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Emma (Penguin Classics)
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Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Jane Austen
Publisher: Penguin Classics
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Our Price: $8.00
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Jane Austen
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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Emma (Penguin Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN: 9780141439587
ISBN: 0141439580
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 512
Publication Date: 2003-05-06
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Product Release Date: 2003-05-06
Studio: Penguin Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.7
EAN: 9780141439587
ISBN: 0141439580
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 512
Publication Date: 2003-05-06
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Product Release Date: 2003-05-06
Studio: Penguin Classics
Editorial Review of Emma (Penguin Classics)
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 of Emma (Penguin Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Poor KINDLE edition
Review: I'm writing in reference to the Kindle version of this book. Since I like the book itself, I gave 2 stars; however, this version was lacking in extras. I was seriously disappointed to find no footnotes, no introduction, no nothing. Just the book pure and simple. To top it off, there were many instances of multiple words jammedtogetherlikethis. I wish the 'sample' had been available when I ordered it from my Kindle. I certainly would have chosen another one of the available editions.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A True Romantic Comedy....
Review: The title character of "Emma" is unique among the heroines of Jane Austen's novels. She is "handsome, clever, and rich" and, for most of the novel, not actively seeking a husband. The grim economic realities that made finding the right husband so important for Lizzie Bennet and her counterparts in the other novels does not apply. The young and inexperienced Emma can therefore be allowed to be foolish in her social forays, even to fail, without impairing the audience's ability to enjoy the resulting romantic comedy.
Emma lives at the estate of Hartfield with her doting but hypochondriac father. Their status as the leading family of Highbury is unquestioned. The recent marriage of Emma's governess to a close neighbor prompts Emma to wish to arrange suitable matches for her other friends and neighbors. Her immediate target is Harriet Smith, an amiable young woman of uncertain social status. Against the advice of Emma's brother-in-law and confidant Mr. Knightley, Emma persuades Miss Smith to refuse an offer of marriage from a Mr. Martin, a upright hardworking farmer of no social distinction. Emma then tries to match Harriet up with the ambitious young vicar of Highbury, Mr. Elton. This scheme fails, hilariously, when Mr. Elton proposes instead to a horrified Emma.
Mr. Elton soon brings a new Mrs. Elton to the village, a vulgar social upstart who presumes to arrange the social life of Highbury. Among her targets is young Jane Fairfax, once the paid companion of a gentlewoman, now forced to make her own way. The arrival of the charming and handsome Frank Churchill creates additional complications. Emma, after getting over her own initial infatuation, presses a match between Frank and Miss Smith. She is also provoked by Frank into passing rumors about Jane Fairfax and the husband of the woman she formerly accompanied. The climax of the story may be an unfortunate picnic at Box Hill, where everyone seems out of sorts. Emma thoughtlessly insults the silly but harmless Miss Bates, for which she is very properly upbraided by Mr. Knightley. Emma then learns, in rapid succession, that Frank has been engaged to Jane Fairfax all along and that Harriet believes she has gained the affection of Mr. Knightley. Emma is mortified to have misjudged both Frank and Jane, and to have inadvertantly pushed Harriet towards a man she now realizes she loves herself.
Emma must take responsibility for her mistakes and make good her relationships with Miss Bates, Jane Fairfax, and Harriet Smith. Her fear of losing Mr. Knightley leads to a fateful conversation with him in the garden of Hartfield, in which Emma's fear of losing his friendship works at cross-purposes with Mr. Knightley's real agenda.
Austen's subtle and witty exploration of social relationships in "Emma" is both humorous and insightful. "Emma" is the least heroic of Austen's heroines, but her undoubted charm and her very human efforts to mature have endeared her to generations of readers. "Emma" is very highly recommended to fans of Jane Austen's novels as perhaps her most polished romantic comedy.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A wonderfully witty and endearing novel
Review: I actually saw the film (with Paltrow as Emma) before reading the book and I must say, that I am glad that the movie was very true to the novel because I adore the movie. I was actually surprised that the book was so similar. It features one of my favorite Jane Austen characters, Emma of course. She is a joy to read about. The dialogue was easy to follow and it was a quick but fun read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Tough minded comedy of manners
Review: In a letter to a relative Austen once wrote "3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work on "She knew this world intimately and well and it was the subject of her best novels of which Emma most assuredly is one .
