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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended but not outstanding, Mar 9 2004
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.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
First Half Slow but Satisfying Overall, Jun 26 2004
Honestly, if I had not read Pride & Prejudice first, I would have thought that I did not like Jane Austen's writing style. Emma is extremely slow to begin with though it picks up about half way through. The story centers on Emma Woodhouse, the unmarried daughter of a man obsessed with ailments to be potentially caught from drafts, rich foods and just about anything that is part of ordinary life. Consequently he does not go out (as a rule) and depends on Emma substantially for companionship and general well being. Despite his eccentricities, he is well loved by the community and is a very genial character. Emma, resolved not to marry, takes up matchmaking after her governess, Miss Taylor, marries friend and neighbor, Mr. Weston and Emma feels that she had contributed to making the happy union come about. Against the advice of family friend and mentor, Mr. Knightly, she "takes under her wing" a young girl at the local school to groom and bring out into good society in hopes of finding her a husband - specifically Mr. Elton of the vicarage. Despite her unknown parentage and lack of good expectations, Emma convinces the girl, Harriet Smith, to aim high in her expectations of a husband and to reject the advances of those of her natural social set in preference for a gentleman.This goes on for so long that I was convinced that this was going to be the whole of the book. Joyfully, though, the Mr. Elton angle blows up catastrophically and simultaneously several more interesting characters are introduced. The icily reserved Jane Fairfax comes to visit her grandmother and aunt before hiring out as a governess. Though she had been taken in by the Campbells and raised very genteelly along side their own daughter, she has no fortune of her own. The same age as Emma, they are expected to be fast friends but Emma's resentments of Jane's superior abilities and deportment do not bode well for this. Then Mr. Weston's son, Frank Churchill, who was raised by his aunt and uncle after his mother's death, comes to meet his new stepmother and makes a splash in Highbury society. Mrs. Weston has designs for Emma and Frank. Emma meanwhile has designs for Harriet and Frank. No one can figure out Jane's designs though Emma suspects improper attachments between her and her benefactor's daughter's new husband. Mr. Elton then brings in a new wife whose forceful manner and arrogant air threaten to turn everything upside down against Emma when Mrs. Elton tries to force a relationship as Jane's benefactress. Similarities between Emma's presumptions with Harriet and Mrs. Elton's presumptuous behavior with Jane are unavoidable and provide a relatively subtle irony. In this last half as the intrigues play out, the story takes on the flavor of Pride and Prejudice and becomes infinitely more interesting. Though the first part was slow, it did serve to really build the character of Emma and she becomes very real through her actions in the second half. It also serves to humanize Mrs. Elton's character to some extent while softening Emma's. This really is a very, very good book and I would have given it 5 stars except for how slow it was in the first half. A patient reader will enjoy this but readers who don't have patience with character studies or slow bits would do better to read Pride and Prejudice.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
"I seem to have been doomed to blindness.", Jun 21 2004
Emma Woodhouse, "handsome, clever, and rich," is the 21-year-old daughter of the elderly owner of Hartfield, the largest estate in Highbury. Though only a couple of hours away from London by carriage, Highbury regards itself as an isolated and virtually self-contained community, with the Woodhouse family the center of social life and at the top of its social ladder. Emma, doting on her hypochondriac father, whom she represents to the outside world, has grown up without a mother's softening influence, and at twenty-one, she is bright, willful, and not a little spoiled. Having too little to do to keep out of trouble, Emma's hobby is matchmaking, "the greatest amusement in the world,." Unfortunately, her sophistication in the social graces does not extend to much insight into human beings.Taking Harriet Smith, a young woman of "questionable birth" under her wing, Emma makes Harriet her "project," educating her in the social graces, convincing Harriet not to marry farmer Robert Martin, who has courted her, and ultimately persuading Harriet, wrongly, that the vicar, Mr. Elton, is falling in love with her. Bored and without a large circle of "suitable" friends, Emma is an incorrigible meddler, playing with the lives of those around her, snubbing those she considers inferior, gossiping about others in an attempt to divert attention to herself, and misreading intentions. Only Mr. Knightly, sixteen years older than Emma and a friend of her father, stands up to Emma and tells her what he thinks of her behavior, and it is through him that she eventually begins to grow. Love and the formal protocol or marriage are a major focus here, with marriage more often a merger of "appropriate" families than the result of romance or passion. Class distinctions, acknowledged by all levels of society, limit both personal friendships and romantic possibilities, and as Emma's matchmaking fails again and again, causing grief to many of her victims, Emma begins to recognize that her pride, willfulness, and love of power over others have made her oblivious to her own faults. Austen shines in her depiction of Emma and her upperclass friends, gently satirizing their weaknesses but leaving room for them to learn from their mistakes-if only they can learn to recognize the ironies in their lives. Though Emma may be, in some ways, Austen's least charming heroine, she is certainly vibrant and, with her annoying faults, a most realistic one. Mary Whipple
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