Emma

Rating:
Summary: You'll be sorry when it ends
Review: Jane Austen was a truly gifted author whose simple stories, memorable characters, and insights into human nature make her writings as relevant today as they were in the early 1800's.

Emma is the story of an attractive and fortunate young woman who has never had anything really bad happen in her life, and who believes herself to be much more wise and worldly than she actually is. For one who has led such a sheltered existence, never leaving home or intending to marry, Emma believes herself possessed of incredible powers of perception and feels that she knows what is best for those she loves far better than they could possibly know for themselves. It is this belief of hers that causes her to meddle in the affairs of those close to her, creating chaos, confusion, and misunderstandings everywhere. Her well-intentioned interference produes comical results and eventually teaches her a valuable lession about minding one's own beeswax.

I was sorry to see this book end

Rating:
Summary: Bubbly and uplifting cunningly mixed with reality.
Review: I have read few books written with such a brilliant pen. There is more than a touch of sarcasm when Austen writes of society, but this is perhaps what keeps this book so alive. It is surprising how little society has really changed since the Victorian era. Emma comes across as a spoilt child, but lovable, as there is a shade of Emma in all of us. We all share the need to be involved in everything, and meddle with everyone's affairs, and there is a tale of unrequited love in all of our histories, even for a short time. I have not yet seen the film, as I am not sure of whether or not this would spoil it, as though there can be no doubt about the brilliance of Hollywood, Jane Austen should be present to direct it

Rating:
Summary: Sweetly poignant and magically uplifting
Review: Emma is perhaps one of Miss Austen's most controversial heroines. From the age of match-makers and suppressed feminism, comes a book which makes you angry, ashamed and overpowered along with Emma herself. Accused of being materialistic, Jane Austen has written a timeless tale of a pretty girl living on the assurance of beauty, sensitivity, and wealth, and perhaps there is more than a touch of money in this story, but in this century, and the one past, there is more than a touch of money in everyone's story. In every story comes a lesson for everyone, and Emma is no exeption

Rating:
Summary: Classically loved in a good way. Confusion reins supreme.
Review: Emma is a loveable character who isn't really sure what she wants at first. Lucky she has such a good friend to help her out, right? Basically a good person who in trying to help her friend find the perfect guy and wildly failing, and doesn't realize she fell in love herself. Unforatunatly her friend has a small crush, ON THE SAME GUY. The classics are always the best and they bring you back to basics. Try it, It's pretty good

Rating:
Summary: Reads a lot like the plot of the movie Clueless
Review: Too many similiarities between this book and the much better Alicia Silverstone movie Clueless for me to recommend it to everyone but all in all if you like your teen comedies set in Victorian england and not LA, go for it. Grab it before Hollywood discovers the similarities and gets it yanked off the shelf with a court order. Maybe Austen can write her next one based on the plot of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Set it South Africa during the Boar war or something

Rating:
Summary: I Hate Emma
Review: I do like 19th Century fiction. I do like Pride and Predjudice. I know lots of people don't like saying Classics are uninteresting. Apparantly Jane Austen said after writing this book that she had wanted to create a character that no-one would like but herself. I am the only person I know who hates Emma. I agree that the book is well written but I just don't like Emma. Sorry if you do.

Rating:
Summary: A comedy treating human follies in an intellectual manner
Review: Emma by Jane Austen is truly a very enjoyable novel dealing with the upper-middle class women of the Victorian Era, and it gives us an illuminating insight on the way of life of the people of that time. Emma is a comedy in the sense that the novel ends on a happy note with three marriages and also in the sense that it gives themes such as marriage an exaggerated importance. Also, the novel as a whole in conceived in a spirit of irony - irony in incidents and irony in characterisation. In the novel, Jane Austen depicts her view of people as social animals who live by a social code based on a set of moral values. Thus, in Emma, Jane Austen shows, in a good-natured way, the disastrous consequences caused by human follies and stupidities, leading to the violation of the social code.
The very fact that Emma is looking for `would-be' grooms for girls she takes a fancy to is undoubtedly a trespass of the social norms existing at that time - a clear example of a folly. Emma's other folly may be said to be her excessive pride. Her pride leads her to dominate, and to see the lives of others as extensions of her own ego, and therefore deny the other characters their human autonomy. Ironically, we see that she, who delights in using others, discovers that she, in turn, has been used, or more correctly, duped.
Emma also deals with the follies of arrogance and self-deception. While reading the novel, we find Emma adopting what may be called a `know-all' attitude. She is utterly self-important and presuming. She pays no heed to Mr. Knightley's advice either with regard to Mr. Elton or with regard to Frank Churchill. She thinks that she can successfully handle the affairs of others, and the high regard the Highbury society has for her only makes matters worse. Hence, through the character of Emma, Austen warns against the dangers of influence and interference. Emma, through her actions of meddling in everybody's affairs, finally achieves nothing good, and even causes harm to her own self.
Also, Austen gives marriage such an undue importance that the title character, in her pursuit of husbands for others, overlooks social norms existing at that time and gives more value to marriage rather than crucial human relationships. Thus, in a comic way, Austen depicts Emma's greatest fault in breaking social norms and overlooking crucial human considerations in pursuit of petty things such as marriage.
Comedy also emanates from the narrator's treatment of Mr. Woodhouse and Miss Bates as "comic characters". But through these characters, Austen explores another facet of human follies. Through the character of Mr. Woodhouse, we are brought to see the negative aspects of indulgence - indulgence of the same kind that has caused harm to Emma. And the character of Miss Bates, while depicting the pitiable state of unmarried women, acts as a kind of test for Emma's power of responding to `socially inferior' people. Mrs. Elton is another comic character, amusing us greatly by her airs of self-importance and her social snobbery. She has too high an opinion of her own elegance, accomplishments, and social charm that she thrusts herself upon everybody without inhibition or hesitation. She also breaks the established social rules by calling Mr. Knightley "Knightley", not giving him his gentleman's worth. In fact, we may say that Mrs. Elton is used to portray the very evils of Emma's character in a somewhat extreme way.
Hence, as we have seen, Austen deals in an intellectual way the follies and stupidities of humans. We learn particularly through our understanding of Emma's faults, and by learning above all, how significant and fundamental these values are. For Emma's aloof relation to others, her willingness to treat other characters as toys - these become significant betrayals of human considerations. The social and moral universe of the novel takes a greater significance because it provides a context in which Emma's faults are not minor ones to be treated lightly, but total violations of a whole established system. The agents of retribution in this world are Mr. Knightley and Austen herself as the narrator.
Thus, Austen condemns certain human foolishness such as snobbery, excessive pride and a disrespect for established moral and social values. These are the human stupidities which are purged, through Emma's process of self-analysis and redemption. It is only at that time that Austen makes her heroine rise above such human foolishness and stupidities to become a more moral and less petty human being. Hence, it may be said that the novel persuades us, through a very entertaining and comic plot, the importance of self-knowledge, a true regard for self and others, and also to consider every human action as a crucial, committing act of self-definition.

