Book review: ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen

In 2022, to honour a drunken deal, my sister-in-law and I bought each other copies of books we greatly admire. So she received some Kathleen Jamie, and I ended up with the complete novels of Jane Bloody Austen. There was no way I was going to read all of those in one go, so I decided to read one novel a year. In 2022 I read Sense and Sensibility, in 2023 the uncannily similar Pride and Prejudice, and in 2024 it was Mansfield Park. 2025 was the turn of Emma.

As with its predecessors, Emma concerns the spectacularly unromantic romantic intrigues of a bunch of Regency-era toffs. The burning question: which of the young ladies will end up with which of the gentlemen? Our eponymous heroine is somewhat more interesting than the heroines of Austen’s earlier novels in that she occasionally puts her foot in things. The gentleman she ends up with comes across as a bit of a pillock—but that’s all right because so do all the other gentlemen.

Emma is an enjoyable read if you like this sort of thing—especially if you’re intrigued by anonymously donated pianofortes. As always, everything is neatly resolved in the end.

Northanger Abbey next!