Emma

Anyone who's been following my reading list will notice that Emma by Jane Austen has been in my current reads for quite some time. I started reading it quite some time ago.  I was planning to read all of Austen's books (Pride and Prejudice is my all-time favorite and the only one I've finished) one-by-one. I had attempted Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park years ago without successfully finishing either one. So I decided to start with Emma, which I had no idea of the storyline.

I actually got pretty far into the story before I petered out. But I started getting kinda confused by all the characters who kept popping in and out. There were the main characters and then there were all the people in the village and not one, but TWO Mr. Knightley's to keep track of. Anyway... I eventually just started another book with the idea that I was going back to Emma later.

I caught the Gwyneth Paltrow version on TV one day. Seeing the story really helped he keep everything straight. Then for my birthday in May, a good friend of mine gave me the BBC version of Emma (it's like 4 hours long and like all the BBC's movies - accurate) and we watched it a couple months ago.

So.... now with a pretty solid understanding of what is going on and of all the different characters, I'm going to start this book over again and I am determined to finish it. I usually hate watching a movie before reading the book, but I am sure it actually helped me in this case since I was so confused before. Sooo... wish me good luck. I am excited to re-read it and fill in all of Austen's good character development that the movies have to leave out.