I have now ended up in a circumstance where I have read three books by Austen, and many will question why I keep reading them as I am yet to like any of them. ‘Emma’ was much better than the former two I have read: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility’ though that was only down to Emma Woodhouse herself and not the plot. Emma regards herself an esteemed match maker among her circle of Victorian gentry and she herself swears off love. She is however an absolute menace to society trying to pair people up in a plot that follows the usual structures of that of Jane Austen, very mundane upper class meetings and conversation with focus on suitable marriages, whereas Emma misreads emotions, convinces her friends against marriages for her own personal gains, and often just gets it wrong and acts against all social standards. It does all cumulate to the ending that ‘should’ happen though, in a very typical Austenian fashion. 

The majority of the plot I found dull, Emma salvages it by being that something different but the rest of the characters were indistinct and most had the development of a plank of wood. There were some elements of wit that caught me off and impressed me: “what are the most charming letters - M and A; Emma” given how unlike the rest of the tone of the book was. 

Despite this, my experience was so much improved by the audiobook narrator. I think I have found a favourite narrator, Wanda Mccaddon was simply wonderful and I was very pleased to see the hold I have on ‘Anna Karenina’ is also narrated by her.