I read this when it first came out, and even went as far as attempting the second in the series before giving up in disgust.

Decades later, I decided to give the "classic" another try. After all, it IS still talked about, and they converted it to film... This go-around was even worse. I had to struggle to get through it. So verbose -- four pages to describe a garden that has 30 minutes of action in it. Detail upon detail for the bric-a-brac in a sitting room... and then no in-depth information about the important aspects of Emma's life: how she made and expanded her empire.

With the exception of Blackie, none of the characters were likeable. Emma was a bitter, vindictive woman. I did not care what happened to her in the end. I'm sorry I wasted almost 2 months struggling through this 800+ page tome a second time.

DNFed at about 80%. I would have loved this if I had read it as a teenager. I really tried to like it now, but it is far too long, and much too repetitive. Also this author loves adjectives A LOT, to the point that I just didn't think that I could bear to read another description of the sky. An awful lot of telling, rather than showing, and a lot of info dumping. For example, the lead character meets a Jewish character, and explains that she doesn't really know what that is, so he gives her a potted history of Judaism that continues for around 20 pages. Everything is over described, down to the pattern on the wallpaper. I really tried, but I couldn't do it any longer.

I'm not entirely certain how I feel about A Woman of Substance. It was a NYT Bestseller in the 1970s, so I feel like the writing style, etc was a bit dated. My main complaints were that the author loved to use big, impressive words and described everything in super detail. I'm all for using good vocab, but sometimes a simple word does the job best. Also, the dialogue seemed a bit forced and unnatural, and the main character HAD NO FAULTS. None. Except that she was born poor. It was kind of irritating at times that this poor little servant girl was brilliant, had a natural talent for designing and sewing clothing, was an excellent businesswoman, was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, could cook better than anyone else, could work 24/7 and never needed sleep, was kind and fair in personal matters, but shrewd and cunning in business matters, etc etc etc. I was like... really? Anyway, considering that I read 900 pages in a week, clearly I didn't hate it. It kept me interested the whole way through, and the story was good, albeit a little unbelievable.

This book boiled down to two words: boring and aggravating.
The plot and book description initially sold me in this book, but I lost interest very quickly when the plot was covered by endless adjectives and praises about the main character, Emma Harte.
It was completely unnecessary and annoying to have the author blab on and on about how great Emma is. How she is a genius, and how she suddenly went from being described as slightly attractive to so beautiful everybody who met her just had to have her!! It was completely unrealistic and Emma grew into more and more of a fake character.

BTB tried writing about the greatest woman she could come up with, but got lost and ended up writing about an unrealistic woman. BTB gave her a perfect personality where Emma possessed every single virtue from intelligence to charity to humidity but also strength. Wtf.
Nobody is that perfect or possesses every great virtue. People have to have faults. Also how is Emma supposed to be a role model for girls and woman if she is unrealistic and born with every single good quality? It is such a cop out to give the advice of "be born a genius and be attractive".
Emma also had ridiculously good luck. When she moved as a single woman to a big city she just happened to meet all kinds of equally smart, nice people?? That is so highly unlikely!!! Everybody Emma worked with seemed to be a carbon copy of one another. They were all attractive (which is shallow writing), nice and humble and good (I was practically chocking every time BTB described some new character as truly good, filled with light.....ugh!!), and somehow where able to give Emma whatever she needed at the opportune time! They were all so two dimensional it was sad.

......words cannot describe how annoying it was to read about Emma. However the absolute worst point was around page 600. Emma is starting her thriving business, just starting to make profits and in love with David. But oh no! Catastrophe strikes! She simply can't be bothered to marry him because his mom would be mad!?!? Even though his mom apparently loved her a couple chapters before, and Emma is supposed to be all strong and confident, but she can't even marry the man she loves cause she is too afraid their difference in religion would keep them apart???? Why not just convert you idiot????? Emma never cared about religion before this, so why not just go for the man you love and become part of his family???? It was so hypocritical and shallow. And then somehow BTB tries to make the reader feel bad for Emma! Because now she needs a husband, but is too scared to marry David so marries another guy.....poor stupid Emma. BTB should have out some more thought into her main character. By creating this warped personal life, she made Emma into a lonely cold woman who couldn't even fight for her own love and happiness.

If I was her child I probably would have conspired against Emma too. No wonder her children turned out to be such cold spoiled brats! They probably had no love and were all from so many different dads they couldn't keep up with their family tree either.

I was happy when this book ended and won't read anything else from this author.

I became hooked on this author thanks to the Cavendon series. Emma Harte was mentioned in that series.

This books gives us quite the history and life story of Emma Harte. A woman who dug herself out of poverty and became one of the most successful women of her time internationally. She was ruthless, smart yet caring and gave her heart all too easily. But the life of Emma Harte was not easy and she had her share of heartbreaks in her personal life.

The descriptions were quite descriptive and it was easy to mesh myself into this world. I noticed that the author was much more descriptive in this early book of hers compared to the Cavendon books.
I didn't mind all the extra words as I was so immersed into this story.

Emma's ambition to become rich and revenge made her who she became. She was quick and witty but she could ruthless when it came to business. It was amazing to see her succeed so well especially during the time periods in this book as she lived through two world wars.

