Books : Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics)

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Author name: Jane Austen

: Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics)
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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9781593080891
ISBN number: 1593080891
Label: Barnes & Noble Classics
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 576
Printing Date: April 15, 2004
Publishing house: Barnes & Noble Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 181015
Studio: Barnes & Noble Classics



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Product Description:
Emma, by Jane Austen, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
 

Emma Woodhouse is a wealthy, exquisite, and thoroughly self-deluded young woman who has 'lived in the world with very little to distress or vex her.'

Jane Austen exercises her taste for cutting social observation and her talent for investing seemingly trivial events with profound moral significance as Emma traverses a gentle satire of provincial balls and drawing rooms, along the way encountering the sweet Harriet Smith, the chatty and tedious Miss Bates, and her absurd father Mr. Woodhouse–a memorable gallery of Austen's finest personages. Thinking herself impervious to romance of any kind, Emma tries to arrange a wealthy marriage for poor Harriet, but refuses to recognize her own feelings for the gallant Mr. Knightley. What ensues is a delightful series of scheming escapades in which every social machination and bit of 'tittle-tattle' is steeped in Austen's delicious irony. Ultimately, Emma discovers that 'Perfect happiness, even in memory, is not common.'

Virginia Woolf called Jane Austen 'the most perfect artist among women,' and Emma Woodhouse is arguably her most perfect creation. Though Austen found her heroine to be a person whom 'no one but myself will much like,' Emma is her most cleverly woven, riotously comedic, and pleasing novel of manners.



Steven Marcus is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, and a specialist in nineteenth-century literature and culture. A fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Literary Studies, he has received Fulbright, American Council of Learned Societies, Guggenheim, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Rockefeller, and Mellon grants. He is the author of more than 200 publications.





Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Enjoyable Read
Emma Woodhouse is an atypical heroine for a Jane Austen novel. Usually, we see disadvantaged girls struggle to find happiness through marriage. In Emma's case, we see a girl who has everything in the world she could want. She is rich, pretty, and happy. She has no desire to be married, as it would interfere with the simple life she enjoys with her father and she knows it would break his heart to be parted from her. The story follows Emma's life beginning at 21 as she tries to help a young girl named Harriet Smith marry above her station. Emma also engages in a flirtation with a young man and generally makes a bit of a mess of things whenever she gets involved.

I have read that Jane Austen felt that Emma was a character only her creator could like. I would have to disagree with that. Emma is certainly flawed, but her heart is almost always in the right place. Pride has blinded her to her own limitations but she is also one who does not shrink from the responsibility of her mistakes and tries very hard to learn from them. I found this admirable and grew to like her more and more as the book progressed.

Aside from Emma, the rest of the cast was also very well written. Her father is a complete hypochondriac and often engages in behavior that would typically be considered highly rude. Yet, he is motivated so completely by a desire to be kind to others that his misguided application of that desire only endears him to the reader. Mr. Knightley, the no-nonsense friend of the family is admittedly not the most complex character in the world, but he is a very good one and his solidity is a great counterbalance to Emma's wishful thinking.

In summary, Emma is a nice change of pace from Jane Austen's other novels. It starts off well and grows more engaging as it continues. The characters are interesting and Emma herself grows considerably during the course of the novel.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - "I seem to have been doomed to blindness."
Emma Woodhouse, "handsome, clever, and rich," is the 21-year-old daughter of the elderly owner of Hartfield, the largest estate in Highbury. Though only a couple of hours away from London by carriage, Highbury regards itself as an isolated and virtually self-contained community, with the Woodhouse family the center of social life and at the top of its social ladder. Emma, doting on her hypochondriac father, whom she represents to the outside world, has grown up without a mother's softening influence, and at twenty-one, she is bright, willful, and not a little spoiled.

Having too little to do to keep out of trouble, Emma's hobby is matchmaking, "the greatest amusement in the world." Unfortunately, her sophistication in the social graces does not extend to much insight into human beings. Taking Harriet Smith, a young woman of "questionable birth" under her wing, Emma makes Harriet her "project," educating her in the social graces, convincing Harriet not to marry farmer Robert Martin, who has courted her, and ultimately persuading Harriet that the vicar, Mr. Elton, is falling in love with her.

Bored and without a large circle of "suitable" friends, Emma is an incorrigible meddler, playing with the lives of those around her, snubbing those she considers inferior, gossiping about others in an endeavor to divert attention to herself, and misreading intentions. Only Mr. Knightly, sixteen years older than Emma and a friend of her father, stands up to Emma and tells her what he thinks of her behavior, and it is through him that she eventually begins to grow.

Love and the formal protocol of marriage are a major focus here, with marriage more often a merger of "appropriate" families than the result of romance or passion. Class distinctions, acknowledged by all levels of society, limit both personal friendships and romantic possibilities, and as Emma's matchmaking fails again and again, causing grief to many of her victims, Emma begins to recognize that her pride, willfulness, and love of power over others have made her oblivious to her own faults. Austen shines in her depiction of Emma and her upperclass friends, gently satirizing their weaknesses but leaving room for them to learn from their mistakes-if only they can learn to recognize the ironies in their lives. Though Emma may be, in some ways, Austen's least charming heroine, she is certainly vibrant and, with her annoying faults, a most realistic one. Mary Whipple

Lady Susan, 1794
Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics), 1811
Pride and Prejudice, 1813
Mansfield Park, 1814
Northanger Abbey, 1817 (posthumously)
Persuasion, 1817 (posthumously)




Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Very Cute
Jane Austen is the most amazing author. The Plot is good and the writting brillant. This goes on my list of top ten best book ever written. Emma is nothing but entertaining, adorable, romantic ,and everything wonderful. I have read a lot of books so I know what I'm talking about. I highly recommend this book. Like in all of jane austen's other books i almost cried(except for the history of England and her unfinished works). Read it. That's good advice


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - witty, enjoyable read
I can never decide whether Pride and Prejudice or Emma is my favourite book by Jane Austen. Emma has all the Jane Austen hallmarks - wit, exuberance, and laugh out loud moments, coupled with realistic, well drawn characters and a real feeling of being in the Regency (which is hardly surprising, as that's when the book was written).
Emma is a spoiled young woman who has everything she can possibly want in life: a doting father who lets her do as she pleases, friends, family and a beautiful home. She is understandably please with herself, and this leads to complications as she tries to sort out everyone else's life. She's meddling and interfering, and yet so well meaning she comes across as a likeable character rather than as a busybody.
She takes up Harriet, a young woman of doubtful birth, and encourages her to set her sights on Mr Elton, the local vicar, as a future husband. Poor Harriet is completely bowled over by Emma, and is persuaded to like Mr Elton over the farmer's son she is really in love with. Emma is oblivious to the fact that Harriet and Mr Elton are completely unsuited, and that Harriet and her farmer are made for each other.
Through a variety of hilarious scenes, Emma comes to realize she doesn't know as much as she thought, and learns that it's better to let other people manage their own lives.
The minor characters are wonderful: Mrs Elton with her barouche landau (anyone who's read the book will know what I mean), sweet Miss Bates, and dreadful Mr Elton, who has designs on Emma.
Eventually, Emma learns how to understand her own feelings, and leaves everyone else free to listen to theirs, which leads to a satisfying ending all round.
Hugely enjoyable.


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