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Emma (Riverside Editions)
by: Jane Austen, Lionel Trilling

Off The Bookshelf's Price: $18.71

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Used Price: $0.01
Third Party New Price: $15.42

Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN: 9780395051153
ISBN: 0395051150
Label: Houghton Mifflin Company
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 380
Publication Date: May 05, 1972
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Reading Level: Young Adult
Studio: Houghton Mifflin Company
Sales Rank: 1978584

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Emma Woodhouse is beautiful, clever, rich, and quite certain she is immune to romance. Inspired by the recent marriage of her friend and governess, Emma decides to play matchmaker to a young girl, Harriet Smith. Emma's good-hearted, though misdirected, attempts proceed to cause many a comedic misunderstanding. Emma is a timeless tale of a young woman seeking her true nature and finding true love in the process.

Amazon.com Review:
Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing. Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet has more wit and sparkle; Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey more imagination; and Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood certainly more sense--but Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect. Austen only completed six novels in her lifetime, of which five feature young women whose chances for making a good marriage depend greatly on financial issues, and whose prospects if they fail are rather grim. Emma is the exception: "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." One may be tempted to wonder what Austen could possibly find to say about so fortunate a character. The answer is, quite a lot.

For Emma, raised to think well of herself, has such a high opinion of her own worth that it blinds her to the opinions of others. The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image. Ignoring the gaping difference in their respective fortunes and stations in life, Emma convinces herself and her friend that Harriet should look as high as Emma herself might for a husband--and she zeroes in on an ambitious vicar as the perfect match. At the same time, she reads too much into a flirtation with Frank Churchill, the newly arrived son of family friends, and thoughtlessly starts a rumor about poor but beautiful Jane Fairfax, the beloved niece of two genteelly impoverished elderly ladies in the village. As Emma's fantastically misguided schemes threaten to surge out of control, the voice of reason is provided by Mr. Knightly, the Woodhouse's longtime friend and neighbor. Though Austen herself described Emma as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," she endowed her creation with enough charm to see her through her most egregious behavior, and the saving grace of being able to learn from her mistakes. By the end of the novel Harriet, Frank, and Jane are all properly accounted for, Emma is wiser (though certainly not sadder), and the reader has had the satisfaction of enjoying Jane Austen at the height of her powers. --Alix Wilber

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Terrible
This is the first time that I am writing an Amazon review, and I am doing it because this novel is possibly the worst book that I have ever read. The book has no plot. It is simply a love story with some irony mixed into the plot. Jane Austen is a terrible writer who takes three pages to describe a simple idea, and clearly she does not know that run-on sentences are not appealing to readers. Some sentences even go on for pages. Please do not read this book or any of Jane Austen's books! They are all trash with no plotline and shallow characters. Yes, I do hate Jane Austen.

Rating:

- Wonderful!
For some reason, I always think of Emma as my least favorite Austen, but I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading it. Emma is a very imperfect heroine, but Jane Austen was wrong in supposing that no one but herself would like her. I find Emma to be refreshing as a heroine, and she stands is stark contrast to Fanny Price in Mansfield Park (my least favorite Austen heroine). There is none of Fanny's timidness or inability to stand up for herself. Emma is independent and strong, and much more modern than other female characters in classic literature. Her mistakes in pride and arrogance are such as we all make on a daily basis. She presumes to understand people's emotions and thoughts and thinks she has a right to order things as she would have them be...very type "A", in my opinion. But, as her intentions ... Read More

Rating:

- Emma Woodhouse
Emma complete illustrated novel by Jane Austen

Austen's witty exploration of social relationships in "Emma" is both humorous and insightful. An enjoyable read for everyone.

Rating:

- Romantic Mystery
Like most of Jane Austen's novels, the theme is around young women and how to obtain marriages with suitable men and be in love with them at the same time. In Emma, we have a heroine who not just sits around and speculates on who would pair up with who, but actively strives to influence and guide the matchmaking. She takes on a protege, Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage and sees into every interaction with the various gentlemen, more than is actually there. Unfortunately for poor Harriet, whose emotions get tangled around various men "who are all above her socially", Emma learns that manipulation and scheming is doing more to hurt her dear friend than to have left things alone.

The reason I read this book as a mystery, is that the reader is left to speculate (without ... Read More

Rating:

- A Good Start To My Austen Book Craze
I have always loved Emma the movie, the one with Gwyneth Paltrow in it. Her Emma is so clueless, so innocent, yet somehow loveable. I finally decided to pick up the classic novel to see if the movie missed anything and to get the full story straight from the author. The book delighted me just as much as the movie did, as I am pleased to say.
Emma Woodhouse is a young, rich woman living with her germaphobe father in the town of Highbury. Bored and eager for some sort of excitement, she decides to matchmake her new friend Harriet Smith with the local vicar Mr.Elton. Emma is convinced that her matchmaking skills are among the best, wrongly taking credit for pairing her governess Miss Taylor with their neighbor Mr.Weston. Many mishaps occur, and many hearts broken and confused, but in the ... Read More

Books : Emma (Riverside Editions)