This is my seventh post for The Classics Club (just a month late).  I’ll be reading one classic book a month for the next 4-5 years.  Track what I’m reading for the Classics Club here.  I’ll try not to include too many spoilers in my review but I may need to discuss some in order to fully review the book. I’ll warn you if I’m going to mention one.  

Emma by Jane Austen

• Year Published: 1815
• Reread? Or new to me?:  Reread (I bought this copy in England in 1999!)
• Number of Pages: 386
• Date Finished: Somewhere in the middle of July, I forgot to write it down.
• Number of Days it took me to read it: 6 (???)
• Page/Day ratio:  64:1
• Will I reread this?*: I may not.  I’ve read it at least three times and I don’t think I have the desire to push through it again.

Review: 

So far, this is my least favorite of Jane Austen’s six novels.  It’s far longer than it needs to be and drags so badly that I kept going to the chapter summary at the back of the book to see if it was even worth reading.  Miss Bates’ droning was funny the first time but by the sixty-millionth time, I had to force myself to push through pages of chatter.  I couldn’t help but wish Austen had had a better editor for this one.  Emma irritated me.  I found Frank Churchill fairly repulsive and Mr. Knightley overbearing and not all that attractive.  (Maybe I was just in an annoyed mood the whole week I was reading it?)

Frankly, my favorite character on this reading was Mr. Knightley’s brother.  He’s so obviously an introvert and I had fun reading all his character descriptions and off-handed comments, such as “Why would anyone want to leave their house at night to go to a dinner party if they don’t have to?” 🙂

Does anyone else share my lack of love for Emma?

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Had I posted this at the end of July like I should have, I would have invited you to read Middlemarch by George Eliot in August with me.  But, somehow I managed to finish that gigantic thing (and will try to blog about it before the end of September).  Perhaps you’d like to join me in reading Austen’s Northanger Abbey in September?

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*I decided to ditch the question, “Would I have wanted to read this in English class?” because I was finding it difficult to answer.  I frankly don’t really remember myself from almost 20 years ago (YIKES).  My intent in asking myself that question every time was really to get at whether or not I enjoyed it enough to be glad that I’d read it.  So I’ve replaced the question with, “Will I reread this?” and we’ll see if that question works for me.

Mark was so cuddly I couldn’t keep from laughing! 🙂