Emma (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jane Austen is my favorite author! ... Shut up in measureless content, I greet her by the name of most kind hostess, while criticism slumbers." —EM Forster

Product Description

The most perfect of Jane Austen’s perfect novels begins with twenty-one-year-old Emma Woodhouse comfortably dominating the social order in the village of Highbury, convinced that she has both the understanding and the right to manage other people’s lives—for their own good, of course. Her well-meant interfering centers on the aloof Jane Fairfax, the dangerously attractive Frank Churchill, the foolish if appealing Harriet Smith, and the ambitious young vicar Mr. Elton—and ends with her complacency shattered, her mind awakened to some of life’s more intractable dilemmas, and her happiness assured.

Austen’s comic imagination was so deft and beautifully fluent that she could use it to probe the deepest human ironies while setting before us a dazzling gallery of characters—some pretentious or ridiculous, some admirable and moving, all utterly true.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307386848
• ISBN-13: 978-0307386847
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #83,566 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you don't feel thrilled with Emma, give it another go., September 23, 2009

By	D. A. Mclauchlan "deborahmeyler" (cambridge, england) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first read this novel when I was a teenager, and while I liked it because it was Jane Austen, I was so exasperated by Emma herself that I left it alone after that. I have just re-read it, and realized that I just didn't get it first time round. Fun is being poked at Emma the entire time by Austen - Emma's words and thoughts are her own, reported through the ironic medium of Austen's prose. It is Emma who is too snooty to go to the Coles' party, for instance, and Emma who is mocked by Austen both for that and for her fall from that supposed high ground when she sees that she will be bored and alone if she doesn't go. Austen doesn't say it, she merely reports Emma, and we have to work it out. It is all perfectly done; the perfection of it makes me catch my breath. If you didn't like it, try it again.

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love books, February 16, 2008

By	B. Teater "Savvy Shopper" (OKC, OK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love the time period in which Jane Austin writes-these books are very good and also very captivating