Emma

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.

Rating:
Summary: Of lines, ranks and propriety...
Review: Nothing struck me more about this book than its pre-occupation with class boundaries, dwarfing even its other principal obsession - the question of matrimony.

Coming from a society often criticized for its rigid caste hierarchy, I cannot help wondering whether comparisons of social equations in India and England in the 18th century would yield many remarkable differences. Emma's disregard for the "insignificant" classes would do the most caste-conscious Brahmin proud.

One of the questions that stems from a first reading is the position of Ms. Austen herself. Emma's character is obviously intended to come across as more than moderately conceited. Is the opinion she, and other characters imbued with the darker shades of gray, hold, of the importance of nobility and high birth, intended to reflect the authoress' own disapproval of the social rigidity of pre-Victorian England...or is it merely the use of an existing social situation as a tool to bring into focus, the underlying moral theme of the ills of conceit and indiscretion?

Either way, it is a little disappointing to note the apparent indifference which marks the book's attitude towards the same class distinctions which it so effectively delineates. It would have been considerably more interesting for instance, if Ms. Austen's sparkling prose could have been employed to contrast the characters and social circumstances of Emma and Jane Fairfax, who is superior to the eponymous protagonist in merit but inferior in social standing, instead of restricting her role to a supporting one.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but I expected better...
Review: I must admit, I had really high hopes for this novel. However, after reading the first chapter, I put it down to go onto a different novel. A few months and a few novels passed and I again picked it up to try again. History does, indeed, repeat itself. Another chapter down, I went to another novel.

Finally, after owning the book for 8 months, I decided it was time to just do it. So, I refused to allow myself to put it down again for another novel. It took me about twelve chapters to become involved in any character besides Mr. Knightly and to enjoy the story... but it did come.

Had I reviewed this book before chapter 12, I would have said, "No way... this book is too slow and long winded!" However, after finishing it, I appreciate the author and the story more than I did before.

I will say this much, however: I have discovered that I am a reader of Charlotte Bronte, but a viewer of Jane Austin movies adapted to film.

Rating:
Summary: A book females will love
Review: I first learned of 'Emma' by watching the movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow - I was instantly captivated by the high-class style of that era, Emma's life and her relationship with Mr. Knightly. After watching the movie probably 16 times, I went and read the book and was so glad I did! It's become one of my all-time favorite books simply because I love Emma's character and get lost in her life and world every time, and come back later craving to read it again! The book expands and clarifies so much we don't get to see in the movie and gives you the original view of Emma - apart from the movie. As a woman, I love romance and tales of older times where nobility and class presided yet values were down to earth, respectable and loving. 'Emma' combines both nobility and the 'down to earthness' in Mr. Knightly. If you love romance, strong female characters and getting lost in another world of balls, dances, society - definitely read this and watch the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow! It's gorgeous and guaranteed to uplift you.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Novel that isn't boring
Review: I will admit that when it comes to reading things that are regarding as "classics" I usually want to kill myself. I find the language and story etc. boring. Emma, is actually the exception to that.

Emma was written in the late 1800's by Austen who is known for her work Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Emma is a young woman who prides herself on setting up her friend/governess with her new husband. Emma decides to continue her matchmaking skills by taking on a new protege. Her new protege has a crush on Mr. Martin whom Emma deems as not acceptable. Emma tries to persuade Harriet's interest to others and well it is a fisaco. The first man actually likes Emma. The second man Harriet is interested in ends up being the man that Emma herself discovers she likes. Of course all ends well with all the characters getting what they deserve.

It is an amusing read. The theme seems to be that although Emma in the beginning seems like a shallow, selfish girl, in the end she realizes that she was snobby and wrong and tries to rectify her mistakes. She doesn't want to hurt her friends and realizes that what she thought was best for them was wrong.
If you are looking for some "quality fiction" or if you have a school report to write, this is an excellent book to read. you won't be bored.

Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: Having recently read Pride and Prejudice in under a week, I expected Emma to suck me in and spit me out just as easily. It didn't. I had to work to read Emma.

For starters, I didn't like Emma, the character, very much in the beginning. She came off as stuck on herself and very know-it-all. But, I was determined to give her a chance b/c a friend of mine named her daughter Emma for this book. So, I trudged on, and did begin to like the girl. I also read the commentary on the book and constantly compared it to scenes from Clueless (since Clueless is a modern-day Emma).

The story dragged on a lot longer than I normally would be comfortable with, but once I got into a good pace for reading, that was fine. More than anything, I just wanted to know what was going on with Jane Fairfax. The outcome was very welcome, and I enjoyed Emma's love-life conclusion.

It was a very enjoyable book, though I wouldn't call it "the most perfect of Jane Austen's perfect novels," as was written on the inside flap of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Complex Herione
Review: It is difficult to imagine how a book written in 1816 can still be relevant and emotionally viable, after so much change in literature. And while female gender roles have evolved and broadened (causing certain things to become irrelevant- like the drastic choice between marriage or condemnation), Emma remains one of the most complex and ambivalent characters in literature. Perhaps because Austen's major theme- pride- is a rather timeless attribute in humans.

Austen was quoted as wanting to create a character "no one but [her]self will much like," and Emma certainly answers that promise. Emma is a talented, highly intelligent woman who carries so much pride, that she deems every man an ill-suitor for her, while an under-adjusted adolescent side of her secretly resents such men for being turned off by her harsh arrogance, smugness, and severity. She acts as a match-maker for her less fortunate common friends, bringing them together with men whom she despises; thus ridding herself of her own ingrown desires while condescendingly 'helping' her girl-friends meet men who share their mediocrity. As difficult as it is to like Emma, readers will find her mysteriously compelling, perhaps because there are moments of confused kindness, where our heroine is able to transcend her vanity and truly feel happy for the couples she brings together.

Enter Mr. Knightley, who after a tiresome handful of preceding men, is able to gain Emma's respect and affection simply by not buying into her mind games and calling her on her actions. Austen's genius is most manifest in her witty dialog, and the dynamic between Emma and Mr. Knightley- in their bantering flirtations veiled under intellectual stimulation- are testament to that.

This novel is about self-image, and for a woman in 19th century patriarchal society that is all she has. Emma owns her self-importance until the men notice, until it becomes real (and despite early feminist tendencies, this only re-confirms female's subordination to men in that social context). Regardless of how readers feel about Emma, the novel is superbly written with wit, irony, and an almost ruthless emotional verity. If an author's goal is to gain her reader's empathy, Austen set out for herself a highly ambitious goal, one that was improbably executed with grace.