I am wondering what you first-time readers make of Emma, the Westons, the Martins, Harriet, their matches and matchmaking at this point of the novel.

I am afraid I squandered my first read of Emma (under the impression that Austen had written more than Shakespeare, and disappointed that this one did not appear to be a sequel to P&P, I dispatched it rapidly and largely without interest)- a pity, because now I am inevitably prejudiced by a knowledge of what comes later, and not able to remember which words carried the most weight at this point in the novel, the first time I read it.
It would be very interesting to me to know what you think of the characters, their schemes, their possibilities.