I had a hard time getting into this book until I remembered that the movie Clueless is based on Emma. Is that sad? Haha. But really, each new chapter would throw me off because usually a whole new story line would start up, or the story line would shift widely that I couldn't always keep everything and everyone straight. Then when I had the epiphany it got me into the book, because I was always like, ooh, who is Mrs. Weston supposed to be? (Dionne?) Or how are they going to make Mr. Churchill unavailable? (Christian was gay.) And even though I pretty much knew the story from the movie, I was still taken by surprise in places. I liked this book overall, and if I could give half stars I'd have given this book 3.5 stars, because I didn't love this book either. Oh, one thing that annoyed the hell out of me was the commentary by Miss Bates. I know she's suppose to be annoying, but do was have to read everything she says? Couldn't Austen just say Miss Bates continued to prattle on for the rest of her 30 minute visit? I think the book would have been 50 pages shorter without her dialogue. Jane Austen is a really brilliant writer though, definitely way a head of her time.


So I believe I have seen all of the films based on Emma that are out there. Some were better than others. It's not surprising that I enjoyed the more modern versions more. Clueless is brilliant, of course. I didn't know it was based on Emma for the longest time. I also liked the BBC version. I found the actress that played Emma to be very believable, and pretty much how I pictured her in my head. Gwyneth Paltrow's version was ok, but pretty boring. The old old version was wretched and often put me to sleep. Because Clueless was so good, I'm going to say that the movie is better than the book. Even though it's hard to see that that movie was even based on that book.