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Surrey - Emma by Jane Austen


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SURREY
 
Emma by Jane Austen
 
Synopsis:

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.
 
Alternative:
The War of the Worldsl by H. G. Wells (link to book discussion thread)
 
Other Surrey books:
A Room With a View by E. M. Forster

Edited by chesilbeach
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  • 2 months later...

I'm not sure if we're discussing these on the assumption that people have thread the book (like the Reading Circle books) or not, so I'll tag major spoilers for now.
 
I only read Emma in October last year so I'm obviously not going to re-read it.  These were my thoughts at the time.
 

Emma Woodhouse, “handsome, clever, and rich” lives with her father in Highbury, Surrey. She’s popular and headstrong and, after taking the credit for the marriage of her former governess and local widower Mr Weston, she decides to continue with her matchmaking schemes under the watchful eye of her neighbour, George Knightley, the brother of her sister’s husband who despairs of her meddling ways.

I understand from people I’ve spoken to (both online and in real life) that Emma is not a very popular protagonist in some quarters – yet I loved her! Okay, she has faults - she’s bossy and rather manipulative - but her heart is in the right place and she’s very determined. She might go about it the wrong way but she has most people’s interests at heart and is able to admit when she’s wrong and to apologise – I thought she was great! :D I loved her father too – his pessimism was the complete and perfect antithesis of Emma’s optimism!

I heard someone (I don’t recall who) being interviewed about this book on the radio last Saturday (26 October – I’m rather behind with my reviews) who said that Emma is different [to Austen’s other novels] because it wasn’t all about the protagonist being desperate to get married. However, this novel is still themed heavily on the subject of marriage albeit that Emma is trying to arrange suitable marriages for her peers rather than herself. I don’t see the theme of Austen’s books being about wanting to be married an issue anyway – I’m pretty certain it was most young women’s ambition when Austen was writing.



Emma is a novel of social etiquette and self-discovery and I enjoyed it as much as I did Pride and Prejudice (and more than Northanger Abbey, although I liked that too) and I’m looking forward to continuing my Austen journey. :)

 

:)

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It is. :)

 

I was going to read an alternative book for Surrey.  However, I've read War of the Worlds and (I think someone mentioned...) A Room with a View, so although it's a children's book I think I might go for Back Home by Michelle Magorian.  :)

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  • 2 years later...

Emma by Jane Austen ******
(Review  copied from by blog thread)
 
I first read Emma as one of my set texts for my A-level, back in the 1970s (an awfully long time ago). I remember initially hating it as we studied it throughout the first year, but things soon changed. Over the summer holidays, I set myself the challenge of reading all the set texts as books, and I suddenly discovered that I actually loved the book, so much so that by the summer's end I had also read all the other Austen full-length novels, bar Mansfield Park (which, for reasons not relevant here, took me another thirty years to get around to!). The odd thing is, though, that since then, whilst I have reread all the other Austen novels (some several times), I've never got around to rereading Emma. I have no idea why - just happenstance I think, unless there was a subconscious reason?

Whatever, its inclusion as the book for Surrey in the Counties Challenge has now put paid to that, and I've at last got around to that second reading. It was worth the wait. Oh, it was so worth the wait!

Austen famously decided to make Emma "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." This is flagged up in the first sentence of the novel; one is automatically wary of a young woman declared to be "handsome, clever and rich", and the first paragraph or so makes it abundantly clear that Emma is in danger of being spoiled, with far too many of her older intimates all too prepared to indulge her. Her own opinion of herself, particularly as a matchmaker, is dangerously overblown, and one can soon see the dangers looming for this young woman.

However, Emma has a saving grace. However spoiled and indulged, her heart is in the right place, and one always feels that given sufficient direction, and as long as she avoids the worst of the rapids, she'll make it along the river to the calmer waters beyond. She's just got to negotiate those rapids first!

What I found particularly fascinating about Emma is what a big book it is, and yet how tight the stage is. The whole novel takes place in the small village of Highbury, with only 3-4 families involved. The furthest anybody travels is Box Hill, a few miles away. And yet, within those tight bounds, so much happens. It's not the big plotting of a Dickens or a Fielding, or even a Burney, but it's a social and physical landscape with which Austen is completely familiar with, and she handles it as one who is intimately acquainted with the ins and outs of what is on the surface a simple society, but one which runs deceptively deep.The instances are apparently small, but it's a small world, and they profoundly affect the lives of those involved. There are a number of mysteries, made all the more obscure by the fact that we see the world very much through Emma's eyes, although there are enough clues at times for us to spot what's going on, even if Emma doesn't. I suspect that this is why I enjoyed the book even more this time round, as the previous occasion I was even younger and more inexperienced as a reader than Emma herself; this time I'm reading it with more of the knowledge that Austen expected of her readers.

I'm also reading it with the knowledge that Mr Knightley is the means by which Emma will receive the direction that will save her from herself (or from the indulgence of others). Early events teach us to use him as the sounding board for what is really the case. I have to admit that, for me, he is perhaps the weakest character in the novel - almost too perfect, too much the guiding light. I prefer my characters flawed, and every other in Austen's cast is just that, i.e. they are all too human. Yes, there is the odd near caricature, such as Mrs Elton, but actually, we've all met people just like her. And that is perhaps above all why I loved Emma so much: her perfect set of characters,and their all too real interactions: a small stage that in microcosm so closely reflects so much of our world at large. And the fact that Emma, that heroine who Austen apparently wanted to make so unlikeable, learns her lessons, and, acknowledging her faults, actually turns into one of Austen's most human, and thus likeable, heroines. Just brilliant.

