Book Review- Emma

Title- Emma
Author- Jane Austen
Published- 1816
Genre- Classic
Length- 392 pages
Rating- 3.75/5
Synopsis (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.

Review- I think with classics like this there isn’t really a lot to say. Overall I liked it. I thought it was better than Sense and Sensibility, but not as good as Pride and Prejudice. The movie Clueless is apparently based on this book. Knowing that going in I did see the similarities, but if I hadn’t been told beforehand I don’t think I would have picked up on it.

The women in this were less bitchy than in the books above, with those I was surprised about just how bitchy they were! With this I felt about the characters the way the reader is clearly supposed to, some were likeable, others less so, and there was a decent amount of detail about each.

There was one moment in this book where a particular match was revealed where I literally said “oh my god” to myself, which is unusual for a classic I think. Other matches were more obvious and it was a relief when they were finally “announced”.

The pace is slowish, typical of a classic basically. I did feel that the end dragged a bit too much though.