I still have two more Jane Austen novels to read but I have wanted to read Emma for the longest, and wanted to read it the most, if that makes sense. Ever since I learned that one of my favourite films, Clueless, was loosely based on it, Emma has loomed large on my TBR. After reading Lucy Worsley's wonderful biography of Austen recently I was spurred on to get myself a lovely Penguin English Library edition and crack on. And I am so glad I did.
Emma is such a well-read and well-reviewed book that I can't really review it as such - but I can heap on the praise and say that it had everything that I love about Austen's work. There is humour, drama, irony, sarcasm, free indirect speech (when characters' voices are incorporated into the narrative voice), layered meanings, romantic intrigue, and wonderfully real characters and emotions. Emma herself felt like a real person, so fully realised and with some elements of character that clearly came from Jane herself.
Austen famously declared that she didn't expect readers to like Emma, and she does have flaws, but of course these dissipate as she matures and becomes more self-aware throughout the novel, and you can see she is well-intentioned; her major flaw is perhaps naivety, or arrogance, or snobbishness. But as I grew to like her more and more, I forgave her these. In the end she accepts the truth of things and is able to be happy for others, and for herself.
I think Persuasion is still my favourite of Austen's novels, though I'd like to reread it as I haven't visited it in years - but I completely adore Emma now as well. I know there are several TV and movie adaptations of it out there, but if anyone could recommend one that would be amazing! It's always lovely to see Austen's novels brought to life (except for that movie of Pride and Prejudice, which is best forgotten). Which is your favourite?
I've been a bit Austen-mad recently, so I am looking forward to my next few books - though I have yet to choose what to read next. As always I have too much to choose from! The current contenders are Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell, and Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac - how to choose??
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Emma was originally published in 1816; I read the 2012 PEL paperback, pictured above.
