Emma by Jane Austen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm pretty impressed with this busybody know-it-all. :)

As a character novel, the entire thing is extremely dense and interesting and oh-so-convoluted.

As a plot novel, it's not so much of anything. :)

Fortunately, I was in the mood for something that would lift individual silly characters from the realm of the opinionated and silly and and arrogant to the level of real humanity with eyes flying open.

Honestly, Austen is great at this kind of zinger. It's all about the self-realizations and the growth as a person. Sometimes there's marriages, too. Um. Wait. There's always marriages. :) This silly little girl is entirely about being a matchmaker, but doesn't have enough self-knowledge to make anything but a lucky shot work. :)

So now we have an entire novel about her misadventures and misunderstandings and her amazing talent at making a hash out of everything... but wait! Emma is very, very good at putting the blinders on, too, so she's pretty much a master at ignoring the facts and making all of her mess-ups feel perfectly rational and reasonable.

This is comedic gold for a certain type of reader. :)

Of course, if you're like me, you might get seriously annoyed at all the reaffirmations of gender roles, the horribly snide and prejudicial stratification of Regency England, and the general blindness of the self-satisfied and selfish people everywhere.

Even so, this novel is pretty fantastic. :)

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