Emma, perhaps the most technically accomplished of all of Austen's novels, is also, after Pride and Prejudice, her most popular one. Its numerous film and television adaptations testify to the world's enduring affection for the headstrong, often misguided Emma Woodhouse and her many romantic schemes. Like the previous volumes in Harvard's celebrated annotated Austen series, Emma: An Annotated Edition is a beautiful and illuminating gift edition that will be treasured by readers.
Stimulating and helpful annotations appear in the book's margins, offering information, definitions, and commentary. In his Introduction, Bharat Tandon suggests several ways to approach the novel, enabling a larger appreciation of its central concerns and accomplishments. Appearing throughout the book are many illustrations, often in color, which help the reader to better picture the Regency-era world that serves as the stage for Emma's matchmaking adventures.
Whether explaining the intricacies of early nineteenth-century dinner etiquette or speculating on Highbury's deliberately imprecise geographical location, Tandon serves as a delightful and entertaining guide. For those coming to the novel for the first time or those returning to it, Emma: An Annotated Edition offers a valuable portal to Austen's world.
Industry Reviews
Its large size and heavy weight, complemented by thick, wood-textured endpapers, acid-free cream-vellum paper, generous margins and woven bindings suggest an object important in its own right, an object and a form that will not go quietly into the good night. Its rich illustrations range from frontispieces and portraits to caricatures and Regency fashion plates, including a fine one for the Beaver Hat. Tandon's explanatory notes are similarly comprehensive and serve to link Austen not only to contemporaries such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Wollstonecraft and Charles Lamb, but also to lexical and thematic lines that run backwards, from Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding to Seneca, and forwards to James Joyce and the contemporary novelist Edward St Aubyn... Tandon's notes often function as brief scholarly and historic articles in their own right, and the combined effect of these notes and illustrations is an edition of almost Talmudic ambition, but one that carries its erudition without sacrificing readability... Tandon's notes are superb... One of the great merits of Tandon's edition is that, without breaking the spell of Austen's fiction, he presents her work as so very much of her time, whether that be in her conceptual relation to moralists such as Samuel Johnson, or in the social resonances of foodstuffs, clothing and card games. -- Jonathan Sachs * Times Literary Supplement *
Scholar and critic Bharat Tandon, who has previously written Jane Austen and the Morality of Conversation, now delivers an enriching set of footnotes to one of the most cherished novels of English literature. Praised for both his lightness of touch and depth of scholarship, Tandon provides, along with copious marginal glosses, a stimulating introduction and a fine selection of illustrations to heighten the reader's involvement and understanding. * Barnes & Noble Review *
I literally swooned when I received a review copy of Emma: An Annotated Edition edited by Bharat Tandon. Readers of this blog know how much I have cherished this annotated series of Jane Austen's novels by Harvard University Press... Foremost, the books are lushly illustrated, beautifully produced, and well-researched by known Jane Austen scholars. Emma: An Annotated Edition is no exception... Annotated books are such treasures for the serious reader of Jane Austen's novels, explaining her words and old-fashioned idioms and making long dead customs come alive. This generously illustrated annotation from Harvard University Press both instructs and entertains with its running commentary along the margins, enhancing our enjoyment of one of Jane Austen's most perfectly realized novels... Emma: An Annotated Edition is well worth the purchase. -- Vic Sanborn * Jane Austen's World *
The latest gorgeous entry in the Belknap Press' growing library of annotated Jane Austen novels arrives, this time the mighty Emma under the exactingly careful guidance of Bharat Tandon of the University of East Anglia. Belknap has once again done its end of the job superbly: the book is a physical treat-luxuriantly over-sized, heavy with quality paper and solid binding, decked out in a beautiful cover and dozens of well-chosen illustrations throughout. This is one of the prettiest Jane Austen volumes available in bookstores...this season. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *
This lovely edition includes images related to the text as well as notes by Tandon. -- Molly Driscoll * Christian Science Monitor *
Austenites can rejoice over this striking new annotated edition of Emma. * Entertainment Weekly *
For die-hard fans of Emma, this annotated edition is a must-have. For readers new to Jane Austen's work, it's the perfect way to start what might likely turn out to be a lifelong love affair with her work... A highly readable, wonderfully illustrated and remarkably enlightening annotation of Emma. -- Roni K. Devlin * Shelf Awareness *
Emma remains one of Austen's most popular works, and in this annotated edition (the third in Harvard's annotated series after Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion), readers will find the charming story enhanced by color illustrations and well-crafted annotations. In his introduction, Tandon places Austen in literary and historical context before moving on to a discussion of Emma in particular. The novel follows, with the annotations arranged in the oversized book's margins. The annotations, addressing topics from the mundane to the esoteric, comment on the prose itself and on the styles and etiquette of the times... Tandon's annotations will appeal to readers of all levels, and his effort to increase appreciation of Emma should meet with success. This carefully prepared edition is sure to meet the needs of Austen lovers and scholars alike. -- Catherine Gilmore * Library Journal *
A superb new edition which combines weighty scholarship with exemplary lightness of touch. Bharat Tandon contributes not only a sparkling introduction, but also a bold set of notes that work like little keyholes, allowing us to peer into the most distant corners of Austen's world. Many of the novel's most subtle touches have been muffled by the passage of time; this edition brings them back to life. Suddenly a novel we thought we knew looks as fresh as it did on its first appearance almost 200 years ago. -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, University of Oxford
Bharat Tandon's edition of Emma is a delight to read, as pleasurable as it is thought-provoking. He captures both the delights of Austen's novel and the way that those delights are shadowed by darker intimations. -- Deidre Lynch, University of Toronto
Bharat Tandon brings Emma to life like no previous editor. His extensive and engaging annotation throws searching new light on even its most familiar moments, while his splendid choice of illustrations reveals the world of the novel-its people, musical instruments, dresses, dances, games, furniture, food, carriages, books, and beautiful rural landscapes-in unmatched detail and immediacy. -- Robert Morrison, Queen's University
