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As we are now solidly in the new year, or at least back to our routines, and very soon we’ll have an announcement to make about Virtual Book Club, so if you have thoughts and opinions you’d like us to factor into our plans, we welcome them in our DMs, in the comments below, or in our emails.  If you love it, but don’t want to participate, or if you would love to participate but can’t because the day or time is bad, or the books just aren’t for you, please share with us!  If you want to be involved, we want to know what would make it better for you!

As I sit here deliberating on the words of Ms. Jane Austen and the characters and plots she created, as well as while I was reading the words this week, I feel as sickly as Mr. Woodhouse feared his family would become. A debilitating cough, a scratchy throat, a frustrated voice, and a sinus headache that just won’t quit… I thank my lucky stars for the miracle of modern medicine and not the lackluster attentions of Mr. Perry of Highbury, but I digress… Emma was published in 1816, the last of Austen’s four novels to be published in her lifetime. The other two were published after her death in 1817. One of the foremost female English novelists of all time, Austen still doesn’t pull me into her world with any enthusiasm. Being a Comedy of Manners, fully dependent upon the understanding of the social norms and mores of the time, it requires a little bit more research on the modern reader to be fully enjoyed or understood. I did not do that research. So, the entire time as Emma Woodhouse’s internal monologue conjectures over how her friend Harriet Smith makes a large social climb by being matched to Mr. Elton the vicar and not by being married to Richard Martin the prosperous farmer, I’m wondering why it would even matter at all since she is the natural born daughter of some random man we don’t know the station of until the final chapter of the book! (Thank you, Ms. Austen, for at least putting a big bow at the end of every novel.) It took me at least until 30% to be invested in any character, and what I really wanted was an explanation of regency social calls and a map of the dang town. Why were there complaints about how far Donwell Abbey was from town when Mr. Knightley the owner walked to and fro multiple times in a day, and then on to the other homes of consequence? Was this supposed to be comedic, when it was just very frustrating. 

Overall, another meets expectations novel from Jane Austen. Glad to have read the book, yes. More interested in the forthcoming retellings, ALSO YES. I don’t love giving three stars to these classic novels, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it. The beginning was a slog and I was distracted by my lack of knowledge about the way society worked. I never got my questions answered from the book and honestly I’m not interested enough to do research into the life and times of the fictional characters. Emma, you sure know how to dangle a carrot and then drop it in the mud. Maybe I would like it more if I could see the plot on screen…

~Ashley

Because I’m sure you’re dying to know, here’s my current rankings of the Novels of Jane Austen:

1. Persuasion
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Emma
4. Northanger Abbey (only because I did read it in high school but have forgotten everything)

Unranked: Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park

This wasn’t my first reading of Emma, but darlings, it might be my last.  While I do love Pride and Prejudice in many forms, I do enjoy Emma the movie more than I enjoy Emma the book.  Yes, I said it.  I will note that finding the Easter eggs for all the couples did make the read more entertaining than a typical romance reread, and also, the Knightley brothers, along with the Watsons are my favorites.  I think the piece that caused my struggles is Emma herself.  I know I’m supposed to root for her, but she’s a spoiled brat and I just can’t until the end when she FINALLY realizes how awful and immature she’s been, and even then it’s a struggle.  As a reader, I really want characters to root for and have DNFed books because I just didn’t care before.  Thankfully, there were a couple of other characters I could root for, including sweet, poor Harriet who was just caught up in Emma’s storm.  

Here’s the deal about classics though, sometimes you just have to read them to get the joke.  Clueless is more fun with an understanding of Emma.  The movies make more sense having read the book, yes even if I do prefer the movie because when Emma breaks the fourth wall it’s so obnoxious unless you know it’s in the text.  Here’s the big redeeming part for me – I love reading about a woman who shoves her foot so far down her throat and then recovers from it, because we’ve all been in need of a good recovery and I like reading that is a tale for the ages.  

I’m giving Emma 3.5 but not rounding up.  I also wanted a map, and I enjoyed the dialogue (except when I wanted to smack a character, or a few), but it was just a meets expectations of a friends (in-laws?) to lovers romance, with a lot of misunderstandings and awkwardness while getting to the HEA, and I wanted it to be something more, yes, even on a reread.  Here’s hoping the retellings are going to be more to our tastes (and so far so good on #1).  

What’s a book that didn’t live up to your expectations on a reread?

~Nikki

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