Emma - Hardcover

Alexander McCall Smith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007553854 ISBN 13: 9780007553853

Publisher: The Borough Press, 2014

Synopsis

Beloved and bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith lends his delightful touch to the Austen classic, Emma. 'Funny, heartfelt and very readable' Good Housekeeping Prepare to meet a young woman who thinks she knows everything Fresh from university, Emma Woodhouse arrives home in Norfolk ready to embark on adult life with a splash. Not only has her sister, Isabella, been whisked away on a motorbike to London, but her astute governess, Miss Taylor is at a loose end watching as Mr. Woodhouse worries about his girls. Someone is needed to rule the roost and young Emma is more than happy to oblige. At the helm of her own dinner parties, and often found either rearranging the furniture at the family home of Hartfield, or instructing her new protegee, Harriet Smith, Emma is in charge. You don't have to be in London to go to parties, find amusement or make trouble. Not if you're Emma, the very big fish in the rather small pond. But for someone who knows everything, Emma doesn't know her own heart. And there is only one person who can play with Emma's indestructible confidence, her friend and inscrutable neighbour George Knightley - this time has Emma finally met her match? Ever alive to the social comedy of village life, beloved author Alexander McCall Smith's Emma is the busybody we all know and love, and a true modern delight.

About this title

Review:

Perhaps the out-and-out funniest of Jane Austen's books. Telling the story of a heroine Austen feared readers would actively dislike, Emma has turned out to be a character whose creation was necessary to the development of the spoiled rich kid genre of literature, TV and movies. Since Emma knows what's best for everybody, she sets about trying to straighten the world out. It doesn't work. Fortunately, before completely screwing up everyone else's life, she gets her head screwed on straight and for the first time sees what it's all about.

Book Description:

Emma is Austen's most technically accomplished novel, with a hidden plot, the full implications of which are only revealed by a second reading. The text presented here retains the spelling and punctuation of the first edition of 1816, allowing readers to see the novel as Austen's contemporaries first encountered it. The volume provides comprehensive explanatory notes, an extensive critical introduction, a chronology of Austen's life, and an authoritative textual apparatus. This edition is an indispensable resource for all scholars and readers of Austen.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Borough Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0007553854
• ISBN 13: 9780007553853
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1