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Lisa's Reviews > Emma

Emma by Jane Austen
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bookshelves: jane-austen, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

My dear Jane Austen,

I hope you don’t mind that I write to you, expressing my gratitude for your brilliant handling of words. And as the post office is an object of interest and admiration in your novel “Emma”, I thought a letter would be the adequate way of communicating my thoughts.

I must start by confessing that I don’t like your heroine at all. Obviously, this sounds like a harsh judgment on a classic character like Emma Woodhouse, and I wouldn’t have dared to be as honest with you as I am, had I not been convinced that you dislike her even more than I do. For I can at least accept some of her conceited ignorance as a direct effect of the prejudice of her era, whereas you had to deal with her as a contemporary. It hardly helped at all that you gave her an antagonist in Mrs Elton who exceeded Emma’s vanity and narcissism.

I struggle to find anything justifiable in the lifestyle displayed in “Emma”, and if I needed any proof that English class society was as parasitic as it was idiotic, your description of the idle life of the whole set of characters is perfectly enough to make me feel happy that I have not been born a “lady” with “prospects” in England in the early 19th century. If Jane Fairfax’ worst fate is to use her education to teach young children, and her best luck is to be married to a character like Frank Churchill, I personally see no big difference between her heaven and my hell.

As for Emma’s clueless and spoiled behaviour - she is the strongest case against the reasonableness of Mr Knightley.

My dear Jane Austen, as you can see, I didn’t care for any of your characters, which I found to be dull, arrogant, deceitful and just plain stupid. I didn’t care for the idea that bliss is marrying into a situation that gives you the right to bully others and look down on people whose family tree isn’t fashionable enough. I certainly didn’t care about Emma’s meddling in her friends’ lives, to the point of telling one of her friends that she would not be able to see her anymore if she married a certain man, considered “low”. I didn’t care for the “happy end” with all those marriages - magically matching the couples according to their social status.

Why, do you ask, dear Jane Austen, and rightly so, did you devour the novel then, if it has so little merit?

I did it because it had the same effect as a well-scripted soap opera: I wanted to know who ended up with whom despite my shudders, and I continued to follow Emma from misconception to misconception in paralysed fascination with the vulgarity of her mind. It had one extremely important advantage compared to a soap opera though, and that is where you may take credit, my dear Jane Austen! It had funny, sarcastic moments, and it was a delightful tribute to the beauty of the English language. That is more than any soap opera can achieve. So thank you for that!

As I am quite a fan of your other novels’ titles, combining two main ideas in alliterations, I have been thinking about how to create an ABC of “Emma” using the same literary device. First, I thought the title must unmistakably be “Art and Arrogance”, being an adequate description of Emma’s schemes. Then I thought about the awkwardness of the characters. As they are constantly mistaken about each other’s intentions and feelings, I settled for “Blush and Blunders”. In the end, though, my dislike of the general worldview on display in the novel made me go for the C option:

CLASS AND CLOWNERY!

In my mind, that is what “Emma” should be rightly called, and I hope you don’t mind my being so honest with you, my dear Jane Austen, for just like your lovely character Mrs Elton, I claim that “I am no flatterer, and I will make up my own mind about things”. As you know, that is highly unusual and very brave (but not very modest!), especially in a society which deals in classic literature, where your novels are part of the aristocracy.

I will be closing my letter by expressing my infinite gratitude.

Without “Emma”, I wouldn’t have realised how incredibly lucky I am to be able to call people from all walks of life my friends, how blessed I am to have a family in which equality is the major basis for attachment, in which my profession is a source of pride and happiness and steady income!

Without Emma, I might have forgotten how dull it is to be spoiled and privileged and superior!

Yours truly,

The devoted reader, whose family tree will probably prevent you from reading the letter
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Reading Progress

February 28, 2018 – Started Reading
February 28, 2018 – Shelved
February 28, 2018 – Shelved as: jane-austen
February 28, 2018 – Shelved as: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die
February 28, 2018 –
page 276
53.91% "Following Emma's path from ignorance to arrogance and back to ignorance again, I constantly get the idea she is a puppeteer that is played herself by the audience of her show, which she believes to be her puppets.

"
March 3, 2018 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-50 of 54 (54 new)


Ilse My dear Lisa, thank you for this endearing letter, 'Blush and Blunders' certainly would have been worth reconsidering, at least as a subtitle for the film, thinking of that Paltrow woman daring to call her daughter Apple. Keep counting your blessings and consider yourself lucky living now and not then - yours sincerely, another devoted reader.


message 2: by Steven (new)

Steven Godin I haven't read this, but loved Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma in the film.
Splendid review!.


Julie As some character might say in a Jane Austen novel, Lisa, "Nicely done!" ... as opposed to Knightley's, "Badly done, Emma!" I've never much cared for Emma either, but always felt she was Austen's strongest character, in terms of verisimilitude. With an expert eye, she caught all the flaws of one such as Emma, of her society, her manners. What a brilliant artist she was.

As for Paltrow ... a stunning example of everything that is wrong with Hollywood. Ironically, a strong example of what Emma might really have been in "real life".


