3.5 Alas, another book that falls into the category of ‘Glad I Read It, Hated Getting There’. (“Hate” is a strong word, “involving mental energy that I didn’t want to spend and therefor mildly disliked” would be more accurate in this case, but there’s no ring to that so here we are!)

Austen is an incredible author don’t get me wrong, but as someone with a current attention span of 10 seconds, (it’s a work in progress, we’re getting there) any book written over 200 years ago is quite hard for me to get into and I have to read it in small doses to avoid burning out. I find that the earlier a book is written, the less engaged I am and the more background information and studying I like to do in order to understand what I’m reading. Unfortunately my edition doesn’t have many notes or other resources and I haaaaate looking anything up online because of possible spoilers, so I just… didn’t! (Isn’t this such a helpful review?)

Anyway, these are all Zoë Problems; everything to do with me and nothing to do with the book itself! I could see myself revisiting Emma in the future after watching the movie and properly fawning over Anya Taylor Joy for a decade or two. I’ve heard people say that knowing the storylines of Austen’s works can make them more accessible, so in that case I have high hopes for Pride and Prejudice (was raised on the 1995 TV series and still prefer it to the 2005 version, get out your boxing gloves).

Despite the older language and tediously slow pace, I was still somewhat able to enjoy Emma’s story and character development. Loved the romance when I wasn’t cleansing my mind of the age gap every time it came up! Loved the stress on female friendships! Loved Harriet and her obsessive crushes! Loved Emma being handsome, clever, and rich™️ and ruining the love lives of everyone around her! It was delightful in theory, but monotonous in execution. Maybe I’ll try this again in the future when I’m even hotter and more intelligent, time will tell.

There is not much I can add about this novel that it wasn't already said. I love Jane Austen but this was not my favourite. I know that I am not supposed to like a character to appreciate a novel but Emma was really insufferable. Also, the subject did not hold a lot of interest for me. I liked it but Pride and Prejudice is still my favourite. I might write more when I have a bit more time or I may not.

˚₊‧꒰ა 3.25 stars ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

༉‧₊˚. « One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. » ・₊✧

˗ˏˋ ‼️ SPOILER WARNING ‼️ ˎˊ˗

to be honest, i excepted this to be another 5-star-jane-austen read because when i read pride & prejudice i fell in love with it

Emma, ​​a young girl living in Highbury village, is a pearl to her daddy. He adores her. She is rich and beautiful, and she knows it. She likes things to go her way. A bit too spoiled, this little one. In this novel by Austen, what is good is precisely the scenes where the characters decide not to follow the path that Emma has traced everything for them. Emma has decided to become a matchmaker. She creates opportunities for characters to meet, especially Harriet's best friend. But will she be taken to her own love game, who sees nothing comes?
It is undoubtedly the Austen that I liked the least of the four read so far. The character of Emma did not convince me. I found it, in the end, a bit selfish and not so endearing. But once again, Austen's feather is just delicious, and the environment of the decor pleased me. A good read and entertaining, but not of my favorites like Pride and Prejudice.

This novel had everything I could possibly dislike:

One, a female lead that's an annoying meddler and busybody whose immature and snobbish entitlement leads her to cause mischief, who indulges in bouts of blatant hypocrisy and whose regrets at the bad results of her behaviour is paper-thin at best, and who, in typical Austen fashion, never really pays the consequences because in the end everything is right for her and for the woman she damaged with her actions. I don't get along well with meddlers of this nature, and when they don't weather the outcome it's particularly tiresome. I wish Austen had the courage to make her characters pay for the logical consequences of certain actions instead of shoving a happily ever after down our throats.

Two, the plot is superfluous. A rich and handsome girl who's so bored that she entertains herself by matchmaking for people she doesn't really know that well? Doesn´t work even as an amusing comedy because the consequences are serious even though the author tries her hardest to smooth them out by the end.

Three, after a while, Austen's tone starts to sound sanctimonious, judgy and preachy, especially because of the things she chooses to focus her darts on. Besides, she tends to use the tell, tell, tell, tell a time too many as if wanting us to think of the character a certain way instead of letting us draw our own conclusions from the story itself. I've been noticing this for a while, perhaps because I've read all her novels fairly close to each other, and in time her style can grate.

Four, perhaps her biggest weakness as a writer: she cannot wrap up a story at swordpoint! She just cannot. All her novels, even the best written, have terrible epilogues, some less terrible than others perhaps. And when the story isn't so good, the bad endings leave an even worse impression.

