Emma

Written by Jane Austen, this is a timeless romantic classic that has been made into films and series time and time again. 

Emma Woodhouse is perfect. She is handsome, rich, has a comfortable home, and is well connected in high society. But, with perfection also comes vanity, and Emma’s vain spirit prevents her from finding Mister Right. Since no male acquaintances of hers are good enough to be her man, Emma spends her time matchmaking and conducting social experiments on everyone else. But when she takes a shine to a lower class lady and sets her up with a bachelor of her acquaintance, she pushes it a little too far and, this time her experiment is going to give her a taste of her own medicine. 

I find that Jane Austen books are quite difficult to read, I honestly cannot believe that we were expected to read and understand Pride and Prejudice when we were fifteen. If it wasn’t for the modern adaptations like Bridget Jones and Clueless, I would never have understood these books. For those who are unaware, I was until I started reading this book, Clueless is the modern adaptation of Emma. So, if you’re like me and find these books a little tricky to read and grip the gist, watch Clueless and it will all make sense. 

The book is written in the third person register and what I particularly love about it is that many of the relationship problems that are still so dominant and abundant in modern society, were around in those days of gallantry and full skirts. Problems such as misreading signals and misinterpreting signs of interest, it’s all the battle of the sexes and makes for enchanting, funny, and entertaining reading because you can relate to what’s going on. 

As with most Jane Austen books, Emma is very slow-moving and you do have to push yourself to make it through the book, but once you get to the social experiments, then it’s smooth sailing. 

Filled with misread signals, social experiments, charming characters, and heaps of little surprises of the plot, Emma is an enchanting romantic comedy and my personal favourite Jane Austen book. It’s a gorgeous love story, an instant classic.