Emma Woodhouse is young,lively and thoroughly spolied .She is complacently sure she knows what is best for all her friends and acquaintances ,especially in matters of the heart .She is a self-appoinited matchmaker to all her friends and she particularly interests herself in the affairs of the young and naive Harriet Smith,an unassertive and timid young woman .Emma is convinced Harriet would be ideally matched with the local minister Mr Elton not knowing that he despises Harriet for her lack of social graces and standing and that he is set on wooing and winning Emma herself .Emma is idly contemplating a dalliance with a newcomer to the village ,Frank Churchill ,but her real feelings are for the local squire George Knightley .Knightley is an amused and exasperated spectator to the meddling which is second nature to Emma.
The novel deals with the way Emma's plans for others collapse and she as a consequence comes to a new and painful degree of self-awareness.She knows less about herself and others than she fondly imagines .The book is a very tough-minded piece of work and has universal themes to do with human motivations and self-deception.It shows the manipulations and strategems of the marriage market as supremely important in society .Emma is essentially about growing into self awareness rather than a romantic comedy as so many other Austen novels are .It is why it still retains its impact so many years after its original publication .The support cast is well drawn -Elton,in particular being a great sketch of an odious snake who has somehow been born as human being .
Any society in which people meddle in each others affairs is one in which Emma is still a valid book
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Emma is the story of a young matchmaker who learns her lesson
Review: Emma is Jane Austen's penultimate novel. It is a long but engaging story of Emma Woodhouse who lives in the fictional village of Highbury 16 miles from London. The novel is in many ways a "bildungsroman" as Emma changes and matures to win her man and a place in literary lovers' hearts.
The major players in this Jane Austen classic are:
Emma Woodhouse-Emma is the spoiled daughter of widower Woodhouse. She loves playing matchmaker to young couples resulting in disastrous results!
Emma is flawed but lovable and good hearted.
Mr. Woodhouse-One of Austen's most hilarious characters. Mr. Woodhouse is a foolish nincimpoop always worried about the temperature and catching a cold. He does not want Emma to marry since he prefers she stay home and take care of his fussbudget needs. He reminds this reviewer of a character who could have fit in well in a Dickens novel.
Mr. Knightley. This wealthy landowner has been in love with Emma since she was 13. One of the charms of this comedy of manners is the conversation he engages in with Emma. He is a wise man and good judge of moral character. Emma foolishly thinks the merchant's daughter Harriet is in love with him. His name says it all for he is a knight in shining armor!
Harriet Smith-Emma seeks to mate her with the odious Rev. Mr. Elton but her plans go awry with he weds the foolish Mrs. Augusta Elton. Harriet is an innocent young lady who wrongly allows Emma to advice her on matters of the heart. She will later wed the mundane farmer Robert Martin.
Frank Churchill; He is the son of Mr. Weston a local landowner. Weston had married Ms. Taylor who had been the maid at Emma's home for 18 years.
Frank is a charmer with a weak character. Emma is briefly infatuated by him but learns his true nature from the faithful Mr. Knightley. He is anything but frank in explaining his past amours to Emma and Harriet.
Jane Fairfax is a lovely lass who has been secretly engaged to Frank Churchill. As the novel ends this pair wed. Jane is lovely but strikes this reviewer has lacking mental strength!
Miss Bates-A minor character who has the gift of gab! She rattles on with
little thought in several of the novel's chapters. I see her as an early form in English fiction of stream of consciousness monologue later mastered by such masters as James Joyce and William Faulkner.