I could go on citing all the things I disliked in this book, were it not that it was so exhausting that I just want to leave it behind me. A moderately good point was that the male lead was nice enough, but he can't save the novel all by himself.

Still not the full review, just a warm-up exercise. :)

You could not shock her more than she shocks me;
Beside her Joyce seems innocent as grass.
It makes me most uncomfortable to see
An English spinster of the middle class
Describe the amorous effects of "brass,"
Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety
The economic basis of society.

- W. H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron (1936)

"While twelve readings of Pride and Prejudie give you twelve periods of pleasure repeated, as many readings of Emma give you that pleasure, not repeated only, but squared and squared again with each persual, till at every fresh reading you feel anew that you never understood anything like the widening sum of its delights." - Reginald Farrer

In Emma Woodhouse Jane Austen presents us with her own conundrum that is much harder to figure out than the one written by Mr Elton in the novel itself.

We have this incredibly privileged heroine, "handsome, clever and rich", the centre of the small Universe that is the village of Highbury, around whom society revolves so to speak, seemingly with no problems at all, unlike any other Austen heroines before or after her.

But Jane Austen being Jane Austen, we are shown that having no problems is what Emma's problem is, actually.
Emma's beloved governess & companion marries and she is left at a loose end. At 21 she is too old to play with dolls so she decides to take up a new hobby to kill time and turns to matchmaking instead.
Harriet Smith, a socially and intellectually inferior, but kindhearted and utterly submissive young girl is to become Emma's "live Barbie doll". She makes Harriet turn down an offer of marriage from a deserving farmer in favour of a "Ken" of her own choosing (Mr. Elton, the local vicar of Highbury), thinking that she knows better than her protegé or anyone else for that matter. However, people rarely dance in perfect choreography to her tunes, no matter how many strings she tries to attach & her plan badly misfires. She does not give up however and with admirable or exasperating perseverance goes on to meddle in the lives of others imagining herself to have everyone figured out, while not even being aware of her own heart.
Emma is taught some hard lessons of self-knowledge and we, readers may obtain considerable satisfaction from the "Schadenfreude" none of us are perfectly free from (as Jane Austen very well knew), while at the same time understanding and accepting Emma for what/who she is.

The satisfaction of "I told you so" is just too precious.






To be continued ....

Ahhh... this book did all sorts of terrible things to me. I swear to God throughout half of this I wanted to give this 1-2 stars, ocasionally there was a spark of brilliance and I was even willing to give this a 3 star rating... so how the fuck did I end up being unable to rate this lower than 4 stars? I don't know... My rating system is fucked up in itself, but after finishing Emma I saw so much in this story, mind you, I think most of it wasn't executed in a great way, but the novel and its characters have a certain charm that I can't resist and I somehow liked it more than Pride and Prejudice (which I rated 3 stars)... so 4 stars it is.

Emma is a novel by Jane Austen, which was published in December 1815. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." Hmmm.. I guess she was kinda right - readers all over the globe and through the centuries despised Emma and how she overestimates her abilities and overall her foolishness – however, personally, I really did like her a lot. I had so much sympathy for this young woman and her wild imagination which did her and others more harm than good.

And now let's get on to the motherfucking RANT and all of the things that I didn't enjoy about this novel! Brace yourself, there's lots to cover.

1) The writing style
1.1) Use of motherfucking dashes/hyphens
Sweet mother of Jesus. If I have to read one more sentence that is "structured" by dashes, I might throw up. Like I don't know what type of shit Austen smoked before writing this novel, but this was so unlike her other work, that I was left utterly speechless (not in a good way, as you might have gathered by now). They were too many interruptions, which made it impossible to follow the train of thought of one particular character. Moreover, it wasn't clear if Austen was providing insight into the minds of her characters or of the narrator (aka herself). And just in general, there were so many jumps of thought, that I got dizzy. There is a high chance that this was intented by Austen to create a sort of meta-sense for the ridiculousness of some of her characters, but I don't fucking care, it was sooo strenuous to read and didn't entertain me at all.