Lisa Ilse wrote: "My dear Lisa, thank you for this endearing letter, 'Blush and Blunders' certainly would have been worth reconsidering, at least as a subtitle for the film, thinking of that Paltrow woman daring to ..."

Thank you kindly, Ilse! I am blushing at the blunder of not having seen the film. Should be interesting though to see an American Hollywood incarnation of an English snob.


message 5: by Yu (new)

Yu I like the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's novels . Used to watch them as a child. My old Chinese grandma loved those ladies and gentlemen as well.


message 6: by Diane (new)

Diane Wallace Great review, Lisa!


Lisa Elie wrote: "I like the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's novels . Used to watch them as a child. My old Chinese grandma loved those ladies and gentlemen as well."

That sounds like a more accurate adaptation than a Hollywood movie, Elie!


message 8: by Violet (new)

Violet wells Never read this one. I can never get excited about reading her these days for some reason. Especially odd as I've loved the two books of hers I've read.


Lisa Steven wrote: "I haven't read this, but loved Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma in the film.
Splendid review!."


I am in the process of reading those Austen books I missed as a teenager, and I feel like a split personality while moving through her world again. Part of me still loves her voice and her mean treatment of her characters, and part of me is just so incredibly tired of whiny overprivileged good-for-nothings treating hard-working, feeling people like dirt.


message 10: by Ayush (new)

Ayush One of those creative review..a fitting tribute too the book itself


message 11: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Julie wrote: "As some character might say in a Jane Austen novel, Lisa, "Nicely done!" ... as opposed to Knightley's, "Badly done, Emma!" I've never much cared for Emma either, but always felt she was Austen's s..."

I believe you are right in Austen painting an accurate picture of socialites in Emma, Julie! I also suspect Austen herself being a bit like her - feeling clever and superior to her environment, while seeming to fit into it perfectly if watched from the "outside".


message 12: by Fionnuala (new)

Fionnuala Lisa wrote: "...I also suspect Austen herself being a bit like her - feeling clever and superior to her environment, while seeming to fit into it perfectly if watched from the "outside"."

Do you think so, Lisa? I think Austen knew very well what she was doing, that she was deliberately skewering people like Emma and her father, just as she skewered a variety of people in her other books.
I was amused that the storm hitting Europe at present was named 'Emma' - Austen's Emma left destruction in her wake…


message 13: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Fionnuala wrote: "Lisa wrote: "...I also suspect Austen herself being a bit like her - feeling clever and superior to her environment, while seeming to fit into it perfectly if watched from the "outside"."

Do you t..."


I agree that she knew what she was doing, and that she was immensely skilled at it - Emma's father is annoyingly real! But I still think that she was part of the society she caricatured, and that the values Emma expresses are values that Austen herself represented, even though she thought herself "above" them. I am no Austen scholar by any means though. I just keep reading as she fascinates me.


message 14: by Fionnuala (new)

Fionnuala Lisa wrote: "...But I still think that she was part of the society she caricatured, and that the values Emma expresses are values that Austen herself represented..."

Yes to all that, Lisa - she was satirizing her society from the inside. Did she feel herself to be superior to the people she ridiculed? Perhaps, or perhaps her motivation was simply mischief - that's my feeling. She was amusing herself for the sheer fun of it.


Bloodorange @Lisa, @Fio - a bit like Mr Bennett, at once the mocking and the mocked?


message 16: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Fionnuala wrote: "Lisa wrote: "...But I still think that she was part of the society she caricatured, and that the values Emma expresses are values that Austen herself represented..."

Yes to all that, Lisa - she wa..."


I like that idea, Fionnuala, and I will keep it in mind for my last Austen novel - Mansfield Park!


Kalliope So, it was you, Lisa, who named "Emma" the current storm that in a very superior manner is making us Europeans very small and puny (and wet, and cold) these days.

mmm.


message 18: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Diane wrote: "Great review, Lisa!"

Thank you, Diane!


message 19: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Kalliope wrote: "So, it was you, Lisa, who named "Emma" the current storm that in a very superior manner is making us Europeans very small and puny (and wet, and cold) these days.

mmm."


Yes, after all, I read Emma in Rome, while it was snowing excessively. Emma's father would have been terrified and personally insulted by the freak weather! He would have claimed it to be highly irresponsible to take the novel out of the safe bookcase where it had been for years, to put it in a backpack and place it in a hotel room with "strangers".


message 20: by Ilse (new) - rated it 4 stars

Ilse Lisa wrote: Should be interesting though to see an American Hollywood incarnation of an English snob.
She makes Emma delightfully unsupportable, Lisa - imo Paltrow did a great job here :).


message 21: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Ilse wrote: "Lisa wrote: Should be interesting though to see an American Hollywood incarnation of an English snob.
She makes Emma delightfully unsupportable, Lisa - imo Paltrow did a great job here :)."

I will overcome my prejudice then on your recommendation, Ilse! Could use a smile or two in the frozen waste land I call home!


message 22: by Fionnuala (new)

Fionnuala Bloodorange wrote: "@Lisa, @Fio - a bit like Mr Bennett, at once the mocking and the mocked?"

