DNF December 15, 2021: I was having trouble getting into this book I feel like I wasn't I'm the mood for it at the time. Will be picking this back up at some point.

I was finally able to pick it up and finish it on December 25, 2024 through February 16, 2025. My review is as follows:

This was such a funny classic to get into. The only other Jane Austen novel I have read is Pride and Prejudice. This one is so different. For starters, the main character Emma is super silly and much less serious than the characters from Pride and Prejudice. Emma can at times be frivolous and just as kind as she is mean, albeit never maliciously. At heart she wants the best for her friends and acquantances. Her overconfidence in her ability to intuit decisions for others does end up having hilarious consequences throughout the story. 

The pacing was the most difficult thing for me to get over. It felt like a whole lot of nothing was happening for a while, until you realize that Austen weaves a bunch of subtle social subtext within the dialogue of her characters. There is just a lot of subtext and humor in the writing that you will miss if you aren't paying close attention. The fun is in the misunderstanding between the characters. It is similar to the reason Shakespeare's comedies are funny. You follow a couple of characters who all have limited information about an entire situation and the little information that they have leads them to make unwise but very funny decisions. 

The novel's climax is where everything really picks up the pace. All the seeds of the misunderstandings throughout the book leads to a satisfying ending. Emma also grows tremendously as a character which leaves room for her to grow into the person she needs to be for her romance with her love interest to come to fruition. I will definitely be watching some adaptations of this one soon. A very fun read overall.