I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed.
The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Emma by Jane Austen. This book can be found on the Observer and BBC Book Lists.
Coming into Emma with a fairly large preconceived notion about the Austen/Bronte books of the time, I was pleasantly surprised and this book was actually better than I was expecting. Once I got passed Austen's round-about way of speaking the book rather intrigued me. The story is about a female in her early twenties among the upper class social scene of rural England. She had vowed to never marry in order to not stress her father. Instead of indulging in her own love-life, she then tries to hook up her friend Harriet. The problem comes when Emma realizes that she is really bad at playing match-maker and eventually causes more problems than if she had just left everything alone. The story wraps up very nicely in a happily-ever-after ending. My biggest complaint of the story is that the language used made the book very difficult to follow at times and Austen could have definitely used "by the bye" far less. Although I enjoyed it, I do not recommend it, especially compared to Austen's much better and more famous Pride and Prejudice.
I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed.
The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Persuasion by Jane Austen. This book can be found on the BBC Book List.
Many of the books on my list remain with me long after I have read them and some are forgotten completely. This is one of those forgotten completely books. This is easily not the best of Austen's work, which is probably the reason why it is not mentioned alongside Pride and Prejudice, and it is also not even close to my favorite. The plot-line was a little hard to follow and the book was slow to start off at first, however about halfway through I had no troubles at all. The book is a love story, like many of Austen's works. It follows a young girl who was persuaded to let her one true love get away (hence the title). The book then picks up seven years later while she is still alone, when her true love suddenly returns. Persuasion does stand out from Austen's other works, primarily Pride and Prejudice, because the main character is not looking for marriage, but is actually trying to avoid it. She does this mainly because she feels she is too old for marriage. If you are an Austen fan then you should read it because it is not all that bad, however it was just not for me.
I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed.
The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Norwegian, BBC, and My Book Lists.
During the early part of the 1800's there was a series series of books written that could generally be classified as romantic time period pieces. Many of these books were written by women who remain as popular today as the day they were written, especially Jane Austen, who is possibly the most famous of them all. The first of Austen's novels that I dove into, Pride and Prejudice, is possibly her best, if not her most famous novel. The story follows the lives of several socialites, all of varying social classes, trying to woo each other. Austen's writing style is full of whit and satire, and although it is incredibly intelligently written it still remains easy to read, a feat many authors fail at. She manages to take a variety of people, all with various attitudes and mannerisms, and involve them in a believable, yet very funny, series of verbal confrontations ranging from topics of marriage, money, and social class. This is definitely a book on my must read list and my favorite of her works.
