizzy Trout on the mound and Greenberg leading the offense, Detroit responded in a World Series Game 7 for the first time, staking Newhouser to a 5–0 lead before he threw a pitch en route to a 9–3 victory over the Cubs. Because many stars had not yet returned from the military, some baseball scholars have deemed the 1945 World Series to be among the worst-played contests in World Series history. For example, prior to the World Series, Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown was asked who he liked, and he answered, "I don't think either one of them can win."


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Following their World Series win in 1945, the Tigers continued to have winning records for the remainder of the decade, finishing second in the AL three times, but never winning the pennant.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Hal Newhouser had another outstanding season in 1946, again leading the league in wins (26) and ERA (1.94) while striking out a career-high 275 batters. He nearly won his third straight AL MVP award, finishing second to Ted Williams, who had led the Boston Red Sox to 104 wins (12 games ahead of the second-place Tigers). Also in 1946, the Tigers acquired George Kell, a third baseman who would become a 10-time all-star and Hall of Famer. He batted over .300 in eight straight seasons (1946–53), and finished with a career .306 average. Kell won the batting title in a very close race with Ted Williams in 1949, going 2-for-3 on the last day of the season to edge out the Red Sox slugger, .34291 to .34276.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The 1950 season was particularly frustrating, as the Tigers posted a 95–59 record for a .617 winning percentage, the fourth-best in team history at the time. However, they finished that season three games behind a strong New York Yankees team that went on to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Over the next 10 years, the Tigers sank to the middle and lower ranks of the American League. The team had only three winning records over this span and never finished higher than fourth place. The last place 1952 team went 50–104 (.325), which was the worst season in Tigers history until the 2003 team lost 119 games. Despite the dismal season, starter Virgil Trucks threw two no-hitters in 1952, becoming only the third pitcher in major league history to accomplished this feat. 1952 also saw Tiger first baseman Walt Dropo get a hit in 12 consecutive plate appearances over a three-game stretch from July 14 to July 15, tying a major league record set by Johnny Kling in 1902.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Team owner Walter Briggs Sr. died in 1952. His son Walter Briggs Jr. inherited the team, but he was forced to sell it in 1956 to broadcast media owners John Fetzer and Fred Knorr.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: Notwithstanding Detroit's fall in the standings, the decade saw the debut of outfielder Al Kaline in 1953. One of the few major league players who never played a day in the minor leagues, he would hit over .300 nine times in his career. He also made 15 All-Star teams, won 10 Gold Gloves, and featured one of the league's best arms in right field. In 1955, the 20-year-old Kaline hit .340 to become the youngest-ever batting champion in major league history.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: 1958 saw the Tigers become the second to last team to integrate their roster when Dominican player Ozzie Virgil Sr. joined the team. Only the Boston Red Sox trailed the Tigers in integrating their roster.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: As the American League expanded from 8 to 10 teams, Detroit began its slow ascent back to success with an outstanding 1961 campaign. The Tigers led the majors in runs scored and won 101 games, a whopping 30-game improvement over the 71–83 1960 team, but still finished eight games behind the Yankees. This marked one of the few times in major league history that a team failed to reach the postseason despite winning 100 or more games, though it had happened once before to the Tigers in 1915. First baseman Norm Cash won the batting title with a .361 average, while teammate Al Kaline finished second. Cash never hit over .286 before or after the 1961 season, and would later say of the accomplishment: "It was a freak. Even at the time, I realized that." Cash's plate heroics, which also included 41 home runs and 132 RBI, might have earned him MVP honors were it not for New York's Roger Maris bashing a then record 61 homers the same season. Cash also drew 124 walks for a league-leading .487 on-base percentage. Tigers outfielder Rocky Colavito actually bettered Cash's home run and RBI totals, with 45 and 140, respectively.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The 1961 club featured two non-white starters, Bill Bruton and Jake Wood, and later in the 1960s, black players such as Willie Horton, Earl Wilson, and Gates Brown would contribute to Detroit's rise in the standings.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: As a strong nucleus developed, Detroit repeatedly posted winning records throughout the 1960s. In 1963, pitchers Mickey Lolich and Denny McLain entered the rotation. Outfielders Willie Horton (1963), Mickey Stanley (1964) and Jim Northrup (1964) would also come aboard around this time.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The team managed a third-place finish during a bizarre 1966 season, in which manager Chuck Dressen and acting manager Bob Swift were both forced to resign their posts because of health problems. Thereafter, Frank Skaff took over the managerial reins until the end of the season. Both Dressen and Swift died during the year; Dressen died of a heart attack in August, while Swift died of lung cancer in October. Following the season, the Tigers hired Mayo Smith to be their new manager.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: In 1967, the Tigers were involved in one of the closest pennant races in history. Because of rainouts, the Tigers were forced to play back-to-back doubleheaders against the California Angels over the final two days of the season. They needed to sweep the doubleheader on the last day of the season to force a one-game playoff with the Boston Red Sox. The Tigers won the first game, but lost the second, giving the Red Sox the pennant with no playoff. Detroit finished the season at 91–71, one game behind Boston. Starter Earl Wilson, acquired the previous season from the Red Sox, led the Tigers (and the major leagues) with 22 wins and would form a strong 1–2–3 combination with Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich over the next few years.


title: Detroit Tigers

text: The Tigers finally returned to the World Series in 1968. The team grabbed first place from the Baltimore Orioles on May 10 and would not relinquish the position, clinching the pennant on September 17 and finishing with a 103–59 record. In a year that was marked by dominant pitching, starter Denny McLain went 31–6 (with a 1.96 ERA), the first time a pitcher had won 30 or more games in a season since Dizzy Dean accomplished the feat in 1934; no pitcher has accomplished it since. McLain won the AL MVP and Cy Young Award for his efforts.