Oh yes, my favourite Austen character, B - a perfect blend of sense and cynicism!


message 23: by Kalliope (last edited Mar 04, 2018 01:29AM) (new) - rated it 4 stars

Kalliope On film - I preferred the version with Romola Garai to the one with Paltrow.


message 24: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Violet wrote: "Never read this one. I can never get excited about reading her these days for some reason. Especially odd as I've loved the two books of hers I've read."
I also find it strange to read Austen again some 20 years after reading her two most famous novels. I find the language even more brilliant than back then, but find it harder to endure the mindsets of both men and women in their fixed roles and hatred of anything different from their own narrow minds. There is a scene with gypsies in "Emma" which almost made me throw up.


message 25: by Tracy (new)

Tracy Brilliant.


Czarny Pies I think you summed up the great dilemma in reading Jane Austen. She believes so strongly in the inherent moral superiority of her social class that anyone with democratic instincts is repelled. Yet she describes her little world with such brilliance.


message 27: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Ayush wrote: "One of those creative review..a fitting tribute too the book itself"

Thank you, Ayush!


message 28: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Bloodorange wrote: "@Lisa, @Fio - a bit like Mr Bennett, at once the mocking and the mocked?"
Agree - that's a good description!


message 29: by N.KH (new)

N.KH # Spectacular


message 30: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Tracy wrote: "Brilliant."
Thanks!


message 31: by Lars (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lars Jerlach Lovely.


message 32: by Mo (new) - rated it 3 stars

Mo Mo Lisa, You really hit the point. There is something stupid about Jane Austen's books and characters, but we find them endearing and highly entertaining. I call it the interesting tedium :)


message 33: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Czarny wrote: "I think you summed up the great dilemma in reading Jane Austen. She believes so strongly in the inherent moral superiority of her social class that anyone with democratic instincts is repelled. Yet..."
Yes, thanks, Czarny! That is exactly what I felt. She attracted and repelled me like a magnet turning back and forth!


Caroline I’m not sure how conscious Austen was of doing this, but for me Emma shows how incapable we all are of ever comprehending or mending the follies of our societies and ourselves. Even when Emma thinks she has learned a lesson, we ‘know’ or think we know she hasn’t half learned it. We can never stand outside our societies far enough to see them objectively, and we can never plumb our own blind spots. In other words, for me Emma is not so much about Regency England as it is about trying to take an occasional skeptical look at my own self-assessment. Not very successfully, I might add.


message 35: by Jan-Maat (new) - added it

Jan-Maat Ah Lisa, there is a book by Marilyn Butler which will be just the thing for you on Jane Austen ad her ideological world - I've sent you a recommendation, read it if you dare!


message 36: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Jan-Maat wrote: "Ah Lisa, there is a book by Marilyn Butler which will be just the thing for you on Jane Austen ad her ideological world - I've sent you a recommendation, read it if you dare!"

I will accept the challenge! Will smoke come out of my ears do you think? Will it be worse than my Dostoyevsky duel?


message 37: by Jan-Maat (new) - added it

Jan-Maat no, I think you will find Madame Butler soothing and agreeable!


message 38: by Jaline (new)

Jaline Fabulous review, Lisa - I loved the format, too!


message 39: by Silvia (new) - added it

Silvia Cachia Wonderful letter, indeed.


message 40: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa N.KH wrote: "Spectacular"

Thanks, N.KH!


message 41: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Lars wrote: "Lovely."

Thanks, Lars!


message 42: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Mohamad wrote: "Lisa, You really hit the point. There is something stupid about Jane Austen's books and characters, but we find them endearing and highly entertaining. I call it the interesting tedium :)"

I love your oxymoron, Mohamad!


Agnieszka Great review, Lisa. I'm glad to revisit the novel via your write-up for I'm afraid there is nothing that could make me meet this snooty girl once again. Nope, Austen or not Austen, just nope!


message 44: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Caroline wrote: "I’m not sure how conscious Austen was of doing this, but for me Emma shows how incapable we all are of ever comprehending or mending the follies of our societies and ourselves. Even when Emma think..."

A very good point, Caroline!


message 45: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Jaline wrote: "Fabulous review, Lisa - I loved the format, too!"

Thank you so much, Jaline!


message 46: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Silvia wrote: "Wonderful letter, indeed."
Thank you, Silvia!


message 47: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Agnieszka wrote: "Great review, Lisa. I'm glad to revisit the novel via your write-up for I'm afraid there is nothing that could make me meet this snooty girl once again. Nope, Austen or not Austen, just nope!"

She's quite exhausting, I agree, Agnieszka!


message 48: by Sara (new) - rated it 5 stars

Sara Jesus Lovely you letter to Jane! I write to Pessoa, a portuguese poet


message 49: by Lisa (new) - rated it 4 stars

Lisa Sara wrote: "Lovely you letter to Jane! I write to Pessoa, a portuguese poet"

He loves talking to people, too, especially alter egos. I am an admirer too!


message 50: by Isla (new) - rated it 4 stars

Isla Adelaide You are so cringey. Also, Jane Austen actually liked emas character, but she thought she would be the only one in the world.😊


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