Emma
CRITIQUE | QUOTES | AT THE MOVIES
1897 editionFirst publication
1815
Literature form
Novel
Genres
Literary, romance
Writing language
English
Author's country
England
Length
Approx. 155,000 words
Notable lines
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
— First line
"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."
"Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else. And the distinction is not quite so much against the candour and common sense of the world as appears at first; for a very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper."
Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.—It depends upon the character of those who handle it.
"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."
"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken."
The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for finery or parade; and Mrs. Elton, from the particulars detailed by her husband, thought it all extremely shabby, and very inferior to her own.—"Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business!—Selina would stare when she heard of it."—But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union. .
— Last lines
CRITIQUE | QUOTES | AT THE MOVIES
