I didn’t finished Emma this time around either. It seems it’s just not meant to be for me and this particular Austen tome. I’ve tried, more than once, and have never managed to get to the end. Although this time I did get several more chapters in to the book than during any of my other failed attempts at this one.
What keeps stopping me from enjoying this one? It’s Miss Emma Woodhouse herself. She’s the exact opposite of everything I expect a Jane Austen character to be — she’s rich, spoiled, full of self-esteem, is a know-it-all busybody that can’t keep her opinions to herself or stop herself from telling everyone else what to do. Really, I couldn’t take any more of her and gave up.
I know this is supposed to be a funny book about manners and matchmaking gone wrong but I can’t get over the behavior of Emma and the fact she needs to tell everyone else what to do. She’s annoying. She’s mean. She’s ill-mannered. I could go on but I won’t.
Oddly enough, she’s not even the only character I disliked immensely in this book. In fact, I didn’t like any of the characters in this book and found every single one annoying, boring, or some combination thereof. I don’t feel the need to go on because it’s not worth anyone’s time. And, let’s face, now I’m just complaining.
There are readers that love this book. My mom is one of those people — she thinks Emma is funny! Gah! I’ve given it my best and found it still wanting and I will not look back but instead will move on to the ever growing stack of books piling up.
If you want to know more, I find Wikipedia has a nice wrap up. Yes, I read it to find out what happened in this book, and once I knew, I put it down. I didn’t need to be annoying by the intervening chapters.
Emma from The Complete Works of Jane Austen
By Jane Austen
Douglas Editions
BN ID: 2940000816981
Did Not Finish
Just Book Reading 
Sorry to hear this didn’t work out for you again. But good for you for putting it down. It’s definitely not worth wasting time on a book you’re just not enjoying when there are so many others out there to read!
I kept looking at my other books wanting to read them when I was suffering through this one. Giving up felt good!
Aw! Too bad, but I can understand. It took me ages to warm up to this book, although in the end I did (it’s my second favorite of Austen’s books now). Emma’s not an easy heroine to love!
No, she’s not easy to love at all! 🙂 I want to like this book but I just don’t. I might give it a try again, like 10 years from now, and see how I feel about it then.