A review by sarah_kinkade
Emma by Jane Austen

5.0

Overall, I particularly enjoyed this novel by Jane Austen. Emma was an extremely relatable character since she preferred to be alone than out socializing. The characters followed Austen's usual template and interacted with each other as would be expected. However, I was slightly disappointed by the way Austen chose to have the book end. Of course, each character ends up with who they are meant to be with; this is the same in all of her novels. But at least in "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," and even in "Persuasion," there is some type of progression that the reader can follow. There is tension, denial of emotions, acceptance of emotions, loss of faith, and the reward of mutual affection. In "Emma," I did not see that progression. Emotions seemed to spring up from nowhere, almost born out of jealousy. It felt as though Austen grew tired of writing her book and wanted to be done with it as quickly as possible, resulting in relationships with little to no foundation. Despite this short-coming, I do still love this book, simply because the protagonist is relatable and defies some of the "proper-manners" that other characters are forced to be part of. And the sudden relationships were still sweet enough to justify staying up all hours of the night in order to find out what would be said and happen next.