Title: Emma
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: Classic
ISBN: 978-0141192475
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 1815
Publisher’s Description: 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.
Literary Atelier Review: Ah Emma. I adore her! Little did I know I fell for Emma not in her original form but rather all the way back in the 1990s when I became enamoured with Cher Horowitz, the wonderful late twentieth-century interpretation of her in cult film Clueless. Recently I re-watched Clueless, as part of a project introducing my child to classic high-school movies and not only has it lost none of its charm, the movie also made me want to finally read the original story from which it takes its inspiration.
Emma was my second Jane Austen novel after Pride and Prejudice. It is generally understood that these two novels are her most popular and perhaps her best. Most readers love one or the other. I can now say definitively that not only do I love Cher Horowitz I absolutely adore Emma. It is ironic that upon sitting down to write her novel Austen declared to her nephew “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” because there are many of us over the centuries who have loved Emma's obliviousness, or should I say cluelessness, to her faults and flaws. She is pompous, snobby, but also likeable, well-intentioned and ultimately comes to a place of realisation. She is real. Perhaps this more than anything is what makes her so charming and makes this novel so marvellous.