Book Review: Emma

Emma
by Jane Austen
Pages: 438
Published by Barnes & Noble Classic
Publication Date December 25, 2004
Source: Bought
Genres: Classic
Goodreads

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work

Emma Woodhouse is a bona fide matchmaker, playing cupid for all her acquaintances while she claims to never marry herself. Famous last words…

Emma’s current assignment is her dear friend Harriet Smith and after a proposal that Miss Woodhouse seems far too beneath her puts in all her efforts to find a suitable husband for Miss Smith. I found Emma to be a buttinski, while cute and charming she was also very meddling, granite that want a matchmaker does but it started to get on my nerves.

I felt so sorry for Harriet throughout the book, releasing her “true love” due to a friend’s persuasion and then to have her heartstrings continually yanked around throughout the whole of the book. So while I did feel empathetic towards her I also found Harriet to be a sweet, innocent push over.

Jane Fairfax plays the sweet-natured niece of Mrs. Bates, a neighbor of the Woodhouses and who Emma takes a dislike to but eventually comes around in the end to see the good everyone else sees in Jane.

Then there are the ladies love interests, Mr. Knightly, Frank Churchhill, Mr. Elton and Robert Martin. who all play ring-a-roses with the girl’s hearts but in Jane Austen’s classic fashion hearts are broken and mended and eventually married off to suitable gentlemen.

Emma was very quick and witty, along the same ranks as Pride and Prejudice and earns a spot on my bookcase next to this great novel.