Emma (Oxford World's Classics) Review
I have always loved "Sense and Sensibility" and wanted to expand into more of Austen's works. This one did not disappoint! It is a fantastic tale with all the usual Austen humor and wittiness that work so well in her stories! In fact, it is now up there with "Sense" as my favorite Austen work!
"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her."
The first sentence in the novel really sets the stage for all the mistakes the main character makes throughout! This novel tells the story of Emma Woodhouse, a privileged young lady who, with nothing else to occupy her time, loves matchmaking among her friends. She loves it so much that she doesn't pay any attention to her true love right under her nose! Of course things don't go the way Emma would like and there are the usual misunderstandings but things work out in the end and everyone ends up with who they are destined to be with.
This had been called one of Austen's best works and I can agree with that. I really loved this story. This certainly is the "lightest" of Austen's novels as you will not find any lives ruined or huge scandals that ruin reputations. It is simply (and wonderfully so) the story of a small, English village where the inhabitants really have nothing substantial to occupy their time; none more so than Emma. I think one of the things Austen is so marvelous at is her ability to really focus on her characters and their everyday lives and none of her novels do this as well as Emma. As there is no serious "action" the story must therefore focus on everyday occurrences. You could call this a comedy of manners as the characters revolve within a very strict code of behavior and etiquette where everything should move along very smoothly but of course, because of meddling (mainly Emma's) things always go completely wrong! The novel is full of the usual, heavy Austen dialogue and description which I'm sure can get tedious for some readers (I did find myself skimming over some of Miss. Bates' extended ramblings) but, as in her other novels, it does not get in the way and can really help the reader come to terms with a time very foreign from our own. Many modern readers find the "elitist" attitudes in Austen's books a turn off and condemn the novels. However, Austen is not intending to make these attitudes seem wonderful; if some readers would look closer they would realize that she is really satirizing these attitudes and showing them for the silliness they really were. The main character, Emma, can be a bit annoying at times, but she is so open about her own faults and weaknesses that its hard to dislike her. In fact, you do see her acknowledging in several places her mistakes and is able to laugh them off and learn from them. Austen herself said that Emma was a character that nobody would really like but herself; I disagree.Yes, she can come across as snobbish, arrogant, and overly conscious of her place in society but what can you expect from a girl who has been raised by a doting father and governess? Mixed with those slightly irritating qualities, though, is a sweetness and a true desire to be helpful which really makes her endearing. I highly doubt Emma's personality is that much different from other young ladies of the time. I think the true shining star in this novel, though, is Mr. Knightley, Emma's close friend and true English gentleman (supposedly this was Austen's favorite hero as well and created her ideal gentleman in him; his name is no accident). He is kind and thoughtful, witty and intelligent, but blunt and always ready to bring Emma back down to Earth. Their bantering back and forth is really charming. I only wish we knew more about Mr. Knightley's background and that we could see more of him in the novel! The rest of the characters in the novel are all brilliantly drawn and even though they are not the focus of the story, you come to know them as well as the two mains: the eccentric and hypochondriac Mr. Woodhouse, sweet and naive Harriet Smith, the kind Westons, slightly foppish Frank Churchill and the very reserved Jane Fairfax, the kindly Miss. and Mrs. Bates, and the exceedingly arrogant Eltons.
This is a wonderful and delightful story and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It is a light and charming story about a slightly flawed but kind young lady (and who among us is not flawed?) who, through a series of blunders, grows and matures. It is also a humorous story poking fun at the strict code of behavior and the social classes of the day.
Emma (Oxford World's Classics) Overview
Emma (1816) is Jane Austen's most characteristic work. Written with irony, wit, and faultless control, it is both a novel of intense emotional power and a comic masterpiece. This edition has a new Introduction which examines the pleasure given by Emma's reassuringly stable world as well as by its comedy, and examines the relationships, imagery, amd continuing power of Austen's last and perhaps greatest novel.
Emma (Oxford World's Classics) Specifications
Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing.
Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet has more wit and sparkle; Catherine Morland in
Northanger Abbey more imagination; and
Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood certainly more sense--but Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect. Austen only completed six novels in her lifetime, of which five feature young women whose chances for making a good marriage depend greatly on financial issues, and whose prospects if they fail are rather grim.