Emma is usually rated alongside "Pride and Prejudice" as one of the two best novels written by Jane Austen. I enjoyed it immensely but note that there is a lot of talking and not much action. Austen liked to take a few country families and discuss a love affair or two in her narrowly focused works. She is the indisputed queen of romance fiction and is as popular today as she was when the book was published in 1816. This fall Masterpiece Theatre will be airing dramatizations of all six novels. We Janeites are a growing army of devoted fans. Jane only wrote 6 books but each is a masterpiece!
Review Summary: Poor KINDLE edition
Review: I'm writing in reference to the Kindle version of this book. Since I like the book itself, I gave 2 stars; however, this version was lacking in extras. I was seriously disappointed to find no footnotes, no introduction, no nothing. Just the book pure and simple. To top it off, there were many instances of multiple words jammedtogetherlikethis. I wish the 'sample' had been available when I ordered it from my Kindle. I certainly would have chosen another one of the available editions.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A True Romantic Comedy....
Review: The title character of "Emma" is unique among the heroines of Jane Austen's novels. She is "handsome, clever, and rich" and, for most of the novel, not actively seeking a husband. The grim economic realities that made finding the right husband so important for Lizzie Bennet and her counterparts in the other novels does not apply. The young and inexperienced Emma can therefore be allowed to be foolish in her social forays, even to fail, without impairing the audience's ability to enjoy the resulting romantic comedy.
Emma lives at the estate of Hartfield with her doting but hypochondriac father. Their status as the leading family of Highbury is unquestioned. The recent marriage of Emma's governess to a close neighbor prompts Emma to wish to arrange suitable matches for her other friends and neighbors. Her immediate target is Harriet Smith, an amiable young woman of uncertain social status. Against the advice of Emma's brother-in-law and confidant Mr. Knightley, Emma persuades Miss Smith to refuse an offer of marriage from a Mr. Martin, a upright hardworking farmer of no social distinction. Emma then tries to match Harriet up with the ambitious young vicar of Highbury, Mr. Elton. This scheme fails, hilariously, when Mr. Elton proposes instead to a horrified Emma.
Mr. Elton soon brings a new Mrs. Elton to the village, a vulgar social upstart who presumes to arrange the social life of Highbury. Among her targets is young Jane Fairfax, once the paid companion of a gentlewoman, now forced to make her own way. The arrival of the charming and handsome Frank Churchill creates additional complications. Emma, after getting over her own initial infatuation, presses a match between Frank and Miss Smith. She is also provoked by Frank into passing rumors about Jane Fairfax and the husband of the woman she formerly accompanied. The climax of the story may be an unfortunate picnic at Box Hill, where everyone seems out of sorts. Emma thoughtlessly insults the silly but harmless Miss Bates, for which she is very properly upbraided by Mr. Knightley. Emma then learns, in rapid succession, that Frank has been engaged to Jane Fairfax all along and that Harriet believes she has gained the affection of Mr. Knightley. Emma is mortified to have misjudged both Frank and Jane, and to have inadvertantly pushed Harriet towards a man she now realizes she loves herself.
Emma must take responsibility for her mistakes and make good her relationships with Miss Bates, Jane Fairfax, and Harriet Smith. Her fear of losing Mr. Knightley leads to a fateful conversation with him in the garden of Hartfield, in which Emma's fear of losing his friendship works at cross-purposes with Mr. Knightley's real agenda.
Austen's subtle and witty exploration of social relationships in "Emma" is both humorous and insightful. "Emma" is the least heroic of Austen's heroines, but her undoubted charm and her very human efforts to mature have endeared her to generations of readers. "Emma" is very highly recommended to fans of Jane Austen's novels as perhaps her most polished romantic comedy.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A wonderfully witty and endearing novel
Review: I actually saw the film (with Paltrow as Emma) before reading the book and I must say, that I am glad that the movie was very true to the novel because I adore the movie. I was actually surprised that the book was so similar. It features one of my favorite Jane Austen characters, Emma of course. She is a joy to read about. The dialogue was easy to follow and it was a quick but fun read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Tough minded comedy of manners
Review: In a letter to a relative Austen once wrote "3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work on "She knew this world intimately and well and it was the subject of her best novels of which Emma most assuredly is one .
