Emma

Emma by Jane Austen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I believe this novel, Emma, by Jane Austen rates 3 stars but still recommend I as a 5 star classic. I might have given it 4 stars if I hadn't thought more than once to abandon it entirely. My frustration isn't entirely an issue with the book. I was trying to listen to the book while doing other things.

I'm reviewing two versions of the audiobook and the ebook by Feedbooks. Volume 1 of this 3 volume book I primarily listened to the audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson. Ms. Stevenson is a fine narrator but the speed of her reading and my unfamiliarity of Jane Austen's style, verbiage, and vocabulary of the era, along with a large Dramatis personæ with regularly changing names via marriage or adoption left me feeling lost and confused. Such was my first 5½ hours with the audiobook.

I obtained another copy of the audiobook read by a full cast of the "online stage". I don't generally like dramatic readings of books but it was an unabridged edition and I thought I'd try it since I was struggling with Ms. Stevenson's reading. My next 10 hours and two volumes was more pleasant. I didn't struggle so much with the dialog with different artists reading the dialog, which is a largest portion of the novel.


I confess my lack of enjoyment of the audiobook was directly related to my inattention. I was attempting to do other menial tasks while listening to the book. This book really does require more attention that my normal genres of science fiction, mystery, or thriller. Once I sat down with both the ebook and the full cast audiobook of Emma and was giving it my full attention - I fully enjoyed the book. I came to believe it deserves being considered as a must read classic.

The plot of Emma is well known or easily learned. In fact a reading of the Wikipedia article on the novel can entirely spoil the book. It is highly recommended as a classic and is on nearly all must-read-in-your-lifetime book lists. So I'll limit my review of the content of the novel as it is or should be common knowledge.

Emma Woodhouse is the primary protagonist. She's a young woman who fancies herself as a match maker in her small English 1800s community. She is less intelligent that she believe herself to be, but that is not unusual for young people, then or now. She is blessed with a number of commendable virtues.

The book is written in the first person from Emma's viewpoint. I think anyone who hasn't read this genre ought to be fully aware of that fact. It takes place in an era when the thinnest depth of meaningful conversation and the minor actions of everyone are worthy of pages of description and dialog. To me, at least initially, it was as interesting as the weather station that updates every 15 minutes.

In hindsight, I do highly recommend it to young people, young women in particular, although young men could greatly benefit from it if they have any ability to be introspective and considerate of others.

Now for a sidebar that may be useful. Lifetime Movies, is a TV movie channel I suspect has a target audience of women 16-40 who enjoy romance novels. I think I would fit into the target audience of men 18-35 who enjoy vast amounts of adrenaline and testosterone.

A confession: I NEVER tune in to Lifetime Movies. I have a long history of addictive behavior and with all sincerity -- if I tune to Lifetime Movies Channel I will be entirely useless to even myself until they break for a string of infomercials or I pass out from exhaustion. For me Lifetime Movies is like mainlining my most favored addictive substance. So, like an alcoholic in AA, I completely abstain from Lifetime Movies.

Emma would fit into the soul of Lifetime Movies Channel.

I could not recommend it more highly as a course in 19th century vocabulary and etiquette. But let's be real. This is the kind of novel that displays the most idealized perfection of high society of the era. There will be no farting, elbows on the table, picking noses, foul language, excessive demonstration of violent behavior, or sweating. For those familiar with Game of Thrones (I actually have friends who know not a thing about Game of Thrones), Emma is what Sansa would have consumed and believed is reality prior to moving to King's Landing.

There. I believe I've done well in representing "Emma". I do believe anyone can deeply enjoy this 3 volume novel. The one thing I wish were in my copy of the ebook is a list of dramatis personæ as my memory lacks the recall I had as a youth. If your book doesn't have this, you can find one here. After half listening to the first 5½ hours of the audibook, this list was indispensable to me.

Now to a tragic personal point. As I am about to post this review, I notice I reviewed this book 7 years ago. I sincerely had no recollection of reading it. I had a vague idea how it would end but I studied writing extensively and have read thousands of books. I can usually guess correctly much of what will happen in any novel after a chapter or two, so my vague idea how it ended did not alert me to the fact I had already read the book. Well now I suppose my adult children will be calling me and suggesting a care facility...

Oh... a gift. Elizabeth Klett is a wonderful narrator and you can get her reading of Emma for free at Librovox.org. The ebook is free at Gutenberg.org. I picked up my copy at Feedbooks, but Amazon and BN both offer free copies. My website encourages reading classic literature and Emma is one of the offerings you can download here.

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