Ebook Emma Emma Jane Austen 9788401463112 Books

Product details Paperback Publisher Book of the Month Club; Reprint edition (1996) Language Spanish ISBN-10 8401463114

Emma Emma Jane Austen 9788401463112 Books Reviews

• Emma is one of Austen's and my least favorite characters. Most matchmakers are bossy types and are universally in the MYOB (mind your own business) crowd. Sometimes she is definitely mean-spirited. She could have more positively spent her time perfecting her musicianship or working on her artistic talent. The illustrations were a reminder of the dress of the time and the households as well.
  
  It was fun to compare the movies available as well. The British BBC production definitely had the better casting. How would you feel about marrying someone 16 years your senior? The women of Austen's time had some issues we would not cope with as well.The book is definitely an eye-opener on Austen as an early Women's Lib advocate. We don't realize how good we have it. We can do anything we want these days.
• This version of Emma is a 79-page re-write. It has large print, different text from the original opening, and is about a sixth the size of the original book by Jane Austen. There is no indication in the description that it is not the full text of the original. I can't tell if it was written for children, or as a summary for someone who hasn't read the book. The other reviews refer to it as a French edition but it is only in English. The ISBN also refers to a French edition. Readers should know that it's a summary.
• I would of probably not have read Austin for awhile if not brought to my attention by the late Patrick Obrian.
  I found it interesting that thew super masculine author of Master and Commander + the 21 volumes that followed -would so often dedicate his books to Jane Austin. The few existing interviews that exist of Obrian also quote him as listing Austin as one of his main literary idols.
  I therefore read Emma and thoroughly enjoyed it with the psychological factors --just like Obrian- being the standout element.
  Emma resembles a person who has many character defects due to her high society upbringing and blood ties.
  This type of character sets the stage for interesting insights in to human nature in relation to types of control that people have on others. Emma enjoys moving people around like pieces of chess. She finds satisfaction in the cause and effect of social situations involving people and a unhealthy interest in being in control of others destiny.
  Emma is a character study of a person who, due to a higher class in society, employs a convoluted or almost perverse sense of ethics in relation to the importance of socioeconomic status. This story is important because it shows how higher classes of people form their own subculture based on degree of wealth or mainly in the times of Emma--blood ties. These deviations of the equlibrium in socio-climate can lead to some very mean spirited people such as the negative qualities of Emma.
  Emma is an interesting case because she begins to see the light and changes for the better throughout. I am not giving away anything by saying this because it is apparent from the beginning. The beauty of this story is watching the changes. This seemed to me to be advanced in the psychological/satirical elements such as the father who's intelligence level is constantly poked fun at indirectly. Austen is darkly comedic with her repition on her father always turning to topics such as the weather or the temperature of the room to indicate Emmas and her fathers cultered/acedemic differences. I have read very lightly about anagrams in Austins work and i feel the father figure represent the standard male dominance of the time. As an author speaking through her fiction i feel she is making an early woman's power statement hidden within the character of her father and Emmas intellectual divide.
  We often find Emma separating herself to talk to her friends that are on her level trying to escape her father.
  Emma is a strong character and we see her battle with her own demons and attempt to fix her own faults.
  I did not get the feel that this was primitive due to the time it was written. I felt like i was reading a deep character study with very smart psychological elements.
• Title Pride and Prejudice with Songs from Regency England
  Author Jane Austen
  Read by Alison Larkin
  Publisher British Classic Audio
  Length Approximately 13 hours and 29 minutes
  Source Review Copy from author Alison Larkin - Thank-you!
  
  A perfect book for the Valentine’s Day holiday this month, Pride and Prejudice is one of the most romantic novels that have ever been written. What a delight it has been to listen to the audiobook version of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen wonderfully narrated by Alison Larkin. It made my daily commute much more enjoyable. Alison Larkin has a perfect voice for narration and had unique “voices” for the individual characters. As I’ve said in other reviews of audiobooks of Austen’s novels, I feel they translate particularly well to the audiobook format as Austen would read them herself to her family and I feel they were written to be read aloud. I enjoyed the piano music between each chapter.
  
  My favorite part of this audiobook version was actually the regency songs at the end. Alison Larkin sang four regency era songs and had them in a scene where Mr. Darcy and others are listening to the singing. It was magnificent and humorous at the same time. I could listen to an entire CD of Alison Larkin singing regency era songs. They were beautiful.
  
  Why is Pride and Prejudice such a romantic novel? I think it is because of the unique relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. They don’t both meet, fall in love, and ride off into the sunset together. Mr. Darcy insults Elizabeth’s looks and his snobby behavior infuriates her. She is afterwards willing and able to believe the worst of him including any and all malicious rumors. As Darcy gets to know Elizabeth better, her sense of humor, and no nonsense observations on life attract him. She is unlike any other woman he has known, she is not afraid to tell him exactly what she thinks. Which is what she does when he proposes and she refuses. Things seem at an end until Elizabeth visits Pemberley with her Aunt and Uncle. She meets Darcy again and he has changed the way he treats everyone. Elizabeth also sees how he treats the staff and his sister and is impressed by his goodness. I believe it is because Elizabeth and Darcy have to work through their first misunderstandings to find true love that makes this such a romantic novel? What do you think? I also think watching Colin Firth as Darcy in a wet shirt in the 1995 mini-series helps to make this a romantic classic.
  
  I was struck again while listening to this audiobook on how financial stability is one of the driving forces of the novel. Who has what living or money is the talk of everyone in the novel With Longbourn entailed away to Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet has a real concern that if Mr. Bennet dies, she and her daughters will have no way to support themselves. I like when in the novel, Mr. Bennet reflects on how the only money they will have is what Mrs. Bennet brought to the marriage and that he probably should have been saving money all along. He then shrugs it off and thinks it’s too late now. That is why my British novel instructor in college said that Mr. Bennet is the real villain and Mrs. Bennet is the real heroine when you look beyond the comedy of the novel. Elizabeth Bennet holds out for love, but her friend Charlotte is more practical and marries Mr. Collins knowing that their marriage will provide a secure future for herself.
  
  Pride and Prejudice is full of some of my favorite quotes of all time. Listening to this audiobook was like listening to an old friend tell my favorite story. Here are just a random sampling of some of my favorite quotes
  
  “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”
  
  “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
  
  “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”
  
  “They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects.”
  
  “How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.”
  
  Overall, Pride and Prejudice with Songs from Regency England by Jane Austen and read by Alison Larkin is a beautiful version of one of my favorite books. Alison Larkin is a wonderful narrator and I love the unique rendition of the regency songs at the end of this audiobook. It’s a perfect audiobook to listen to, especially when you want to relax and escape from the daily grind or daily news.