Emma

⚖The case for it

The whole book is narrated through Emma’s own wrong read of what is happening, so a first-time reader gets fooled exactly when she does. That is why people say it opens up on a second pass, once Austen’s planted clues become visible. Readers who love her love the flaws: “Emma is complicated, bratty, spoiled, a little dumb sometimes.” The comic cast carries the rest, Mrs Elton’s vulgarity and Mr Woodhouse’s ailments and Miss Bates talking without ever stopping. Knightley reprimanding Emma privately after Box Hill is the scene people return for. One critic maintains “there isn’t a paragraph in the novel that fails to contribute” to a “comedy of errors executed brilliantly.”

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Emma is “such a vain and arrogant main character” for a long stretch, writing off Robert Martin as beneath Harriet in a way that reads as plain meanness rather than a flaw waiting to be outgrown. Miss Bates’s speeches run long enough that readers skip them outright, and around them sit chapters where little happens: “Jane rambles about nothing for chapters and chapters.” Readers also flag how long Knightley has been watching Emma grow up, which unsettles the romance for them. Set beside Pride and Prejudice it is the cooler book and a poor place to start Austen. Many bounce off it once and come back only years later.

— the honest librarian

9h

honest hours

13

sittings