Emma
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.
Stats for nerds
6recommend
20mentions
17people
2010–2025years
35% recommend65% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Librivox seems like a great source, being public domain, though the quality is highly variable.
I can recommend Elizabeth Klett as a good narrator. I've sampled her recordings of Jane Austen books Emma, pride and prejudice, and sense and sensibility.
- Chronologically starting with children's:
Swallows and Amazon series. Stranger in a Strange Land, The Man In The Maze, Tau Zero, Asimovs Foundation series. All Jane Austen's work: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Northhanger Abbey.
- Must read?
1984 and Animal Farm.
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It.
Emma and Pride and Prejudice.
Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid.
A Room With A View and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The Great Gatsby, Call of the Wild and Age of Innocence.
War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
Don Quixote.
[1] haven't read this one yet myself, but the old cartoon "Havoc in Heaven" was good, and books are usually better than their movies.The Bourgeois Gentleman Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir :-) Emma Essays Gulliver's Travels HMS Pinafore In Praise of Folly Journey to the West[1] Mullah Nasruddin stories[2] Nicomachean Ethics Panchatantra Uncle Remus War & Peace[3][2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin , collections are probably available under multiple titles
[3] much more in the book than the movie. it also looks like I should queue up Eugene Onegin.
- (1) I'm with him on her technical composition of a story being hard to tease apart (in a good way) but not so sure about them seeming unusually real or true. Structure and purpose of the novels' parts, the flow from incident to incident and scene to scene, is smooth and natural (more or less), plot, I dunno. Probably a personal thing.
(2) seems wrong to me, if by "literary" he means "broadly recognized as part of the 'Western Canon'" and not "recent works self-consciously written as literary fiction". Most read aloud really well, in my experience.
(3) Ugh.
(4) Austen's among the widest-read of the "canon", and not especially challenging (probably not an unrelated fact). This comparison is a real stretch. He couldn't think of someone better to use as an example? Huh.
(5) IDK about using it to illustrate this particular point, but yeah, basically.
If you struggle with Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility (I do—I find them too smug in a "gee look at me, the author, writing such clever things" way, though I think that's what people like about them so it must just be a me problem) try Persuasion. It's short and apparently Austen didn't get a chance to do her usual "punch-up" edit before she died, which probably explains why it comes off (to me) as less full of itself than the others and a much more agreeable read.
Emma seems to be her parody of herself, as best I can figure. I enjoyed it. Longer. Desperately wants to be a tragedy. (spoiler?) Isn't. Probably it shouldn't be, I mean she's Jane Austen and I'm just some asshole. Oh well, still good.
Haven't read Mansfield, which I understand is very well regarded, or her juvenilia. Tried Northanger but seemed pointless without a better-annotated copy, which I'll probably get around to acquiring and reading some day.
- > His book A Jane Austen Education is also very good, even for someone like me who does not love Jane Austen.
Off topic, but you might try Persuasion if you haven't. I've attempted the others but been unable to get past the all-caps-bold-with-flashing-lights SMUG plastered over every page, save for in Emma, which was an excellent first 2/3 of a tragedy ruined by the last 1/3 in which it... isn't a tragedy. Persuasion, though, is snappy and enjoyable, IMO.