1.2) 80% of this shit was dialogue, and only 20% description
I can't even tell you how mad I got at the dialogue. Whenever Mrs Elton opened her fucking mouth, I wanted to shove something down her throat. Like honestly, Mrs Elton can choke. Due to the bad wording and the confusing use of motherfucking dashes, the dialogue was extremely hard to follow. It was a big problem, that Austen decided to ommit the direct mention of a speaker, e.g. phrases such as ', said Emma', ', replied Mrs. Elton' and therefore I never knew who the fuck was talking. It was sooo damn tempting to just skip the dialogue, but I'm a good girl, so I fought my way through... Towards the end I was somewhat used to the dialogue, but it's still a weak point of this novel.

2) Lack of quotable moments
I love a good quote. I am one of those people who marks her books when reading. Unfortunately, my marker was almost never pulled out. And now, two weeks after finishing this book, I cannot remember a single line, except maybe the opening sentence, and Mr Knightley's 'If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more', but that's it. God knows, I didn't mark any of the horrible blabber that Mrs Elton vomited all over me. ;)

3) Convenient ending/ wish fulfillment
Sweet Jezus, every one just got their happy ending. Hum-hallelujah! As happy as I am for my beloved trash child Harriet, if I had been Mr Martin I would have dropped her like a fucking hot potato and definitely wouldn't have taken her back. #sorrynotsorry And even the pairing of Emma and Mr Knightley (as much as I love their banter) got a little too cheesy for me, especially in regards to him moving in with her and her dad. I know it's supposed to be super cute, but it kinda irked me out, not gonna lie.

4) Emma's treatment of Harriet
Oh my, I could write an entire thesis about Austen's use of the GIRL ON GIRL HATE trope. C'mon, Lizzie's behaviour towards Charlotte (after she learns that Charlotte will marry Mr Collins) was just horrendous and soo fake and just infuriating. And so is Emma's treatment of Harriet. I am not talking about their friendship in the first half of this book, where Emma, in her misguided ways, tries to uplift Harriet's self-esteem. No, that was actually kinda cute, especially taking into consideration that Emma is only 16 years old. [Someone pointed out that she's actually 21 in this narrative. Not sure why I made that mistake. But it's still too big of an age gap for me anyways.] NOOOO! I am talking about the part where Emma thinks that Harriet is in love with Mr Knightley and then just drops her like she's hot, makes sure that she herself will get Knightley, and then doesn't even have the guts to talk to Harriet or respond to her by a fucking letter. That was fucking weak man. I haaated it! Sisters before misters, man! Someone should've gotten Austen that memo!

5) The age gap between Mr Knightley and Emma
Braaahhh... I can't even deal. This is the one fact that I have to completely disregard when thinking about Emma and Knightley (is his surname even mentioned twice in this book? It sure as hell ain't memorable)... because it's just fucking gross! I know that it's fairly normally to marry at a young age during the Regency era and I have no problem with that... but Mr Knightley actually says that he has been in love with Emma since she was 13 (!!!) years old AT LEAST... Just a little reminder, when Emma was 13, Knightley was motherfucking 30, and that's just nasty as fuck. Despite the fact that Emma is extremely IMMATURE for her age, 13-year-old girls are still GIRLS – in body and spirit. And for 30-year-old Knightley to be lurking there is just not cool. In general, I felt like there was an imbalance of power concerning these two. Knightley was wise beyond his years, and the voice of reason, and almost like a father-figure to Emma. Talk about daddy issues.

6) Lack of wit/ funny moments
Oh well, I read somewhere that the novel was supposed to be satire. What an epic fail. That shit wasn't funny at all. This heavily correlates with 1), because when the language sucks ass, I won't be able to laugh.

7) Female's preoccupation with marriage
This is a problem that I have with every one of Austen's work (the exception being Mansfield Park), and that is the female preoccupation with marriage. These women, her heroines (nothing heroic about these women tbh) are obsessed with marrying, every single day, every single thought they have is about potential husbands and the hottest bachelors in town. It's boring! I get that this was a reality for women back in the day, but it would have been nice for a change, to see them thinking about other stuff as well. I feel like Austen was trying to achieve a more diverse set of themes, by e.g. incorporating the hobbies of her heroines, and her stress on family (especially sisterly bonds), but most of the times these attempts really felt half assed and thus fell flat for me. I feel like Austen had a specific structure and pattern for her novels which she followed for every single one of them (the exception, again, being the wonderful Mansfield Park), and that's just lazy narration for me.

