Emma vs Rebecca: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: British and irish fiction, Romance, Fiction
Emma
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Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of…
Rebecca
“Suddenly I saw a clearing in the dark drive ahead, and a patch of sky, and in a moment the dark trees had thinned, the nameless shrubs had disappeared, and on either side of us was a wall of colour, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery. The woods had not prepared me for th”
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With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the…
Side by side
The verdict
- Readers rate Rebecca highest: Rebecca 4.2 · Emma 4.0.
- Rebecca is the quickest read — about 6 hours vs 9 for Emma.
- Emma has the widest readership — 1019390 ratings behind its score.
- Rebecca runs the darker storyline; Emma stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Emma | Rebecca | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.0 (1019390) | 4.2 (760384) |
| Hardcover | 3.9 (851) | 4.1 (814) |
| Google Books | 4.5 (7) | 4.0 (1) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (4089) | 4.5 (212) |
| LiveLib | 3.4 (4) | — |
Reception
| Emma | Rebecca | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 1019390 | 760384 |
| Editions | 2263 | 200 |
| Citations | 73 | — |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 1014805 | 820325 |
| Reading it now | 66765 | 30350 |
| Written reviews | 46241 | 55745 |
| Wikipedia attention | 28127 | 41922 |
| Pages | 536 | 366 |
Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Emma or Rebecca?
Rebecca has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Rebecca 4.2/5, Emma 4.0/5).
Which is shorter to read: Emma or Rebecca?
Rebecca is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Rebecca (366 pages, ≈ 6 h 47 m); Emma (536 pages, ≈ 9 h 56 m).
Which is harder to read: Emma or Rebecca?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Emma: Demanding; Rebecca: Challenging.
Have both books been made into films?
Emma: 5 film adaptations; Rebecca: 5 film adaptations.