Rating: 
Summary: A witty, enjoyable read for everyone.
Review: Jane Austen said of Emma Woodhouse (in a letter) that she had written a novel with a heroine "whom no one would like but myself". Indeed the first sentence (another sterling first sentence by Austen. How does she do it?) paints a picture that is easily understood as a spoilt little rich girl:"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable house 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." At the same time we have to disagree with Miss Austen. Readers have fallen in love with Emma (both novel and heroine) since the novel was published, and with good reason Ronald Blythe states in his introduction to the 1966 Penguin Classics edition of "Emma" that it is "the climax of Jane Austen's genius and the Parthenon of fiction." I do not dispute it for a second. This novel is my favourite work from my favourite author. The book has a plot so timeless than even translating it to modern day Hollywood and casting Alicia Silverstone in the lead still gets you a hit movie, Clueless. OK, it's obvious from the first chapter who is destined to marry Emma but our dashing hero, Mr Knightley, is still the only person who ever criticises Emma, indeed he spends a large part of his time in the novel telling either Emma or her friends about her flaws. Austen wrote to her niece Anna (writing a novel at the time) that "Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on" and stayed close to this for most of her own works. Yet at the same time, in a letter to her brother Edward (another incipient novelist) she played down her concerns as "the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as to produce little effect, after much labour." 'Emma' is certainly the novel on the smallest piece of ivory with the finest brush, yet it pokes as much fun and wields as savage a knife on the social conventions of Austen's England as any other novelist of the time. Austen was capable of writing novels with genuine popular appeal at the same time as she flouted the conventions of fiction. 'Emma' is a marvellous example, an easily read, enjoyable novel with a heroine who is in charge of her own destiny and who marries for no other reason than she loves a good, strong man. Everyone deserves to read a novel this good. Just because teenage girls will adore this novel and swoon over Mr Knightley doesn't mean the rest of us should be stopped from this marvellous read. I enjoy Austen immensely and this is my favourite. I probably read it once or twice a year. When you come to choosing the edition I once again find myself recommending the Penguin Classics edition for its Introduction. This time it is Fiona Stafford who does such a good job (though I think the '66 edition Introduction by Ronald Blythe was a fraction better.)
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Emma is the first Jane Austen novel I ever read, and 13 years later it's still my favorite. It's also the most accessible, easy to read Austen novel. I literally could not put this book down. I thought all the characters, especially Emma, were wonderful. The title character, whie arrogant, was well meaning in her attempts to play matchmaker for the people around her. I could really relate to her, because I recognized that I've met people like her. She was at once funny, well intentioned, spoiled, controlling, and sweet. This book is really funny. The introduction is very useful in helping the reader keep all the events of the story straight. As well, it gives readers insight into the times, and into Austen's views about society. I really appreciated having the cast of characters printed at the beginning of the book, because there are alot (sometimes, it seems, too many) characters inhabiting the book. Because each person in the novel is so distinct and well drawn, the occasional confusion is worth it. I highly reccommend this book to anyone!
Rating: 
Summary: good
Review: I also expected more, but i liked it a lot. And yes, it is for serious readers (you cant read Jane Austen if youre not one). Is funny and I liked Emma a lot. Although mr. Knightley was too old :p But is great. You must read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended but not outstanding
Review: As good as this book is, it is slow to start does not really pick up until after the 150 pages or so. But stick with it. However, those looking for an introduction to Jane Austen might be better suited with faster paced Pride & Prejudice and gradually make your way toward this one. Two things that I liked very much about this book. The lead character is a likable but strong willed heroine with fixed ideas and the author is not afraid to use that to a disadvantage. Emma is flawed and it makes her interesting to read. Also, you get a stronger sense of community in a small victorian town and how they relied on one another found here than any of her other works that I have read. It's a very charming enjoyable aspect that works in the books favor. As far as premise goes, this is one of the more cohesive and linear of Austen's works and I can see the reason why this has been this has been adapted to film and stage so many times. What I liked about Bantams edition was there was no droll introduction or afterward by a scholar indicating why the book and author are important and lets the work speak for itself. What they did have was useful footnotes when the characters were referencing now obscure objects, writers and poets making the book more accessible. But as well as the book starting slowly, the other problem I had was that I found myself not emotionally investing in the characters. Emma is likeable, as stated before, but that was about it. Despite her appeal, she has no impact. Same goes with everyone else save for Miss Bates. The town spinster had me in stitches with her rambling monologues and sweet nature. When someone picks on her, it does make an impact. A nice story, just not a great one. Outside of the reservations mentioned, I'm glad I read it and recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Praise for Jane Austen!
Review: i had to read this for my english sophmore highschool class and while most of my peers *hated* this book, i found this book very intriguing and esp. realistic to even today in highschool. the subjects of vanity, friendship, honesty, control, reality, self-desire, relationships, status, and maturity is all incorporated in this book and deeply and straight-forwardly depicts the life of any teenager in any century then or now. Emma struggles to understand her intentions and learns what her mistakes were all about and the reader sees her mature through experiences and constantly learning and realizing her mistakes and flaws and misconceptions. though it was a long story and had a lot of old-language narration, i have to say, Emma is part of the epitome of what ever teenager goes through, female and male. while this is mostly a chick book, guys can find themselves related to the situations that Emma deals with with the other men in the book. i highly recommend this book for people who have patience and are open to the ideals of aristocracy back then. it's amusing, witty, and shocking. really great book.
