Are you looking for one of the best classic plays in history? Are you looking for an enjoyable, exciting and emotionally charged story? Are you thinking about the next book to give as a gift?
Emma by Jane Austen is the book you're looking for.
This is the Austen's original version with the addition of an annotated literary critique at the end to better explain the meaning of this book.
Emma is a novel about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families.[2] The novel was first published in December 1815, with its title page listing a publication date of 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England. Emma is a comedy of manners, and depicts issues of marriage, sex, age, and social status.
Background of the Book
Jane Austen is both a Georgian (1714-1830) and a Regency (1811-1820) author, meaning that she lived her life under the reigns of King George III and his son, George IV. Because he became mentally incompetent, George III stepped down and allowed his son to rule in his place as regent. The extravagant George IV was a patron of the arts and a fan of Austen's work, and she dedicated Emma to him at his strong suggestion.
The Georgian era was one of great turmoil and upheaval. Austen was born one year before the American Revolution, lived her teen years and beyond through the French Revolution, and toward the end of her life saw Great Britain's defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The War of 1812 and the first phase of the Industrial Revolution also occurred during her lifetime.
The world of Austen's novels seems to exist mostly outside this chaotic realm, which is especially true in Emma. Nonetheless, the author did have some consciousness of the changes going on around her. On the one hand, she upholds the British class structure; and, on the other, she satirizes snobbery and slavish devotion to class distinctions.
Book Considerations.
- "Emma has been read and enjoyed for more than 200 years. I read it at the beginning of the 2020s and found it fresh, delightful and wonderfully alert to the way human beings feel and think and act, and don't".
- "Of all of Austen's books - and I've read them all several times - I learn the most from Emma. I believe that one of Austen's goals in writing is to teach us to view the rude and ridiculous with amusement rather than disdain".
- "Jane Austen seems to be a rather divisive figure as of late. You love her for her wit, her irony, her gentle but pointed depictions of manners and love".
One of the most-loved books in English Literature!
It's time to embark on an enlightening journey inside the incredible story of "Emma " by Jane Austen.