The heartbreak in this book was so sad. Be it her good friends or her lovers. One of her lovers it was unbearably heart breaking. Those she let into her life became her absolute dear friends. I do wish that her children were better. I can't say I really enjoyed any of them once they started getting mentioned.

This was an absolute wonderful book. I wanted to savor every word but I wanted to rush through just so that I could keep reading the continuing story. This will be a book that will stay as one of my favorites of all time.

Yes, it is a bit dated and yes, a bit too long, but an entertaining read nonetheless.

I thought this was a great book! It was so good that I read the series. While the rest of the series didn't equal this one, it was still a fine series. Emma Harte is a once in a lifetime character. Her story was well done, the other characters were superbly written and I couldn't put id down. I have re-read this book several times over the years and just recently recommended it to my daughter. The story has everything - love, friendship, fear, loathing, heartbreak. While I was reading it was as if I knew this woman and went on her roller coaster ride of emotions with her. It was that well done.

I reread this book after, well lets just say a long time ago. It was such a great read. its a long one and one you can devour it over a few days. Bradford is one of my favorite romance authors.
I am so happy for this 40 anniversary edition.
I gave it 4 stars and even if you have read it in the past grad a copy and reread, you will be so happy that you did.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

I can't do it. I just can't muddle through all 9,000 pages of this book. From what I've read it's a great story, but I can't subject myself to the terrible writing long enough to determine that for myself. This writer apparently never met an adjective she didn't like, and she is so desperate for her adjective friends not to get lonely that she groups them together into ridiculously long strings. Even in the few pages I did read, I ended up skimming to get past lengthy paragraphs of description of things I couldn't bring myself to care about. Not only that, but I can't stand writers who do this:

"How are you, Fred?"

"I'm fine, Barney."

"Good to hear, Fred."

"You look like you're doing well too, Barney."

"Thanks, Fred."

"You're welcome, Barney."

NO ONE talks this way. Observe your own discussions with other people, do you use their names that frequently? Or at all? Argh, this is a serious pet peeve of mine and it drove me absolutely insane. I had to put this one aside.

When I first began reading this book, I didn't think I was going to be able to make it through. There were a few things this author did that caused me some minor annoyances. It was hard to develop any true feeling toward Emma in the beginning of the book because many of her thoughts seemed contradictory. The beginning is really slow going. Also, this author likes to make extremely long-winded descriptions of interiors, which I find detract from the plot, especially when a character is ruminating on important things and these ruminations are interrupted with a long description. Not only this, but the author then communicates how each room fits each character's traits and how these rooms say something important about that character, which is something I felt I could have figured out on my own and which was a further waste of page space. She also knocks you over the head with the fact that Emma has an iron will and that she's extremely ambitious. I really felt that Emma's actions could have spoken for themselves and that this repeated reminder of her strengths was unnecessary.

Having said this, however, I was able to make it through the first part of the book and after this point, I began to really connect with the story. The characters in this book are so real, and many, like Blackie, are lovable. Emma's journey from an impoverished, working-class girl to a powerhouse is extremely satisfying, as are the various ways in which she overcomes challenges. The story is great, the characters wonderful. Ultimately, I enjoyed the book. I would recommend this book only to someone who has a lot of time for reading (the book is quite long) and who is willing to read through the beginning, which is mainly where all the long and technical interior descriptions are; as the book progresses, they tend to get shorter.

LOVED IT!!
One of my all-time favorite books, IT CHANGED MY LIFE.
I read it 30 years ago in my bookclub and I am currently re-reading it. I read the series, each about the next generation of the Harte family, and enjoyed them immensely, but each book stands alone with satisfying endings.
A friend described it as a "delicious read," which is an apt description. Another friend refers to as "your biblical guide for attaining excellence."

I remember devouring every page as I learned more about the central character, Emma Harte, her focused commitment to experience success, her determined belief in herself, and her passionate ability to love. I had read Gone With The Wind, but this was the first novel I ever read that modeled not only what it was like to be a strong woman, but also someone I would recommend as a strong role model to any of my daughters or granddaughters.

A rags-to-riches story, it is about a British woman who begins as a simple maid to become the powerful head of a business empire in the early 20th century. It is a magnificent novel about the strength and commitment one woman has to pull herself out of poverty and the sacrifices she makes to survive and become powerful in an age dominated by men. However only her career ends happily ever after... her personal life was a mess (something many years after the fact, to which I can personally relate). Yet in the midst of numerous personal trials she found some of the best friends and business partners for life, and (again, as I am able relate) the book has a happy and upbeat conclusion. When the series ended I missed them as I did a dear friend.

Shortly after reading this I read a news article telling about the life of Estee Lauder and the rise of her eponymous cosmetics empire. It was so similar to Emma Harte's story I told my mother, a devotee of all things Estee Lauder, and she recommended A Woman of Independent Means, which I devoured and it was an equally wonderful novel which also changed my life. I believe I recommended both novels to my newly married daughter at the time.

I highly recommend this wonderful novel. Barbara Taylor Bradford is a master storyteller!

I thoroughly enjoy it excellent story