Emma
by Jane Austen · first published 1815
35% recommend65% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Recommended as a well-regarded Austen novel within lists of major English classics, and as a good audiobook pick, with one narrator praised for her readings. Suits readers filling gaps in the English novel canon.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headst
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Must read? 1984 and Animal Farm. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It. Emma and Pride and Prejudice. Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid. A Room With A View and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Great Gatsby, Call of the Wild and Age of Innocence. War and Peace and…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗The Bourgeois Gentleman Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir :-) Emma Essays Gulliver's Travels HMS Pinafore In Praise of Folly Journey to the West[1] Mullah Nasruddin stories[2] Nicomachean Ethics Panchatantra Uncle Remus War & Peace[3] [1]…
on “Ask HN: Good books written before ~1900?” ↗Currently: Emma, by Austen, and Debt: The First 5,000 Years by Graeber. Both good. Recently finished Austen's Persuasion and Dickens' Oliver Twist. I'm trying to fill in big gaps in my reading of major English novels.…
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on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗Librivox seems like a great source, being public domain, though the quality is highly variable. I can recommend Elizabeth Klett as a good narrator. I've sampled her recordings of Jane Austen books Emma, pride and prejudice, and sense and sensibility.
on “WhisperSpeech – An open source text-to-speech system built by inverting Whisper” ↗…book or not. Now I'm in grad school for English and tend to remember the plots, how characters express themselves, the main conflicts in the novel and what those main conflicts signal, etc. So in reading Emma again this week, I realized that many of Austen's characters are actually judging themselves when they judge others, because their views of what is "right" or "proper" is mostly about preferences (and…
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on “Being Ridiculed for My Open Source Project (2013)” ↗