As a protagonist, witty, good-hearted Emma cannot be beat. One of Austen's very best novels. ( )

Austen is such a craftsman with words, but I do not find her plot lines that interesting. Still it is a pleasure to read such a well crafted narrative. I liked "Pride and Prejudice" better. She would be my favorite author should she write about war and violence. ( )

Jane Austen's classic novel about a young girl who believes that she is a gfited matchmaker. ( )

Emma is a book about, you guessed it, Emma. Or, to be more precise, Emma Woodhouse. Emma lives in a fantasy world of her own making, and this gets het into trouble more than once as she tries to match people up in accordance to how she views the world. Mr. Knightley, who has a much more realistic view of the world, can only point out her faults in the vain hope she will listen to him. Through Emma's actions, a lot of people go through a lot of trouble before everything finally settles in it's rightful place.

Emma is a delightful book, which is all the more extraordinary if you stop and think about it, for nothing much happens in it. Still, it captivates the reader and draws you in Emma's world. A very lovely read. ( )

The book was published in 1816 so I expected the language and plot to be difficult to understand yet this was not the case. The book was extremely easy to understand, the plot is all but given away on the back cover, and the main character is an idiotic young woman of 20 some years. The many themes are all easily gleaned as they are simply the morals Emma learns the hard way, by making mistakes. The book is written in omniscient 3rd person and is set in the countryside of England, 1816.
The first thing that stuck out at me from the book was this quote; “There is so pointed and so particular a meaning in this comment”, said she [Emma], “that I cannot have a moment’s doubt as to Mr. Elton’s intentions. You are his object, -- and you will soon receive the completest proof of it” (64). It encompasses the moral of the story that Jane Austen so unsubtly repeats throughout the book: don’t assume you’re right and know that you cannot control people’s hearts.
The first two themes are the following: try to not allow your imagination to cause you to create misunderstandings and mistakes and don’t beat about the bush with fanciful language. Each is exhibited with the fiasco of the charade from Mr. Elton (62). He should have thought about Emma reading it in front of her friend since the two were always joined at the hip, that’s just a bad way to go about telling a girl you like her. There is also another quote about mistakes that struck me; “Seldom, very seldom does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material” (388). After some thought, I realized that the author meant that even though we make mistakes in communication we can always make up for it with emotions like love. Love conquers all, with all including miscommunication. This idea was one of the few in the book that to me shows the writing I expected of Austen. It was something I had to think about to understand, and was very enjoyable.
Examples of Austen’s last two themes are straight out spoken in a conversation between Mr. Knightly and Emma. They each believe that a couple, in marriage, must be equal, neither higher than the other; and that people should make marriages for love rather than simple connections. Later at least, Emma realizes the first, when she sees Harriet is not all that higher than Martin, and she would do no wrong to marry the one she loves.
There are many characters in Austen’s book and sometimes I found it hard to keep track of an entire town, but that made it a bit more interesting. The second most important character of the book, although Emma was the only main character, was Mr. Knightly. I loved him because he made so much sense. His one mistake was to think that Emma was as smart as he was. He knew the truth of things long before her and had to teach her like a child, when she was over 20, the things he already easily figured out. I thought he deserved better than her and that their relationship was a bit weird. It seemed at the beginning that he was her older brother and brother in law isn’t much different. I know it is back when marrying your cousin is okay but I don’t have to like it.
Emma was an okay read but it lowered my expectations. I’m eager to see if Austen’s other books, like Pride and Prejudice, are superior. ( )