This is a very personal choice indeed. Austen is still my favourite novelist - no matter how great contemporary novels we have in our own times, for me no ones beats her in subtlety, irony and superb writing skills.
    
     'Pride & Prejudice' is still my favourite novel, but perhaps 'Emma' is her most intelligent and intriguing book because of the complexity of its characters.
    
     If you have already read it, please do share your views with us here. If you haven't, please do it. I'm sure you will have some hours of enjoyable and fascinating reading.
    
     You can download the whole book clicking here
    
     Looking forward to reading your comments.
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi Chris Lima
     Though i knew the plot summary of Emma aided by your thread I read the novel. I thoroughly agree with you. It was a fascinating read.
     Emma inspite of her erring behaviour slowly captured my mind as the plot developed and she blooms into a lady more to suit the taste of Mr.Knightley. Do you agree with me?

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Hi Priyasathyan & everyone
    
     Welcome to the group! And thanks for your comment. Indeed, many people think that the whole process Emma goes through along the book is a process that aims to *educate* her to become a proper wife to Mr. Knightley. This is certainly a possible way to read it.
    
     How changed is Emma at the end of the story, though? Isn't she educating Knightley in a certain way as well? Could we find moments in the story when this *educational programme* seem to be going on the other way round?
    
     Looking forward to reading your comments :)
     Cheers - Chris

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Dear All,
    
     I haven't gone too far in reading "Emma" so far, but I can share how intriguing and complex are all the characters I have acquainted now. Is she a painter? Or she does paint relantionships! It's ironic.
    
     And I wonder at the picture we have of Emma drawing Harriets' picture while Mr. Elton is reading there, like in an assignment, and I enjoy the discussion whether it would be good to place Miss Smith indoors, or outdoors on the picture. That's artistic, and thanks to the author.
    
     You can really see the picture of Harriet sitting for the picture. But then, you also learn that Emma is not only painting on canvas, but she is also waving Harriet & Mr. Elton's ralantioniship to somewhere. I wonder where it ends!
    
     Tanguene

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Hi Tanguene and all
     I enjoyed your transposition to painting- I think it sheds light on what Austen was doing. Somewhere (in her letters, I think) she once referred to "the small canvas on which I paint'.
     Charlotte Bronte found Austen too genteel- she said, in a ltetter to GH Lewes:
     "Why do you like Miss Austen so very much? I am puzzled on that point. What induced you to say that you would rather have written Pride and Prejudice or Tom Jones, than any of the Waverley novels?
    
     I had not seen Pride and Prejudice till I had read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book. And what did I find? An accurate daguerrotyped portrait of a commonplace face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses. These observations will probably irritate you. but I shall run the risk."
    
     But to me it is the 'elegant but confined houses' that provide the charm. And Emma is something of a tour de force, because a spoilt and over-indulged heroine is still a fascinating character.
    
     If still haven't finished reading, there are some wonderful moral and satirical pages coming up... Enjoy!
    
     all the best for the festive season
     SaraW
    
     from a letter to G.H. Lewis on January 12, 1948

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hi chris
    
     saw a very good movie 'the austin book club
     if i remember the name correctly
     the characters discuss the characters and books of austin beautifuly
     i do make my students see a movie related to the book
     it helps a lot in comprehension as well as in developing interest in the book itself
    
     thanks for reviving my interest in austin , hmmm
     cheers

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Hi Tanguene, Sara, Chandella and all
    
     On the painting, indeed I think Emma paints Harriet to the others but also to herself. I wonder how much she was actually deceiving herself in her construction of the others or whether she was fully aware of her manipulations. I think we could find about a thousand essays on this!!
    
     I agree with Sara about the confined spaces and it is interesting how they contrast with the picnic scene. Is it that that the open space can trigger the opening of the otherwise restrained feelings and not so genteel opinions they have of each other??
    
     Cheers - Chris

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