8) Treatment of slavery
Uggggghhhh... If I have to read one more time that Austen was a fiery abolitionist, I might strangle someone... because SHE WASN'T. Sorry to break your fucking bubble, but Austen was willfully ignorant of slavery, and that's even giving her credit. Mansfield Park and Emma are the only novels of her in which slavery is mentioned (I haven't read Persuasion yet, so I can't speak for that), and both times abolitionism is NOT a theme. In Mansfield Park the Bertrams quieten when the topic of slavery is brought up. Sir Thomas Bertram benefits directly from the slave trade, and in all likeliness the estate of Mansfield Park was rendered possible by motherfucking slave labour... Not that any of the characters care about that.

And then in Emma Austen has the audacity to say that the misery of governesses is likely to be higher than the misery of slaves. Take a motherfucking seat, because that's just impudent. I'm not saying that governesses, or women in general, were treated great at the beginning of the 19th century, but to compare a paid job, where you were given food and clothing, and were even enabled to rise in society by marriage etc., to the hardships of slave labour, the bloodshed, the whippings, the racism, the psychological terror laid upon the slaves by their "masters" (God, I HATE THAT WORD), the rapings and other forms of physical and sexual assault, the replacment of cultural identity with a sense of nobodiness – that comparison is just beyond me.

9) A lot more TELL than SHOW in the important scenes
As mentioned before 80% of this fuckery is dialogue, but when it really matters (aka the proposal scene, the marriage ceremony etc.) Austen denies us dialogue and gives us half-assed descriptions. I mean what the fuck???? I did not just clock through almost 600 pages of this bullshit, for something like this: "The subject followed; it was in plain, unaffected, gentleman-like English such as Mr. Knightley used even to the woman he was in love with, how to be able to ask her to marry him, without attacking the happiness of her father. Emma’s answer was ready at the first word. “While her dear father lived, any change of condition must be impossible for her. She could never quit him.” Part only of this answer, however, was admitted." – A DENTAL TREATMENT IS MORE ROMANTIC, UGH I'm out!

This concludes my rant review of a book that I actually rated 4 stars. I am pathetic.

***Todo este mes lo estamos leyendo y comentando en el #clubpickwick. Yo me he adelantado a las fechas pero seguiré comentando y añadiendo contenido con mis compañeras por nuestro instagram durante todo mayo: Club Pickwick

Este fue el primer libro de Austen que leí, uno de los primeros clásicos que amé locamente y en esta relectura tenía un poquito de miedo de que no me gustara tanto ahora...
jajajaj que estupidez.
ESTE LIBRO ES UNA PUÑETERA MARAVILLA.
Y realmente poco más tendría que decir. He disfrutado de la primera a la última página, me he reído y me ha tenido con la sonrisa sus 500 páginas, he adorado a todos y cada uno de los personajes (sí, incluso a los Elton, porque son TAN reconocibles aún hoy que me hacían muchísima gracia sus pequeñas maldades).
Me parece uno de los libros más originales de Austen, está realizado casi como una obra de teatro en 3 actos en los que las tramas cambian y evolucionan, personajes entran y salen de escena cuando menos te lo esperas y la protagonista es la villana que en el fondo es buena .
Porque Emma es maravillosa. Por su educación, época y circunstancias no deja de ser una clasista metomentodo pero también es una joven de 20 años que no ha salido de su casa en toda su vida y vive sola con un padre (uno de los MEJORES PERSONAJES EVER) hipocondriaco sin mucho que hacer en todo el día.
Me encanta la evolución de Emma , adoro a Jane Fairfax (que sería la típica protagonista en cualquier otra historia), a la enternecedora señorita Bates, al señor Knightley y hasta al caradura de Frank Churchill. Todos me parecen personajes complejos y maravillosamente bien retratados.
Y luego está el hecho de que esta novela sea especialmente cómica, llena de enredos y malentendidos, que por otra parte se presta a disfrutar aún más en relecturas.
Una gozada y sin duda, sí, tanto tiempo después constato que sigue siendo mi libro preferido de Austen junto a 'Persuasión'

3.25 stars

n  “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”n

Welp! A lot would vex dear Emma Woodhouse in this novel, and the tea that came from it was scalding hot. I enjoyed this, despite it being a bit drawn out at times, or so I found. It was a nice laid back novel which allowed me to enjoy it and not worry about much else. We follow Emma as she navigates her friends' love lives and messes things up horrendously, discovering much about herself in the process. Honestly, this review will not be extensive this was just one of those books that you look back on and you say "oh yeah, that was fun" but you don't have a lot of special insights.