Rating:
Summary: My first Austen book! :)
Review: My mom got this book from the library not long after we saw the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow. She found out in the movie credits that it was based on a book (we caught the movie on TV by chance) and found out it was by Jane Austen. Since her favorite book is Pride and Prejudice (which she had tried to get me to read for years without success) she read the book, as I did soon after. It's funny that even though Emma is one of Austen's longer books, it took only one movie to render it perfectly, whereas the much shorter Pride and Prejudice needed seven videos altogether!

However, this is a review about the book, not the movie. Ahem. The book was great, and like all Austen's books never loses your interest. It is a bit drawn out and your mind may wander a bit during the course of the story, but it was a great story. Emma, the character Austen said no one would like, is much more likeable to me than the pathetic sop that is Fanny of Mansfield Park. She is much different than all other Austen characters; she is rich and has a thirty thousand pound dowry (at least I think so, I forget exactly; I read the book a while ago) which is a lot compared to the other penniless heroines who have at the most a thousand pounds. She is twenty-one, handsome, and though her snobbery is a turn off at the start of the book, you can't help but fall for her charms. She is, as the reviews say, irresistible. And Mr. Knightly is just like most other Austen heroes; a real dreamy guy -sigh- I'm so jealous of these girls. He's not romantic though, and unlike other books, the romance is a minimum, with barely an, "I love you" in sight.

The situations are original and entertaining, and the mismatches of Emma the would-be matchmaker (with no sight in mind of marriage for herself) are very amusing. I would recommend this book to any Austen fan, but for beginners I would recommend Pride and Prejudice or Northanger Abbey, as they are shorter and much lighter, funnier stories. Emma is a bit more quaint. My only complaint is the speeches of that girl who talks too much, what's-her-name; she talks for pages on end, interrupts herself and is in general much more boring than amusing. Highly recommended, buy it now!!!


Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful novel of a headstrong young woman.
Review: Ms. Austen wrote very well about headstrong, intelligent young women. All of her books are wonderfully warm, but they show a tendency to light irony as well. Ms. Austen describes her world of early nineteenth century England so very well. In this book her heroine is Emma Woodhouse. She is the younger daughter of a wealthy landowner. She has a good heart, but she is spoiled. She also sticks her nose into other people's love affairs with some disastrous results. Miss Austen does a wonderful job describing life in a busy English village. The village in this story is Highbury. The characters in the book are wonderful, but it is the spiritual development of Emma that carries this book. Somehow she manages to grow and learn while staying within the strictures placed on her by her father and by English village life. Your journey reading Jane Austen's work is not complete if you do not read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Dollops of Clotted Cream
Review: I confess: I often read Jane Austen as an exercise in self-discipline. However, caution should be exercised in reading her books. Little surprises turn up which force a certain circumspection of all characters and events. In "Emma", we meet with the practice of "giving up" children, illegitimacy and the concomitant existence of, and suspicion of, extra-marital sex, flirting clergymen who, naturally, view courtship as a Machiavellian enterprise, egotism, snobbery, hypochondria and maybe even a little attention deficit disorder--heroes, heroines, villains alike. It is a great tour de force. Austen draws her characters well--who hasn't met a Miss Bates or a Mrs. Elton in their lifetime? Finally, also watch out for those little dollops of wisdom interspersed throughout--they pop up, wake you up and then are gone, leaving you in the midst of the question of just what is the best way to prepare a piglet's leg.