Wayne Josephson

This is edition of Jane Eyre is an abridgement in the Readable Classics series of books. The plot remains the same. The reader follows the story of an orphan girl from childhood in her aunt's home, through boarding school, and into adulthood as governess to the ward of a wealthy man with a mystery.

The blurb about the series on the back of the book made me a wee bit nervous: "Readable Classics gently edits the works of great literature...making them more enjoyable and less frustrating to modern readers." I didn't like the insinuation that the original novel was "frustrating" or unenjoyable. In general, I'm unsure how I feel about abridgements meant for adults. I can see children's editions like the Great Illustrated Classics or adaptations like graphic novel versions, but I don't really see the point of them for adults. Even for older students, I don't understand how one can study a piece of literature without considering the author's language and original style.

That being said, I wasn't actually turned off by the editing once I started reading. It wasn't as distracting as I anticipated and really just updates Bronte's Victorian style for a modern audience. As far as recommendations, I would certainly still suggest a go at the original (it's really not that difficult a read). But if someone wanted a condensed version this would be a good one to pick up.… (more)

I've never read the original 'Emma' but I should hope it's not as weak as this offering. I trudged through this book for almost a month and should have given up on it long before then. Unfortunately, I'm a tad too stubborn and was "rewarded" with nonsensical vegan vampires, with no explanation on how they came to be, and a story with more holes than a donut convention. I didn't like the book cover either. Why the frick does the vampire have a smirk on his face? Having just had his head cut off shouldn't he have had a look of anguish or horror? And as the head is the heaviest part of the body how is Emma holding it when her hand appears to be relaxed and she's barely grabbing the hair?
The synopsis describes 'Emma and the Vampires' as being "hilarious" and yet I never even broke into a smile. At times it read like the plot to a cheesy slasher horror movie, where the college students always end up going out in the dark alone even though they know there's a killer about, as there were many instances where the characters would leave a gathering at night only to be confronted with the evil vampires attacking them. Why did they not just hold their get together during the day and save themselves the trouble? Besides, the evil vampires sucked (yeah, pun intended) anyway and always got their butts kicked so what use is the evil in the book when it never prevails over good in any way? There's no suspense involved when, for the upteenth time, the nocturnal vampires get beaten yet again and so they're more of a hindrance than any real threat in this novel. Heck, they need not have been in this novel at all for all the use they were.
Albeit a tad bit late I should mention that all men are vampires in this novel, good and evil, and Emma is trying to match up her friends with the good ones because that's obviously funny, right? About as funny as being staked in the groin over and over. I'm not wasting anymore words on this drivel and would have entered it into my 'Hall of Shame' except I felt sorry for Austen having her name associated with this heinous book...and I don't even like Austen! Horrible, horrible read.… (more)