The one aspect that I thought was kind of rushed was honestly the romance... like looking back I see the signs but when it came I found myself going "Well, ok, I guess we are doing this now". Obviously this is a Jane Austen novel and in the last 100-ish pages when the romance really gets going I felt all the fluffy nice emotions, but I find that I like the long game with more set up to engage me more. I must say, because of this I was kind of more invested in Jane Fairfax's story (again, not that I didn't like Emma's). In the end the novel did make me feel all warm and happy, as one would expect.

The cast of characters, from the melodramatic Mr. Woodhouse, to the annoying Mrs. Elton, cringey Mr. Elton, talkative Miss Bates etc, is where this book shines. All the conversations were engaging and kept me interested to read on. This being said, I don't know why, but I had to listen to the audiobook as I read or I'd lose focus and get confused, having to reread the last few pages. Don't know why, sometimes it just do be like that, I guess.

Overall, a solid classic that made me feel very nice and warm inside during quarantining in the snow :).

*book completed as part of the January Classics challenge

Wow, what a lot of effort Austen put into her annoying characters in this one! Just to make sure I'm clear, I'm not saying I didn't like Emma because of this. I mean there are two or three characters that are intentionally annoying and Austen spent a lot of time constructing each, offering up plenty of examples for the reader. Miss Bates is incessantly chatty, okay. Mrs. Elton is bossy, I get it. It's important to establish these traits, but there's a difference between planting seeds and burying them six feet under. The love stories and triangles are nearly as good as Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, but she piles on so much patience-testing dialogue that the reader eventually becomes entombed in boredom. I did enjoy the love-triangle and the education of Emma herself. Those qualities, as well as Austen's exceptional writing ability, saved this one for me in the end.

Gracias, Jane Austen, por no decepcionarme aún. Se nota que este libro lo escribió durante la madurez, porque ni Sentido y sensibilidad ni Orgullo y prejuicio tienen una trama que parece muy sencilla y que logra construir algo más complejo. Uno de los motivos puede llegar a ser una protagonista que no lleva un cartel pidiendo que el lector la quiera (salvo en ocasiones puntuales) y muchos personajes que dan falsas impresiones. No pueden faltar las descripciones de los entretenimientos de zonas rurales y la fina ironía que utiliza Austen para quejarse de la sociedad. Podría haber sido perfecto pero, sobre el final (y trataré de justificarlo sin spoilers más adelante), se cortan hilos sin ninguna delicadeza y los acontecimientos se precipitan mucho. Contrastando esto con la lentitud del principio, no puedo pasarlo por alto.

Como siempre, la corrección de la sinopsis de la edición que leí (la que marqué): Emma no se muda a Hartfield porque ella ya vive allí. No está aburrida y Knightley no debería aparecer de golpe en el párrafo. En resumidas cuentas, Emma Woodhouse es una señorita de veintiún años, vive con su padre y ambos pertenecen a la buena sociedad de Highbury. La que se muda es la institutriz, Anne Weston, porque se casa. El matrimonio estuvo casi arreglado por Emma, ya que tiene como pasatiempo armar parejas y la boda correspondiente. Esto le va a traer problemas cuando intente hacer lo mismo con Harriet Smith, una amiga de condición social inferior.

Después del insoportable párrafo que cuenta el argumento, los elogios: me encanta Emma como protagonista y creo que es una de las mejores de las novelas de Jane Austen (me falta leer Mansfield Park , para tener una idea acabada). Es egoísta, juzga a los demás por su clase social, cree que es la titiritera de la gente que la rodea y sólo tiene a George Knightley para que la enderece un poco en sus acciones. No quiere casarse y analiza punto por punto las situaciones que vive. No se la puede apreciar apenas empieza el libro porque la actitud molesta, es cierto, pero no se puede sacar a Emma de su contexto. Vive en una época en donde las personas eran definidas por sus posesiones y su renta anual, así que ella hace lo mismo porque, en realidad, no es tan inteligente como la pintan. Su poder de observación no es infalible y, por supuesto, no hay párrafos en donde filosofe sobre la vida o la economía de Gran Bretaña. Su inteligencia está basada en lo que se consideraba así en ese siglo para las mujeres. Obviamente, a los hombres se los medía con otros parámetros y tal vez por eso Emma toca una fibra sensible y Frank Churchill o Elton, que son más insoportables que ella  (y no, para mí el final no lo redime) , no lo hacen. Así que no hemos cambiado. Lo importante es que Emma va suavizando las opiniones y las actitudes a medida que se mete en problemas porque, a fin de cuentas, tiene capacidad de autocrítica. Me hubiera gustado que predijera las consecuencias de sus actos antes de ejecutarlos, ya que era tan lista.