Emma is the exception: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." One may be tempted to wonder what Austen could possibly find to say about so fortunate a character. The answer is, quite a lot.
For Emma, raised to think well of herself, has such a high opinion of her own worth that it blinds her to the opinions of others. The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image. Ignoring the gaping difference in their respective fortunes and stations in life, Emma convinces herself and her friend that Harriet should look as high as Emma herself might for a husband--and she zeroes in on an ambitious vicar as the perfect match. At the same time, she reads too much into a flirtation with Frank Churchill, the newly arrived son of family friends, and thoughtlessly starts a rumor about poor but beautiful Jane Fairfax, the beloved niece of two genteelly impoverished elderly ladies in the village. As Emma's fantastically misguided schemes threaten to surge out of control, the voice of reason is provided by Mr. Knightly, the Woodhouse's longtime friend and neighbor. Though Austen herself described Emma as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," she endowed her creation with enough charm to see her through her most egregious behavior, and the saving grace of being able to learn from her mistakes. By the end of the novel Harriet, Frank, and Jane are all properly accounted for, Emma is wiser (though certainly not sadder), and the reader has had the satisfaction of enjoying Jane Austen at the height of her powers. --Alix Wilber
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Customer Reviews
Emma means well, but... - Sara A. Pauff -
***spoiler alert *** I didn't expect to like this book, because lots of readers usually mention how annoying and meddlesome Emma Woodhouse is. But I liked Emma. There's no anxious, annoying mother trying to marry off all of her daughters, because, unlike a lot of Austen heroines, Emma doesn't have to worry about marrying for money or marrying at all. She's already rich and happy and has a big house of her own. She's independent. Sure she meddles and gossips and is really bad at matchmaking, but she does all this wit...more I didn't expect to like this book, because lots of readers usually mention how annoying and meddlesome Emma Woodhouse is. But I liked Emma. There's no anxious, annoying mother trying to marry off all of her daughters, because, unlike a lot of Austen heroines, Emma doesn't have to worry about marrying for money or marrying at all. She's already rich and happy and has a big house of her own. She's independent. Sure she meddles and gossips and is really bad at matchmaking, but she does all this with good intentions.
Faults? The ending drags a bit and Knightley is not the most romantic of heroes - he scolds. But if you're reading Austen solely for romance, you've clearly missed the point.
Emma--another entertaining Austen soap opera - austenfan442 -
If you liked Pride and Prejudice, this will probably amuse you, but it's not quite as memorable. The characters are hilarious and the plot twist rather unpredictable. I enjoyed it a great deal.
Exquisite - Peter Reeve - Thousand Oaks, CA USA
Jane Austen's Emma was published in December 1815, when she was forty years old (just 19 months before she died). It is thus a work of her mature period, and is something of a favorite among her devotees.
My admiration of Austen's work is partly for her insight into human nature but also for the sheer beauty of her prose. It has a poetic texture. Her sentences can be long and complex, with some confusion of pronouns, so that they need to be lingered on, their sense teased out of them, until their structure and meaning is revealed, exactly as one would do with poetry. The effect is immensely satisfying.
She spends almost no time on descriptions of place, but when she does she shows herself capable of describing a scene succinctly and effectively. Her main focus is on character. She describes her characters and their motivation at length, and reveals them through dialogue. This emphasis on dialogue makes her work eminently suitable for dramatization, so it is no surprise that there have been so many adaptations of her work in cinema and television
Emma is unique among Austen's novels in that the heroine is a spoilt rich girl, with definite character flaws. The reader is challenged to judge her and to choose to like her or not.
One or two of the plot elements are somewhat contrived, but that befits a comedy of errors, which is what this essentially is.
I would advise reading as little as possible about the book before reading the book itself, for fear of spoilers. In particular, you should avoid any introduction, because editors of classics very generously provide complete synopses of plots in their introductions, presumably to spare the reader any surprises. Introductions are best read after the story or, in the case of the Barnes & Noble Classics edition, not at all. The introduction by Steven Marcus is verbose, meandering and thoroughly confused. If you want good editorial input, choose another edition.
[PeterReeve]
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