Review: Jane Austen's Emma

I give Emma two of five stars because I reserve a one star rating for truly dreadful books like 50 Shades of Gray.  
Emma was not that bad.

 Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like."  Boy, she nailed that one.  Of all the uninteresting drivel... I've read IKEA directions with more compelling characters than the spoiled and manipulated Emma. This book has all the plot action of a flat EKG. I had a hard time getting in to Pride and Prejudice, but once I did I truly enjoyed it. I hoped it might be the same with Emma, so I kept trudging through. (It took more than a month to force myself to read this book.  Highly unusual for me.) Not once can I say I enjoyed this book.  Not once can I say I was charmed by the supposedly charming Emma, that I enjoyed her continued confusion and humiliation, nor did I enjoy any of the other "delightful" characters.  I found them quite flat.  I will not be in a hurry to read more Jane Austen.  

If you still want to read Emma for yourself, you can find it on Amazon:

Today I'm Reading: Jane Austen's Emma

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Today I'm reading Jane Austen's Emma.  I've actually been reading it for a couple of weeks now and I'm really struggling to get in to it.  So far Emma strikes me as a coddled, somewhat empty headed, vain little girl.  The people around her seem to exist only to please her, and I'm bored.  This is the second Austen book I've read, and it took me a while to get into Pride and Prejudice, too.  I eventually loved it so I'm not giving up on Emma yet, but could use some input.  Does Emma ever develop any depth?  Do the people around her become more than props intended to appease her?  In short, does the story improve?  Should I cut my losses and move on to Neil Gaiman's new book Trigger Warning?