Rating:
Summary: Meddling Yet Satisfying
Review: Jane Austen's book Emma is creatively woven together with the characteristics of Emma Woodhouse, a young lady with much prestige. Even though the flaws of her character are questionable, her intentions are clear. Her role as a matchmaker during a unique time period creates a diversion from reality in the high social class where Emma resides. The encouragement by one lucky guess pushes her to create absolute non-sense. A reader only hopes to read faster in order to reveal and figure out the out come of all her mistakes. Emma hooks readers, addicting them to the humor and "tangled mess" in which she finds herself. This beautifully illustrated book quickly creates an exclusive impression every time it is read.
Rating:
Summary: Blind Arrogance and the Dance of Love
Review: Like all of her novels, Jane Austen's EMMA is essentially a comedy of manners, a work in which the characters move inside a highly restrictive code of conduct and must walk a fine line between the socially acceptable and unacceptable if they are to survive, much less reach their goals. But at the same time the central character, Emma Woodhouse, is a marked departure. Not only is she a young woman of considerable wealth and social standing, she is, as critics are fond of pointing out, "flawed." The nature of Emma's flaw is essentially Austen's observation of the great failing of the upper-class: an assumption that what they think and do is inevitably correct. And although Emma is quick-witted, generous, and kind, she suffers the effect of this blind arrogance when she comes to believe that she is gifted as a matchmaker and can order the romantic lives of her circle to suit her own liking. The result is a series of seriocomic entanglements and disasters that touches virtually every one with whom Emma comes into contact. The story requires considerable exposition, and consequently the action is slow to gather; add to this the fact that Emma herself is so overbearing and self-assured that you frequently want to give her a slap. The result is a novel that many, including Austen fans, will find an uphill read. Even so, Austen is writing very close to the peak of her powers here, and her amazing talent for observation, subtle irony, and flashing wit endow EMMA with tremendous charm and interest. In many respects a remarkable novel, but one that I recommend more to determined Austen fans than to casual readers. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Austen's comedy of errors
Review: "Emma" has been called Jane Austen's most flawed heroine, but I'd rather reserve that title for Fanny Price of "Mansfield Park", whose very "perfection" makes her one of the most obnoxious inventions of British literature. How can one stand a hero or heroine who is never, ever wrong? We'd rather have someone like Emma, who, for all her flaws, or maybe because of them, is a delightful creature. She's a hopeless busybody, meddling and interfering in everyone's lives, too much the lady of the manor for her own good; but she means nothing but everyone else's good. Unlike Austen's other heroines who are barely in the leisure class like Elizabeth Bennet or one step away from poverty like Fanny Price, Emma Woodhouse is comfortably well-off; she doesn't need a husband to support her because she'll inherit a fortune from her widowed father, so she's free to cheerfully attempt to marry everybody else off according to her own inclinations. And her main project is her friend Harriet, the child of an unknown father (an enormous social stigma in early 19th-century England), whom she attempts to pair off with a snooty, social-climbing vicar, unable to see the damage she is doing to both. Fresh from one blunder, Emma races headlong into another, and yet another, until you want to yank her chain and bring her up short. And she almost undoes her own self when the man she realizes she has loved all along, her neighbor Mr. Knightley, begins to see potential in Harriet himself. We know the mess is going to get sorted out sooner or later; Austen has a genius for untangling messes and getting everybody back on the right track, but it's fun to watch Emma racing from one hairbrained scheme to the next and getting caught in the traps of her own devising. And we like her none the less for it. Because Emma, wrongheaded as she often is, doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She genuinely wishes everyone well, even though it's on her terms. It takes an older, wiser and more experienced head like Knightley's to help her see the error of her ways. Knightley is the perfect foil for Emma, with a wit and intelligence as sharp as her own, but providing maturity and stability to balance her free-floating exuberance. "Emma" is not Austen's best work; just as Emma is a somewhat airheaded creature, "Emma" lacks the depth of Austen's later books such as "Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion". Emma, along with Elinor Dashwood and Elizabeth Bennet, is one of my three favorite Austen heroines, but Emma lacks the insight and maturity of the other two. Too often acts without thinking, but it's just this quality that makes her so endearing at times, even while it makes her so aggravating. Emma is probably Austen's most humanly fallible heroine, and maybe that's why we like her so much. Perfection is for gods and saints; Emma is for real.
Rating:
Summary: Reading is fun!
Review: This book is light-hearted and fun to read if you have a decent attention span. Emma is proud of her recent match-making success and sets out to do more. After a few awkward setbacks, she learns not to play Cupid, and that love is random and spotaneous, and can't be forced. In some places, the book can be kind of slow, but if you keep going, it gets better. All in all, I enjoyed it very much.
Rating: 
Summary: Quality is an illusion
Review: While cultural pundits try to convince you that some literature is better than other literature, the truth is that all art is relative to individial tastes. Thus, it doesn't make any sense to think that a novel like this one is really any better than say, Michael Crichton or Stephen King. Aesthetic standards can't be grounded. Thus, don't listen to anyone who tries to distinguish between "serious" works of literature like this one and allegedly "lesser" novels. The distinction is entirely illusory, because no novels are "better" than any others, and the concept of a "great novel" is an intellectual hoax.
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