Edited by willoyd
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Like Will, I read Emma as an A level text too, and hated it!  I still have my old copy (one of the Penguins with the orange spine) and might re-read it at some point, although at the moment my other A Level text, Persuasion, is next on the re-read list, mainly inspired by a visit to Lyme Regis last year (as that's the only bit of the book that I remember!).

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In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there are 2 levels of exams in school:  GCSEs in Year 11 (the academic year in which you have your 16th birthday) and A-Levels in Year 13 (the academic year in which you have your 18th birthday).  The 'A' stands for 'advanced', as originally the Year 11 exams were called O-levels ('ordinary'); GCSE stands for General Certificate in Secondary Education. Typically, a student will take 8-10 GCSEs, and then narrow down for their final 2 years to 3 or 4 A-levels.  There are, however, quite a few variations available to this typical model, and by no means everybody goes on to take A-levels.

 

One of the more popular A-levels you can choose to do is English Literature, which is what I was referring to when talking about A-level text.

 

Scotland uses a different system!

Edited by willoyd
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Oh I see. Almost the exact thing we have here but being able to study Austen in school would have made my literature hours much better. These days I have to look on Sparknotes after reading anything, especially since I went to an IT college and that was as far away as possible from anything that had to do with literature. 

 

I understand why many here did not like it at first since I wasn't fond of my curriculum back in the days as well but seeing things from the outside gives me different ideas about your schools. 

 

In order to not deviate from the topic too much, I'll mention that I am re-reading Emma and trying to follow your book club challenge. It's really interesting to talk about books with other people and I wish I could have had them explained by a teacher and maybe seeing more in them. I mean, you can read Crime and Punishment as a simple crime novel but where is the fun in that? 

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  • 3 months later...

Copied from my book log:

 

This is my second Austen, having started with Pride and Prejudice, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

 

Austen can be seen as intimidating, but I think it's often the way classics are presented and taught at school. Although we never studied Austen, any book written before 1900 is presented as terribly "worthy" and not necessarily a fun read. Well, we are doing Austen a disservice, because I thought this was great fun. 

 

We have our 'heroine' Emma, who is introduced as someone trying to meddle in all the affairs of the rest of the village. She isn't very likeable given we meet her when she is trying to discourage her friend from accepting marriage from someone who has proposed and she would love to marry in favour of someone who doesn't even like her - but is rich! Yet I did find myself liking her, even while wanting to throttle her! 

 

Austen creates a small community of personalities, and I felt hugely invested in all of them - even though, rather like a romantic comedy movie, the ending is obvious from the moment we begin! 

 

The language is accessible, and it's a fun read with plenty of layers. Worthy? Maybe, in that it is a classic. But Austen definitely gets a bad rep. Must read more!

 

5/5 (I loved it) 

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I'm glad you enjoyed it, Alex.  :)   I must read another soon - I've got two of her novels left go, plus the collections and unfinished books if I decide to read those.  I liked Emma Woodhouse! 

 

I've watched this version, which I thought was a good adaptation.  :)   I think I've got an unwatched copy of the 1996 version too.

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But Austen definitely gets a bad rep.

Do you really think so? I always thought that, on balance, she's had quite a good reputation, and remains very popular; she's certainly far more accessible than most/many other classic authors, and her books are regularly rated near the top of favourites lists (eg 3 in the top 40 of the BBC Big Read - including P&P at 2nd, although that may well have been influenced by the BBC serial!).

Edited by willoyd
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I think the way children/teenagers are taught English (mainly at year 9 and at GCSE level) leaves many authors of classics with a bad rep. Certainly the way I was taught English put me off doing it at A Level even though it was my best subject, and I refused to touch any classics for years afterwards.

 

Certainly since, I've found Austen an author people think they should read but rarely have.

 

Interesting point about TV serials - I noticed a while ago that Tesco were selling War and Peace in the book charts with a new cover from that serial, so they evidently do have an effect on some book sales!

 

As you say, she's often at the top of these lists but I find among friends/peer group, most of us haven't read her unless she was covered at school.

 

Having read two now, I certainly think she's very accessible and will read the other four novels at some point.

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Yes I agree, school can put you right off books!  I did Austen for A Level and didn't pick up a proper book for about 6 years, apart from tacky holiday reads like Danielle Steel etc, I read mostly magazines for ages.

 

I keep meaning to have a go at re-reading Austen though.

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Do you really think so? I always thought that, on balance, she's had quite a good reputation, and remains very popular; she's certainly far more accessible than most/many other classic authors, and her books are regularly rated near the top of favourites lists (eg 3 in the top 40 of the BBC Big Read - including P&P at 2nd, although that may well have been influenced by the BBC serial!).

 

I think Austen has been popular in recent years because of many TV adaptations. Indeed she is also really easy to get into though I would not say British classics are hard to get into regardless of the author. 

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As you say, she's often at the top of these lists but I find among friends/peer group, most of us haven't read her unless she was covered at school.

That's probably why we have different impressions: most of my circle have read her. Talking to one or two, they similarly came to her when covering at school (I did too), but were turned on rather than off. Several of my favourites stem from my studies at school (as well as one or two personal clunkers!).

 

I don't know whether it is relevant, but we're mostly in our fifties and sixties.

Edited by willoyd
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