Am I the only one

[Anita]

Let me put it this way, first half of the book was slow and I wasn't impressed at all, however, then Emma opened her mouth and offended Miss. (OMG I forgot her name, I am terrible with names, anyway you know who I am thinking about). From that moment on, until the end of the book Emma starts to grow spiritually. She is maturing, she is becoming worthy of Mr Knightly. I saw him as "there but not there" character who's guidance slowly transforms Emma into his perfect spouse. Not ours, but his!

[Gabriela]

Anita wrote: "Let me put it this way, first half of the book was slow and I wasn't impressed at all, however, then Emma opened her mouth and offended Miss. (OMG I forgot her name, I am terrible with names, anywa..."

Well said. :)

[[deleted user]]

I really liked Emma, she is a very good girl after all

[Becky]

I didn't like Wuthering Heights either. But at least I finished it. I can't continue reading Emma. And I've never not finished a book.

[Maraz]

i hated the book ,,, i felt emma was stupid with no depth of thought or emotion , qualities one does not expect to seen in a heroin of any literature...

[Brolie]

Jane Austen said she wrote Emma to be a character no one liked. So she did a very good job of that it seems.

[Ashley]

Vanessa wrote: "When reading Emma, you are reading a comedy. You can't take Emma seriously, as she takes herself and her attempts at matchmaking. She doesn't know the first thing about love and yet she is meddli..."

Exactly! Take Emma for the woman she will become not the young adult she was in the beginning.

[Hadjer]

I think that it's done on purpose. Emma is not truly a heroine, she's a girl among the others : her social situation not too low to be inspirational , her acts not too perfect to make an idol of her , her judgement subjective , although , she's not too dumb. Personally , I found this attaching. I've read four Austen's so far, and I think that Emma is the closer to reality.

[Goddess]

Andra wrote: "I don't think Knightly is perfect and Emma,she is spoiled.Anyway I could never judge Jane Austen's books.She's just too perfect.And btw Fanny Price - i never really liked her,i don't know why.she ..."

I didn't like Fanny either!

But Emma and P&P are Austen's chick lit books. Hence she will have caricatures and so forth. Her heroine's (for her chick lit stuff) will be dramatic and beautiful while her hero's will of course be better than every other guy in Town.

However, Austen's serious novels (e.g. Persuasion, Fanny Price, S&S) can be quite dark (e.g. the evil within slavery and society), characters with obvious flaws and weaknesses, many depressing social and financial issues and so forth

Hence, it's bets to judge them based on the demographic/ audience, mood and genre Austen was aiming for. She's the type of author who can write serious fiction and also dabble in chick lit with no problem

[Nancy]

. . . and Emma is my absolute favorite Austen character. Her misplaced self-confidence makes her much more interesting to me than Austen's "perfect" heroines. I've always felt Emma has hubris, heart and a lot of humor. Perfection is much less interesting.

[Martha]

I am a newcomer to Jane Austen, and my first of hers was Emma. I loved it; but, I do have to say, I was struggling at the beginning where I almost quit. One thing that helped me when I started reading it was a review from someone stating how funny it was. Then I relaxed and went with the flow. I put down 5 stars! It may be (in the end) my favorite of Jane's.

[[deleted user]]

None of Austen's characters are perfect, but even more so with Emma because the main theme is that she's just a girl with too much confidence in her abilities and too little confidence in that of others.

Then again, I'm speaking in terms of the movie, which is lightyears behind the book

I do like that Emma realized what she needed to improve on, and I've only read a part of it, but there's a reason it isn't as popular as S&S and Pri. & Prej.

[Diksha]

Emma is life of the novel. I adore her for her energy and playfulness. Fanny Price is unforgivable! And Mr. Knightly deserves Emma :)

[Michael]

I didn't really like the book in general.

[Marcy]

Chelsea wrote: "Emma is actually my favorite Austen novel. I love the fact that Emma is so flawed. She's real. I just loved watching (well reading) her grow and mature. Despite all of her flaws, I believe she tr..."

Does it say anywhere in the book that Knightley fell in love with Emma when she was 13? I don't remember that.

[Marcy]

Diksha wrote: "Emma is life of the novel. I adore her for her energy and playfulness. Fanny Price is unforgivable! And Mr. Knightly deserves Emma :)"

You know, I am re-reading Mansfield Park for the 2nd time, and I think Austen did a bad job on Fanny. She exaggerates her personality traits like shyness, fear, passivity...she comes off like a cartoon, actually. She's very hard to like, and I don't think that is what Austen intended. I think she wants us to feel compassion towards Fanny, but she's just too sickening to care that much about.

[Melinda]

I LOVE Emma. Yes, she's spoiled, but she grows over the course of the book, and realizes her faults. And Mr Knightly is my biggest crush in all of literature. Responsible and reasonable and extremely kind to all--not just to those he wants something from. I suppose I should hate him, since he's rather ruined me for real men. ;)

[Hana]

I agree with you completely.
Your opinion is so well written!