Emma Woodhouse is young,lively and thoroughly spolied .She is complacently sure she knows what is best for all her friends and acquaintances ,especially in matters of the heart .She is a self-appoinited matchmaker to all her friends and she particularly interests herself in the affairs of the young and naive Harriet Smith,an unassertive and timid young woman .Emma is convinced Harriet would be ideally matched with the local minister Mr Elton not knowing that he despises Harriet for her lack of social graces and standing and that he is set on wooing and winning Emma herself .Emma is idly contemplating a dalliance with a newcomer to the village ,Frank Churchill ,but her real feelings are for the local squire George Knightley .Knightley is an amused and exasperated spectator to the meddling which is second nature to Emma.
The novel deals with the way Emma's plans for others collapse and she as a consequence comes to a new and painful degree of self-awareness.She knows less about herself and others than she fondly imagines .The book is a very tough-minded piece of work and has universal themes to do with human motivations and self-deception.It shows the manipulations and strategems of the marriage market as supremely important in society .Emma is essentially about growing into self awareness rather than a romantic comedy as so many other Austen novels are .It is why it still retains its impact so many years after its original publication .The support cast is well drawn -Elton,in particular being a great sketch of an odious snake who has somehow been born as human being .
Any society in which people meddle in each others affairs is one in which Emma is still a valid book
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Emma is the story of a young matchmaker who learns her lesson
Review: Emma is Jane Austen's penultimate novel. It is a long but engaging story of Emma Woodhouse who lives in the fictional village of Highbury 16 miles from London. The novel is in many ways a "bildungsroman" as Emma changes and matures to win her man and a place in literary lovers' hearts.
The major players in this Jane Austen classic are:
Emma Woodhouse-Emma is the spoiled daughter of widower Woodhouse. She loves playing matchmaker to young couples resulting in disastrous results!
Emma is flawed but lovable and good hearted.
Mr. Woodhouse-One of Austen's most hilarious characters. Mr. Woodhouse is a foolish nincimpoop always worried about the temperature and catching a cold. He does not want Emma to marry since he prefers she stay home and take care of his fussbudget needs. He reminds this reviewer of a character who could have fit in well in a Dickens novel.
Mr. Knightley. This wealthy landowner has been in love with Emma since she was 13. One of the charms of this comedy of manners is the conversation he engages in with Emma. He is a wise man and good judge of moral character. Emma foolishly thinks the merchant's daughter Harriet is in love with him. His name says it all for he is a knight in shining armor!
Harriet Smith-Emma seeks to mate her with the odious Rev. Mr. Elton but her plans go awry with he weds the foolish Mrs. Augusta Elton. Harriet is an innocent young lady who wrongly allows Emma to advice her on matters of the heart. She will later wed the mundane farmer Robert Martin.
Frank Churchill; He is the son of Mr. Weston a local landowner. Weston had married Ms. Taylor who had been the maid at Emma's home for 18 years.
Frank is a charmer with a weak character. Emma is briefly infatuated by him but learns his true nature from the faithful Mr. Knightley. He is anything but frank in explaining his past amours to Emma and Harriet.
Jane Fairfax is a lovely lass who has been secretly engaged to Frank Churchill. As the novel ends this pair wed. Jane is lovely but strikes this reviewer has lacking mental strength!
Miss Bates-A minor character who has the gift of gab! She rattles on with
little thought in several of the novel's chapters. I see her as an early form in English fiction of stream of consciousness monologue later mastered by such masters as James Joyce and William Faulkner.
Emma is usually rated alongside "Pride and Prejudice" as one of the two best novels written by Jane Austen. I enjoyed it immensely but note that there is a lot of talking and not much action. Austen liked to take a few country families and discuss a love affair or two in her narrowly focused works. She is the indisputed queen of romance fiction and is as popular today as she was when the book was published in 1816. This fall Masterpiece Theatre will be airing dramatizations of all six novels. We Janeites are a growing army of devoted fans. Jane only wrote 6 books but each is a masterpiece!