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Often considered to be Jane Austen's finest work, Emma is the story of a charmingly self-deluded heroine whose injudicious matchmaking schemes often lead to substantial mortification. Emma, "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." Her own great fortune has blinded Emma to the true feelings and motivations of others and leads her to some hilarious misjudgments. But it is through her mistakes that Emma finds humility, wisdom, and true love. Told with the shrewd wit and delicate irony which have made Jane Austen a master of the English novel, Emma is a comic masterpiece whose fanciful heroine has gained the affection of generations of readers.
Sarasamsara: Like Austen's novels, The Makioka Sisters traces the daily lives and romances of an upper-class family-- the only difference is that this is pre-war Japan, not Regency England. Like in one of Austen's works, when you close the novel you feel like you are closing the door on someone's life.… (more)
kara.shamy: In some ways the heroines in these two novels are alike, but they are very different in other respects, and more strikingly, their respective journeys to the altar/married life go in diametrically opposite ways, in a sense! Both are true classics in my estimation; reading these two novels exposes the reader to two of the greatest English-language novelists of all time in the height of their respective powers. While all readers and critics do not and will not share this superlative view, few would dispute these are two early female masters of the form and are well worth a read on that humbler basis ;) Enjoy!… (more)
nessreader: Both Emma and Miss M are about ambitious, capable upper class women who can only express themselves as social hostesses. Both heroines are managing and bossy - Miss M, a generation younger, is played more for laughs, but there is a strong parallel. And both end in utter satisfaction for heroine and reader alike.… (more)
If my memory is correct, I first read Emma the summer before my sophomore year of high school, which should be the summer of 1998. I remember this partly because I was excited to see that our theatre department was doing a stage adaptation of Emma as the fall play. It was one of the first shows I worked on in my high school theatre department, despite having taken the freshman drama class the previous school year, and I made props. These factors combined to make Emma my favorite Jane Austen book.
December 2023: I'm re-reading Emma as part of my Jane Austen read-through. ( )
1. My favourite Jane Austen book. 2. Emma was a great character. She wasn't looking for love or marriage and that made her cool to me. 3. I was never sure who she was going to end up with. It should have been obvious but it wasn't to me. 4. I found this book easier to read than some of her others. 5. Just an excellent book. ( )
4th. Finally a female with some power--usually Austen's heroines suffer heroically (and silently). But Emma misuses her power, so she is the one causing the hardships. ( )
I liked this book a lot and I think anyone who likes Jane Austen should read this book because she never fails to bring a really interesting love story into her novels. ( )
The institution of marriage, like the novel itself, has changed greatly since Austenâs time; but as long as human beings long for this kind of mutual recognition and understanding, âEmmaâ will live.
âPerhaps the key to Emmaâs perfection, however, is that it is a comic novel, written in a mode that rarely gets much respect. Itâs exquisitely ironic.â
âThe presiding message of the novel is that we must forgive Emma for her shortcomings just as she can and does learn to excuse the sometimes vexing people around her. There is, I believe, more wisdom in that than in many, many more portentous and ambitious novels. Emma is flawed, but âEmmaâ is flawless."
Itâs a small but striking and instructive demonstration, the careful way Emma appraises the character of the various men who jockey for her attentions and those of the women around her. We could all learn from her example.
"In January 1814, Jane Austen sat down to write a revolutionary novel. Emma, the book she composed over the next year, was to change the shape of what is possible in fiction."
"The novelâs stylistic innovations allow it to explore not just a characterâs feelings, but, comically, her deep ignorance of her own feelings. "
"Those who condemn the novel by saying that its heroine is a snob miss the point. Of course she is. But Austen, with a refusal of moralism worthy of Flaubert, abandons her protagonist to her snobbery and confidently risks inciting foolish readers to think that the author must be a snob too"
To His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, this work is, by His Royal Highness's permission, most respectfully dedicated, by His Royal Highness's dutiful and obedient humble servant, the author.
First words
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.
Quotations
Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.
"I thank you; but I assure you, you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends, and nothing more, and she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are for every falling into..." (Emma)
"I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other."
Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure.
I have seen a great many lists of her drawing up at various times of books that she meant to read regularly through--and very good books they were--very well chosen and very neatly arranged--sometimes alphabetically and sometimes by some other rule.
How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation? (Frank Weston Churchill)
Oh! The blessing of a female correspondent when one is really interested in the absent! (Frank Weston Churchill)
"I cannot make speeches, Emma...If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." (Mr. Knightley)
It will be natural for me...to speak my opinion aloud as I read. (Mr. Knightley)
These matters are always a secret till it is found out that everybody knows them. (Mr. Weston)
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
[...] a sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. it soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again.
Last words
But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.
Often considered to be Jane Austen's finest work, Emma is the story of a charmingly self-deluded heroine whose injudicious matchmaking schemes often lead to substantial mortification. Emma, "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." Her own great fortune has blinded Emma to the true feelings and motivations of others and leads her to some hilarious misjudgments. But it is through her mistakes that Emma finds humility, wisdom, and true love. Told with the shrewd wit and delicate irony which have made Jane Austen a master of the English novel, Emma is a comic masterpiece whose fanciful heroine has gained the affection of generations of readers.
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Haiku summary
Mix-match my neighbors Cutest narcissist am I Don't listen to me (city girl)
Bossy know-it-all Privileged and doted on Meddles. Learns lessons. (pickupsticks)
She can do no wrong Matchmaking busybody Knightley sets things right. (pickupsticks)
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Emma - The Prince Regent's copy is on display at JAHM
Wikipedia in English (1)
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December 2023: I'm re-reading Emma as part of my Jane Austen read-through. (