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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN: 9780141439587
ISBN: 0141439580
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: May 06, 2003
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Release Date: May 06, 2003
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
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
Product Description:
New chronology and further reading; Tony Tanner's original introduction reinstated
Edited with an introduction and notes by Flora Stafford.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Although Austen's longest novel, Emma is a lot of fun to read. It was a
real challenge to make us truly care about this spoiled
and meddlesome character. I guess it because it is Emma's depth of feeling
and her reactions to all the chaos she creates throughout the book that really
endear her. That and the fact that in the end everything works out as it
should (no major spoiler that), and all her messes are resolved happily or
comically.
I can see why many consider this to be Austen's best work: it has many of the
best qualities of the other work, but it also builds into a mystery
with a surprising resolution, and many characters turn out to be quite
different from what we initially suspect.
Rating: -
Emma is a young woman from a little town not far from London, but isolated and unfrequently visited. Her mother has died and she lives with her father and her governess. Her family is at the very top of social standings in town, and Emma is all too aware of it. The starting point is her governess's engagement to a good man, which Emma imagines she has engineered by herself. Consequently, she thinks she is the ideal matchmaker, and makes this "skill" her vocation, which creates all sorts of intrigues, equivocations, and comical situations for all the unfortunate people who surround her, especailly her young and poor protege, Harriet, whom she corners into rejecting a decent fellow in order to get her someone "better", someone she will be able to receive at her home. So, Emma becomes trouble, and the initial success is hard to repeat. Emma proclaims that she will never marry, as her role in life is only getting other people to marry, besides the fact that she must take care of her old father. Who, by the way, is an unsympathetic, hypocondriac, complaining, and blackmailing man, who has utterly spoiled Emma. Her elder sister, by contrast, is married to a rich banker and lives in London. The rest of the characters is also very well rounded, especially the family friend Mr. Knightley, who is always lecturing Emma about her meddlesome habits; Mrs. and Miss Bates, a couple of neighbors who are poor but close to the family (Miss Bates speaks constantly and erratically, which makes many people avoid her), and the unlikable Elton and Frank Churchill, who Emma believes is in love with her.
The book is funny and written with the mastery of Austen, who manages as always to create a closed world, bounded by very strict rules of conduct and prejudice, in an ecnhanting setting. Emma is definitely a spoiled brat, kind but arrogant, and her delusion about matchmaking unbearable, but nevertheless she is an attractive character, and her youth makes the reader forgive her faults.
Rating:  -
I'm an older guy with a Ph.D. in English. For the last month or so, I've been trying to read "Emma," and I believe I lack only 50 pages. I'm determined to finish. Actually, I started reading it about a year ago. If I can suffer through 10 pages a day, I think I'm doing well. I plan some type of celebration once I'm done.
One of my graduate students used the word "tedious" to describe Jane Austen. I agree 100%. Sometimes you must read a sentence a dozen times; then, maybe, you have an inkling of what Ms. Austen is trying to say. Maybe not. She simply goes on and on and on.
Personally, it's novels like "Emma" (or any other novel by the outdated Ms. Austen) that turn kids against literature. When I was in the 10th grade, we had to read "Silas Marner," a totally painful experience. I reread it years later, thinking maybe I had misjudged it as a teen. I had. It was even more painful.
i'm really thinking about beginning a Website, "Real Men Don't Read Jane Austen." But that's sexist, isn't it? I can only hear Ms. Austin responding, "Do you mean to say if real men don't read me, unreal men do? What's an unreal man? Are there both real men and unreal men in the world? Is 'unreal' the opposite of 'real'? But what's 'real'? Is it the opposite of 'unreal'? Oh, my. My my. What's 'real'? What's 'unreal'? Oh my fur and whiskers!"
Rating: -
I am currently reading Emma for my book club. I had to watch the movie to understand who certian people were but the book is even better. She is wity and funny. I would recommend this book.
Rating: -
When commenting about the brilliant Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice is the most commonly discussed. Though I must admit that Pride and Prejudice is my undisputed favorite from among those novels I have read by Ms. Austen, she does have many other great works. Emma is yet another example of her unparalleled skills as a writer. Most people find Austen's themes of romance most interesting but her novels, Emma in particular, are peppered with a great deal of satire. Austen manages to not only create an engaging story but also to criticize the ridged society in which she lived. In all of the Jane Austen novels that I have read she has created a humorous character who seems to talk far too much and make herself ridiculous to everybody; that character in this story is Mrs. Bates. Though Mrs. Bates long speeches did often get annoying they were not without humor and it seems obvious that Austen was poking fun at many of the women in her society. Though it took me a while to get through this book I did thoroughly enjoy it and was further convinced of Jane Austen being one of the greatest writers to ever live. This novel rather contrasted both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility in the fact that the heroin was not an underprivileged young woman who was lifted up from inferior circumstance. Instead, Emma was born into a high circle of society and a great deal of money. It was not her who was looked down on but she who looked down on others and while she was generally well meaning she was not without her pride and sense of superiority. I had a bit of a difficult time relating to Emma's character as opposed to those of Elizabeth Bennett or Elinor Dashwood who were both more level headed and loveable. I always enjoy Jane Austen's novels and I am very glad that I read Emma. I would most certainly suggest it!
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