Emma (Penguin Classics)

I'm reading Emma again for the third time. It happened like this: I thought I'd try an audio book on CD for the first time, something to listen to in the car besides music. Scanning the shelves at the local bookstore, I saw loads of contemporary best sellers, self and financial help, new age and evangelical Christian spirituality, and Jane Austen's Emma in MP3 format, all on one disc. Austen! Water in the desert! I scooped her up.For the last week I've been listening to her in my car. At the beginning it was without much concentration. Over the next few days my attention gradually increased. Now I'm hooked. Down the throat. Through the gut. Again. It happens to me every time I return to Jane. I just can't get enough. The last two nights I've gone to bed reading ahead of where I've listened. Even though the story is coming back to me, I'm still taken by it, hook line & sinker. Jane's reeling me in, and the line is utterly slack.Now, I am a guy. I break out in hives if I happen to accidentally brush a romance novel. As far as I am concerned, bodice rippers where the tall olive skinned duke inevitably has his forceful yet gentle way with the heroine are good only as ammunition with which to tease the women in my life who enjoy such tripe. Having said this, I realize a lot of people also refer to Jane Austen as "Chick Lit," equating her with the likes of Nicolas Sparks. For the record, those people are on crack.Austen is much more a comedic writer than a writer of what we call romances. She is simply a hoot. Subtle disjunctures and ironies build to exquisite crescendos. She has me laughing every other page. Her characters, even her unpleasant and ridiculous ones, tend to breed sympathy. Like most of my favorite books, she creates worlds, or a world, really (all of her books are set in the same historic and geographic milieu,) which comforts and gladdens. The feeling I get from her is much like the feeling I get when I read Tolkien describe the Shire or Last Homely House, or something like the children's book Frog & Toad to my niece.It's an eating poached egg on toast snuggled up inside under a quilt on the couch with a cup of tea on a rainy day kind of feeling. (Don't you just love English prepositions and phrasal verbs? Try doing that in French! Austen and phrasal verbs: two of the many reasons English speakers ought to rejoice in their language, I say!)Anyway, during all of her stories, including Emma, Europe was being blown apart by the Napoleonic Wars, and the only oblique references in any of her stories to that maelstrom is that Great Britain has a mobilized Army (Pride & Prejudice) and an active Navy (Persuasion.) The reason the military is important has nothing to do with Austerlitz, Waterloo, Trafalgar or any of that nonsense. Rather, it is that both services have officers which make very suitable suitors for women of her heroines' social positions (Lt. Wickham & Capt. Wentworth, for example.)Some brand this awful: elitist, sexist, parochial. I, for one, find it beautiful. Small, intimate, ordered, secure, anchored. Very human and sane, that is.What matters most is not what some silly diminutive one armed Corsican with maniacal delusions of world conquest is doing; no. What really matters is whether and how Mr. Woodhouse takes his gruel, or if Mr. Elton will propose to Harriet. Or if Mr. Knightly and Mrs. Weston have come to visit yet, today. Will Mr. Frank Churchill come, and what is he like? Has Emma truly foiled Mr. Martin's advances on her friend, he being an entirely unsuitable yeoman farmer? Harriet must marry a gentleman, you see.Just so. Indeed, these are truly the things that mattered- and still matter- most. Don't let the history books and the reverse snobbery of some critics fool you.Instead go read this book, and every other that Jane wrote, and prepare to be enchanted.

I have always loved "Sense and Sensibility" and wanted to expand into more of Austen's works. This one did not disappoint! It is a fantastic tale with all the usual Austen humor and wittiness that work so well in her stories! In fact, it is now up there with "Sense" as my favorite Austen work!"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."The first sentence in the novel really sets the stage for all the mistakes the main character makes throughout! This novel tells the story of Emma Woodhouse, a privileged young lady who, with nothing else to occupy her time, loves matchmaking among her friends. She loves it so much that she doesn't pay any attention to her true love right under her nose! Of course things don't go the way Emma would like and there are the usual misunderstandings but things work out in the end and everyone ends up with who they are destined to be with.This had been called one of Austen's best works and I can agree with that. I really loved this story. This certainly is the "lightest" of Austen's novels as you will not find any lives ruined or huge scandals that ruin reputations. It is simply (and wonderfully so) the story of a small, English village where the inhabitants really have nothing substantial to occupy their time; none more so than Emma. I think one of the things Austen is so marvelous at is her ability to really focus on her characters and their everyday lives and none of her novels do this as well as Emma. As there is no serious "action" the story must therefore focus on everyday occurrences. You could call this a comedy of manners as the characters revolve within a very strict code of behavior and etiquette where everything should move along very smoothly but of course, because of meddling (mainly Emma's) things always go completely wrong! The novel is full of the usual, heavy Austen dialogue and description which I'm sure can get tedious for some readers (I did find myself skimming over some of Miss. Bates' extended ramblings) but, as in her other novels, it does not get in the way and can really help the reader come to terms with a time very foreign from our own. Many modern readers find the "elitist" attitudes in Austen's books a turn off and condemn the novels. However, Austen is not intending to make these attitudes seem wonderful; if some readers would look closer they would realize that she is really satirizing these attitudes and showing them for the silliness they really were. The main character, Emma, can be a bit annoying at times, but she is so open about her own faults and weaknesses that its hard to dislike her. In fact, you do see her acknowledging in several places her mistakes and is able to laugh them off and learn from them. Austen herself said that Emma was a character that nobody would really like but herself; I disagree.Yes, she can come across as snobbish, arrogant, and overly conscious of her place in society but what can you expect from a girl who has been raised by a doting father and governess? Mixed with those slightly irritating qualities, though, is a sweetness and a true desire to be helpful which really makes her endearing. I highly doubt Emma's personality is that much different from other young ladies of the time. I think the true shining star in this novel, though, is Mr. Knightley, Emma's close friend and true English gentleman (supposedly this was Austen's favorite hero as well and created her ideal gentleman in him; his name is no accident). He is kind and thoughtful, witty and intelligent, but blunt and always ready to bring Emma back down to Earth. Their bantering back and forth is really charming. I only wish we knew more about Mr. Knightley's background and that we could see more of him in the novel! The rest of the characters in the novel are all brilliantly drawn and even though they are not the focus of the story, you come to know them as well as the two mains: the eccentric and hypochondriac Mr. Woodhouse, sweet and naive Harriet Smith, the kind Westons, slightly foppish Frank Churchill and the very reserved Jane Fairfax, the kindly Miss. and Mrs. Bates, and the exceedingly arrogant Eltons.This is a wonderful and delightful story and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It is a light and charming story about a slightly flawed but kind young lady (and who among us is not flawed?) who, through a series of blunders, grows and matures. It is also a humorous story poking fun at the strict code of behavior and the social classes of the day.