Friday, July 09, 2010

Emma Vol 4 by Kaoru Mori

Secrets are revealed when Emma makes a return visit to London

Behind William's upstanding exterior, he is still despondent over losing Emma. His sister's friend Eleanor is doing everything she can to insinuate herself into his life - perhaps on a permanent basis! As for Emma, she is on her way back to London to accompany the mysterious Mrs. Trollop to an important social event - an event that holds some shocking surprises!

Emma and William are separated by their different social positions, by circumstance, and by distance, as they were for most of the last book. William is still in London, and is still seen as a very eligible young gentleman. He is also the target of one young woman's desire. Eleanor is a friend of William's sister, and she is determined to catch William's eye but he is relatively oblivious to her intentions.

I loved the glimpses we get of various aspects of Victorian life in these books. For example, in this book William and Eleanor go to the opera, and she declares her feelings. The next day, her firebrand sister takes matters into her own hands, and challenges William regarding his intentions for Eleanor and being above all honourable, William does what is expected of him.

Meanwhile, Emma is still working at a house in the country, that is until she is chosen to accompany her mistress to London. When in London, she finds herself attending a party in the capacity of companion to a friend of her mistress, not realising just what event the party is a celebration for. Of course, she cannot attend a high society party in her uniform, so she is given a makeover.

The scene is set for Emma and William to meet again. I have to say the anguish in the last few pages of this bookwas jumping off the page! I can't wait to read the next book in this series!

One thing I was a little surprised by in this book was that there was an introduction of a little nudity into the story. Because this is the fourth book in the series that I have read, and there has been no sign of that before, it was a bit of a shock when I turned the page and saw it. It is not overwhelming or even all that out of place. Just surprising!

Another really good entry into this series. Despite the fact that I the last two books I have read have been graphic novels, I wouldn't particularly say I read a lot of them. When this series finishes, I will have to try and find another accessible manga series to read.


Rating 4/5

You can read my mini-reviews of the first three books in this series here.

5 comments:

  1. I have got to get these books. The drawings look adorable and they have that star-crossed lovers thing going on. I think I would enjoy.

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  2. Nicole, there is definitely that star crossed lover aspect to the story. I have mentioned before that I think that they are pretty accessible for historical fiction lovers because you know already know that you love the historical setting, so you can just concentrate on the characters etc.

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  3. I am glad that you continue to like these books! I have been watching your reviews and think that I would really like to read them as well. They sound like they would be a lot of fun, and something out of the ordinary where graphic novels are concerned.

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  4. Zibilee, I guess I can't comment on all graphic novels because I haven't read too many others but I do like these ones.

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  5. I have just got into my hands volume 1 of Emma. It is currently staring at me just begging me to lay aside my other reads and plunge into this book.

    I am a little concerned though...If I wind up liking this book I will have buy up the other volumes rather quickly because I heard that the CMX has closed so the Emma books will most likely go out of print soon. How soon? Not certain. Also, my library (including the inter-library) has only one volume.

    Anyhow, once I get to this volume, I will come back to read the review.

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