I started listening to audiobooks when I first moved to the capital city for my grad studies. There was a total of half-hour walk between my hostel and the metro station and from the station to my campus, and listening to songs soon started to bore me. I wasn’t into the podcast world so audiobooks seemed a good way to read more and lighten the everyday walk. Widely available, I picked Austen’s famous novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ as my first audiobook. Whether it was my newness to listening books instead of reading them, or whether it was the unrelatably upbeat and witty tone of the novel, it just didn’t work for me.
Later on, I tried reading May Alcott’s famous novel ‘Little Women’, and after getting half way through, I gave up reading it. Then I realized that maybe this particular genre of famous classical novels, based upon an array of female characters, with marriage and status being the prominent themes, was not relatable and thereby unenjoyable for me.
This distinction of knowing what works for you and what doesn’t is an important part of becoming not only a more aware reader, but a more aware person overall; just because something is popular, or trendy, or suggestive, doesn’t mean that you should pursue it, and by doing so, like it as well. Of course, books, like other things, are popular and trendy for a reason, but by being honest with yourself in not liking it, it doesn’t suggest that you’re dishonoring the book or being dismissive – it means that you are finding your own taste and direction.
Therefore, I was hesitant to start ‘Emma’, another one of Austen’s popular novels, for I had a hunch I wouldn’t like it. And after finishing the novel today, mostly by reading it and some with the help of reading chapter summaries at ‘SparkNotes’, my guess came to be true.
Although there are some parts of the novel that I did like: the rich vocabulary, incredibly expressive prose, beautiful dialogues, and a certain understanding of human relations, through most of this novel, I remained detached, irritated, and ungripped.
The reasons maybe the following: the unavoidably, and irresistibly, exuberant and upbeat prose with all its exclamation marks made me want to stop reading for it brought in me a feeling of detest and repulsiveness; the story didn’t at all work for me for it seemed too foreign, even in my imagination; the protagonist Emma, with her self-righteous, judgmental, and know-all, help-all character, made me scoff at her; and the excessive and extravagant emotions, the theatre of rising and dying feelings, was too much for me, someone who likes wearing his heart of his sleeves.
Moreover, the technical issue with this novel is that it has too many characters, all of which come from different families, and are referred to with both their first-names and surnames with titles – making it highly difficult to remember who is who, and where, and what has happened with them.
A novel about young ladies finding suitable husbands, either for themselves or for others, and in process developing feelings, getting hurt, shouldn’t be this difficult to read but rather easy to like. However, my review here is very personal in taste, and there’re many others who like and will praise this book otherwise.
Ratings: 2/5 ** August 9, 2021_