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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6969.Emma?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Emma (Penguin Classics)" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aRcnMLOdL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6969.Emma?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Emma</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1265.Jane_Austen">Jane Austen</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4922613?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars Emma Woodhouse is the first Jane Austen heroine with no financial concerns, which, she declares to the naïve Miss Smith, is the reason that she has no inducement to marry. This is a great departure from Austen's other novels where the quest for marriage is the main focus and theme of the story. Emma's ample financial resources are one of the factors that make this novel much lighter than Austen's earlier works, such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Jane Fairfax's prospects, in contrast, are bleak.
 
 Emma also proves surprisingly immune to romantic attraction and sexual desire. In contrast to Austen heroines like Elizabeth Bennet and Marianne Dashwood, who are attracted to the wrong man before they settle on the right one, Emma shows no romantic interest in the men she meets. She is genuinely surprised and somewhat disgusted when Mr. Elton declares his love for her. Her fancy for Frank Churchill represents more of a longing for a little drama in her life than a longing for romantic love. Notably, too, Emma utterly fails to understand Harriet Smith and Robert Martin's budding affection for each other; she interprets the prospective match solely in terms of financial settlements and social ambition. Only after Harriet Smith reveals her interest in Mr Knightley does Emma realize her own feelings for him.
 
 While Emma differs strikingly from Austen's other heroines in these two respects, she resembles Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliot, among others, in another respect: she is an intelligent young woman with too little to do and no ability to change her location or everyday routine. Though her family is loving and her economic circumstances comfortable, her everyday life is dull indeed, and she has few companions of her own age when the novel begins. Emma's determined and inept matchmaking may represent a muted protest against the narrow scope of a wealthy woman's life, especially that of a woman who is single and childless.
 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/292164?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Kanchan's review
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Emma Woodhouse is the first Jane Austen heroine with no financial concerns, which, she declares to the naïve Miss Smith, is the reason that she has no inducement to marry. This is a great departure from Austen's other novels where the quest for marriage is the main focus and theme of the story. Emma's ample financial resources are one of the factors that make this novel much lighter than Austen's earlier works, such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Jane Fairfax's prospects, in contrast, are bleak.

Emma also proves surprisingly immune to romantic attraction and sexual desire. In contrast to Austen heroines like Elizabeth Bennet and Marianne Dashwood, who are attracted to the wrong man before they settle on the right one, Emma shows no romantic interest in the men she meets. She is genuinely surprised and somewhat disgusted when Mr. Elton declares his love for her. Her fancy for Frank Churchill represents more of a longing for a little drama in her life than a longin...more

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message 1: by anne

02/17/2008 11:05PM

You copied this from wikipedia and didn't cite it...