“This is one of my favorite books. I know that some find Emma a bit arrogant, but I believe her heart is in the right place as she tries to help her friend. Some of her attitudes are simply examples of attitudes of the day and she thinks exactly the way a lady of a certain status might think. The thing about Emma is that she grows as a character and changes and this makes her believable.
At the beginning of the book, Emma tells Harriet that marrying the farmer is beneath her and brushes away Harriet's protests of what a good man he is. She even drops the implied threat that she would no longer be able to be friends with Harriet if she were a farmer's wife. By the end of the book, she is happy at Harriet's announcement that she will marry Mr. Martin. There are no more implied threats or attempts to make Mr. Martin seem unsuitable. This shows the change in Emma quite nicely.
I also like that this book is clean enough for my pre-teen daughter to read. There aren't many books out there these days that are appropriate for teens (even teen books sometimes). I also encourage young women to read this book to learn more about the Regency era.”
Lori Soard wrote this review Saturday, August 4 2007.
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