I don’t know what tempted me to write this review, rather I took it as a moral responsibility for myself to educate the people who aren’t still aware of this book errr a never ending story of British idiosyncrasies and leisurely tales of summer, winter, autumn, rains and everything said and unsaid.
In the preface, it is written that it is the best work of Jane Austen so far(I doubt it seriously). The story revolves around a beautiful, young, rich, classy(supposedly) girl, Emma Wodehouse living with her father, Mr. Wodehouse and brought up by a governess Miss Taylor(later Mrs. Weston) after the demise of her mother when she was very young. They live in Hartfield in England. She has an elder sister named Isabella as well who is married to a John Knightley in London and is happily settled with her kids. Her brother in law’s younger brother Mr. Knightley as he is usually called is a close member of Wodehouse family too and visits them almost everyday, as he shares a great rapport with Mr. Wodehouse.
Emma had set up a great match for her governess Miss Taylor to a Mr. Weston in neighbourhood(at Randalls), though her father thought it to be a bad decision. She was greatly pleased with herself by this matchmaking and hence thought of herself as a wise decision maker in this area. OMG, this is truly what I call Vanity personified.
She never thought she can have an equal in her beauty, looks, manners, poise, elegance, music, housekeeping or anything else, though she never said it openly. She also vowed to never marry as she had an obligatory responsibility towards her father and also somewhere in her heart she felt that she can rarely have any man equal to her. She made a great many errors in judgment when trying to’fix’ her friend Harriet Smith with a Mr. Elton whom Emma presumed to be very classy, decent and’amiable’ but this judgment turned out to be worse when the same’amiable’ Mr. Elton proposed with all his heart and hopes to Emma herself.
Important to mention here that she was warned by Mr. Knightley of this misjudgment in advance which she happily ignored.
Further, she was befooled by Mr. Weston’s son Frank Churchill(though it was unintentional to fool her from his side) about a Miss Jane Fairfax in neighbourhood who was almost Emma’s equal or superior in certain areas but for her wealth and family status. Frank and Jane were engaged and this fact was hidden from the rest of the world, even our very own all wise, all knowing Emma could not decode that. Needless to say, Mr. Knightley did from time to time offer his suggestions to her which she never paid any heed to.
Time passes by and so is Emma’s vanity at times fueled by those who surrounded her but for Mr. Knightley who is sincere, honest, caring and upfront to her whenever possible.
Finally Emma realises that she is in love with none other that Mr. Knightley himself and her feelings were reciprocated when Mr. Knightley first proposed to her after his visit from London to his brother’s house.
He even assures that she doesn’t have to leave Hartlfield as long as her father is alive and that he will move to her place instead.
Wow, seems like a fairy tale romance, but overall this is a conventional tale or vanity, arrogance, love, pretentiousness and comparisons. I still wonder how come people just do nothing but take interest in other people’s lives, party, gossip, walk, attend and organise dinners and lunches and balls.Maybe, my 21st century fast paced roller coster ride kind of live does not let me even imagine that slow motion kind of life. Good for those who lived it. I’m not game guys.
Read it for once if you have the time, energy and patience as I had.
Cheers,
Pooja