I present Emma: Always Worth a Second Read. (Or try it as an audiobook, it really helps with Miss Bates). In honour of this long novel this might be a little long…
Like any good mystery novel, Emma must be read twice (or more!) to be fully appreciated. Cringe as you realize how Mr. Elton’s attempts at gallantry can easily be interpreted in two ways, laugh as Frank Churchill is making obvious blunders again and again without anyone suspecting him, and join Jane in glaring at Frank as he brags about the pianoforte being an awesome gift (It was from him all along! cried Scooby Doo).
Watch and laugh as Emma justifies everything to herself in absurd ways, proving Jane Austen’s probable thesis in this novel, “Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.” And very seldom is the truth told to you, reader, as almost everything is cleverly filtered through Emma’s interpretations.
Find yourself sympathizing with a girl whose entire life has happened within a 5 mile radius of her home and has completely been devoted to someone whose eccentricities are imprisoning. Really Mr. Woodhouse, does your 21 year old daughter need to go to bed at 8pm? Sure, she is a meddling snob, but Emma has some first rate qualities (charitable towards the poor, peacemaker at home, excellent hostess, tries to do better) that make her, “This sweetest and best of all creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults.”
Harriet Smith is the perfect embodiment of a boy-crazy teenager. She loves Robert Martin, Mr. Elton, Mr. Knightley, and then Robert Martin again in the course of a year. She keeps an unused Band-Aid as a “special treasure” because a guy she likes touched it and then THROWS IT DRAMATICALLY INTO THE FIRE to cleanse herself of the attachment. Oh Harriet honey, we’ve all known you.
Mr. Knightley is the true hero of Highbury, a devoted landlord who makes sure everyone in town is provided for and reasonably happy. He values his employees, he’s generally civil, and he’ll supply apples for your picky niece.
An exemplary cast of side characters, overly-talkative Miss Bates, unrepentant gossip Mr. Weston, bragging upstart Mrs. Elton, pompous and petty Mr. Elton, and one of the cutest couples in Jane Austen, John and Isabella Knightley, who don’t like to spend even a week apart.
Emma: So Much More to Discover (and I didn’t even mention the passage that said buffets are a human rights violation 
)