“Emma has always been my favorite Jane Austen novel. A lot of people tend to like Emma—she’s such a winningly flawed person…You could almost say that Austen deals in types, which normally is a
very dangerous practice and doesn’t lead to anything interesting. Yet
her work is stupendous. Her novels work themselves out with a tremendous
clarity that feels mathematical or geometric. It’s very spare; there’s
nothing extra. Her books shouldn’t work, but they do, and better than
almost anyone else’s.”

“Not only is Emma one of the finest novels in the English language, but it is possibly Jane Austen’s most thought provoking and interesting book.”

“Jane Austen’s most charming novel (or second most charming, it’s an endless debate)…Austen was satirical about love but reverent about money; she had an
almost romantic belief in the healing powers of wealth and breeding.”

“Emma is a novel that is new, and grows in content, on each rereading. On
first encounter the reader is as duped by the ambiguously lovable
heroine’s misperceptions as she is herself. On the first rereading the
brilliance of Austen’s management bursts upon one, and with it the
scintillation of her irony. On each subsequent rereading further new
layers of irony and amusement unfold, as if inexhaustibly.”