Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Emma

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Emma by Jane Austen

31 reviews

bilbili's review against another edition

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funny reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ghostsversion's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

After many years of struggling to get through the first few chapters, only to later give up ~~and delete any previous reading entry so to not mark it as DNF~~, I have finally finished this book. On the whole I would say that this was an interesting read. Additionally, since I kinda knew what some of the twists were it was very fun when I noticed hints or scenes that foreshadowed the twists like

all the interactions of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax.

A really big thing in this book, in my opinion at least, was the miscommunication between the characters which while it may be frustrating in other books here it was understandable as most characters were looking at things in a way that satisfies their own desires. Except a few moments that would be very controversial if added to modern books,

namely Harriet Smith being attacked by a group of g***ies and Mr Knigtley professing that he has loved Emma since she was 13 while they have a 16 year age difference,

I really liked this book.

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gcoulsxn's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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wooblatoober's review against another edition

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challenging funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i’m surprised to say i really enjoyed this book, especially as i got to the end. it was an exceedingly difficult read for me since it was published in 1815 (not my reading forte), & i had many complaints at the beginning, but all of them were assuaged as the book went on.

below is my spoiler-riddled feminist discussion about the book.

besides interactions with men in which emma is empowered, i really appreciate her relationship with jane—she doesn’t like her at first, a bit arbitrarily and a bit due to jealousy in ways, it seems—but they become friends at the end, & hot girls being friends instead of having a rivalry is just so sexy. & THEN, mr. knightley is dreamy lol! i suspected at the beginning that she would be wrong about everything, he would be right about everything, and they’d get married because he’s “good for her” or some shit. but i was pleasantly wrong. emma, who is much younger than mr. knightley (which i feel gives her much better reason to be wrong, rather than just being a woman lol), is wrong about a lot of things—BUT!!! mr. knightley is wrong about things, too. not only that, he seeks out harriet to get to know her and try to see emma’s side, & OPENLY ADMITS to emma that he was wrong about her. & there was something sweet to me about their convo about how emma treated miss bates—mr. knightley wasn’t mad, & didn’t think she meant to be mean. he just told her it hurt miss bates’s feelings—no unsolicited advice, just the facts he believed she would have wanted to know. not to mention mr. knightley MOVED IN WITH HER when they got married, despite being richer, having a better home, & being in a relatively higher place in society (i think), just so her dad wouldn’t be upset. even though they /did/ believe stress back then would make you die, i still believe it’s sweet, especially for the time period. i think any other man would at least just put off the wedding until mr. woodhouse died, at the least. more impatient men might even insist she moves in with him with her father, or even without mr. woodhouse.

i really liked emma. i feel like i could relate to her in a lot of ways, and i really enjoyed that. it was almost like the book was being written from my own point of view—i thought the same way as emma, like, the whole time lol. i didn’t even see a lot of twists coming that i think the reader was meant to see.

the classism bothered me, the belief that your blood firmly cements you into what kind of person you can be, and i understand that it would have been even more feminist for emma to never get married,

let alone to a man who was an adult when he fell in love with her when she was 13.

but i also want to acknowledge first that

she was an adult when he confessed to her and when they got married,

and again that this was written in 1815, and how much we don’t understand about the culture of england in that time period unless we’re scholars who study it. there are so many subtleties that go over our heads, that were outrageously feminist for the time. i can’t ask for a woman growing up in the late 1700s—not only growing up with those ideologies and understandings of society, but writing her books for other people living in the early 1800s who have those ideologies and understandings of society, and living with the consequences of what she publishes, or what she can even get published—to be completely politically correct for 2024. like she was wrong in those aspects—the classism, the

power relationship mr. knightley would have more realistically had over her,

the fact that she could have stayed single. it was 200 years ago. she was right in a lot of other ways, and that’s what i enjoyed.

not to mention austen purposely wrote it as a romance, so emma might as well fall in love with the one man who ever admits he’s wrong lmao.

i just wanted to add this to my review after seeing so many reviews that complained about those things. it’s still a book written 200 years ago, & that’s something to keep in mind so you can enjoy it in its context.

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This one dragged on a bit to really hammer the point home.

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anna_m_k's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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linnylionheart's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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bessadams's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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frantically's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Not my Austen cup of tea. Going against other low reviews, I actually really enjoyed Emma as a main character — yes, she's absolutely spoiled and a bit of a bitch but for me at least, she was really fun to read about it. This book was just too dragged out for me with too many characters whose stories weren't interesting enough. Have to say, though, that I really enjoyed the last 2/3 chapters and they made me end the book on a positive note.

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divine529's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I've read "Emma" several times before, but this was the closest I think I've ever read it.

I read it this time along with an audiobook I got from the library and I always struggle with audiobooks, but the narrator wasn't my favorite, so it made it a little extra difficult.

For those of you who don't know what this book is about, it follows our main protagonist, Emma, a matchmaker by nature and a busy-body, who always ends up getting in trouble due to her shenanigans. Like Austen's other novels, this one is still about class and finding love and there's a lot of different forms of that here as always.

It's by far my favorite Austen novel, but I always find myself enjoying the third part of the book a fair bit. And as much as Emma and Knightley's relationship age gap bothers me, I love their witty banter and friendship and love them as a couple. I definitely always enjoy reading Knightley as a hero and this time was no different.

It might be awhile before I reread this one, but I'm sure I will again sometime in the future.

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