Hay otros que merecen que se los mencione porque completan el universo Austen. Knightley, Harriet y Augusta son tres muestras de distintos tipos de personas que se encuentran a menudo en estas novelas, pero tienen características que los diferencian del resto. Knightley tiene todo y no presume, Harriet no tiene nada y no le importa y Augusta tiene todo y lo refriega en cualquier rostro que se le cruce. Creo que Austen trabaja muy bien con estos tres y los desarrolla para que queden como ejemplo de esa sociedad que ella tanto miraba de reojo (el tratamiento era mutuo, me atrevo a decir). Luego está el padre de Emma, siempre listo para aportar la cuota de humor con su excesiva preocupación médica y climática. Todos son muy sinceros y algunas frases son difíciles de digerir desde la perspectiva de un siglo más benevolente, aunque sobrevivan los hipócritas.

El puntapié inicial de la historia se da cuando Emma desea que Harriet, en detrimento de un hombre humilde que ama, se case con el señor Elton, quien la haría ascender socialmente. Harriet es una especie de proyecto de Emma y, a pesar de la manipulación a la que la pobre chica se somete sin ofrecer resistencia, la amistad entre ellas llega a ser importante en la trama. A partir de allí, se suceden los equívocos que no pueden faltar en las novelas de Austen, las palabras mal interpretadas, los temperamentos poco sondeados. Hay bailes, visitas y excursiones (otra cosa no se puede hacer, ya que no están en Londres) que sirven de marco para estos sucesos. Están bien armados y no detecté muchas conversaciones innecesarias, salvo las de la señorita Bates porque lo requería su personaje. Siempre está la sensación de que dan demasiadas vueltas para decir algo simple, pero se puede superar. La narración es afilada y se me hizo más llevadera y sensible que la de otras novelas de Austen (como Sensatez y sentimientos, por ejemplo). Básicamente, todo está bien. Sin embargo, porque nada existe sin un “sin embargo”, la resolución del final me pareció precipitada. Creo que es uno de los pequeños defectos de la escritora: en las últimas treinta páginas se revelan cosas que se pueden sospechar desde el principio y, aunque causan enternecimiento, producen efecto de choque. O de incomodidad, al menos.  De repente, Harriet desaparece de la vida de Emma después de la confesión y hay un corte brusco en las relaciones, a pesar de que pase el tiempo. Me decepcionó que Emma se casara y que tirara por la borda sus convicciones, esas que justo no perjudicaban a nadie. Los cabos sueltos se dejan así como están y no pude atisbar un esfuerzo por terminarlos de buena manera.

Con Emma queda reforzada la idea de que hay elementos que no se pueden juntar sólo porque se le ocurre a una sola persona sin tener en cuenta los sentimientos de la otra. Aun así, predomina (guste o no guste) la conveniencia por sobre los sentimientos. Austen no ofrece muchas salidas a esto: si alguien ama a una persona de baja condición, entonces las amistades y el trato hacia ella cambiarán de acuerdo a cuántos escalones baje. Si los sube, obviamente, tendrá más beneficios. Y esta novela lo aclara y lo explica con lujos de detalles, además de cierta insistencia. Allí está la habilidad de Austen. Puede llegar a ser muy instructiva… y muy convincente.

Emma se toma o se deja. A pesar de que el inicio no tiene un brillo que invite a seguir leyendo, lo bueno empieza a surgir a los pocos capítulos. Ya no se vuelve tan largo y los personajes adquieren forma junto con la trama. Reconozco que Emma no es la protagonista más simpática del mundo y le falta mucho para ser Lizzie Bennet, pero tampoco encuentro razones para odiarla fervorosamente. El libro en sí mismo me pareció muy bueno y lo recomendaría para lectores pacientes que no le temen a personajes no muy heroicos.

Reseña en Clásico desorden

Review to come, too many thoughts right now to express what should be said about this complicated and layered masterpiece.