Emma by Jane Austen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Great Romance Part Doesn’t Compensate for the Too Wordy Book

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy dispostion, 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.”

FINAL DECISION: Jane Austen is one of the great writers, but not for me. I love the romance part of the book but it takes too long to get to the connection between the characters.

THE STORY: Emma Woodhouse is young, spoiled and too sure of herself and her matchmaking abilities. She makes some good matches and becomes too confident in herself and proceeds to make some terrible attempts at matchmaking. Emma’s neighbor and friend, Mr. George Knightley cares enough about her to criticize her and warn her of the attempted matchmaking. He tells her the truth, including her faults.

OPINION: The first thing I want to say is that after reading both Pride and Prejudice and Emma, I think these books aren’t for me. That doesn’t mean that I cannot recognize that these books are well written or that they are not classics. For me, the books are too wordy and interested in social conventions for me. There is not enough deep conflict for me to accept these as my deep literature reading and not enough active romance to fall within my romance books. I loved the romance of this book, but there were too many pages of other stuff to get through.

WORTH MENTIONING: I think I am not the right audience for the Jane Austen books. I love the romance of these books, but I am bored silly by the long winded way to get there. I am a big fan of contemporaries of Austen so it’s not the period, there is just nothing about the minute detail to social customs and conventions that appeals to me.

CONNECTED BOOKS: EMMA is a standalone book.

STAR RATING: I give this book 3 stars.