Emma by Jane Austen

 

Emma by Jane Austern

This edition published 1st October 2009 by Penguin Classics. 

Originally published 1815.

From the cover of the book:

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage.

Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.

With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.

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Emma was published in 1815, and is a comedy of manners set in the fictional village of Highbury. Emma Woodhouse, the eponymous heroine of the novel, is the mistress of Hartfield (seat of the principal family), where she lives with her widowed father. With her governess just married to neighbour Mr Weston (a happening Emma likes to take credit for), Emma is lonely. Her beloved father, a terrible hypochondriac, is not good company for her, so she decides to take an interest in one Harriet Smith, a young lady of doubtful parentage who lives as a border at the local school for girls - against the advice of her brother-in-law, Mr Knightley.

Convinced her powers as matchmaker can bring about the marriage of Harriet with local clergyman, Mr Elton, Emma does her utmost to bring them together. Meanwhile, Frank Churchill, the prodigal son of Mr Weston who the whole village are preoccupied with (despite not having seen him) is expected any moment. Independent minded, and independently fortuned, Emma, has sworn off marriage herself, but feels the prospect of romance appoaching - especially since many in Highbury expect them to wed.

In a tangle of misconceptions, and dawning realisations, this tale involves just about every genteel family in the village to great comic effect, and the characters are delicious. Emma herself divides the crowd, as she is a bit full of herself, and has a tendency to meddle where she really should not - especially in empty-headed Harriet's affairs. I rather like her though, she is far from obnoxious, learns some lessons about herself, and has a good heart. 

Talking of obnoxious... smarmy Elton and his social climbing wife are definitely awful; and as for that player, Frank Churchill, I never can abide him... 🤣

I really enjoyed my revisit to Emma. It truly is comedy gold, with a lovely slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance. It has some really thought provoking reflections on class, and the dependency of women in Regency England too.

Emma is available to by now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Jane Austen, the daughter of a clergyman, was born in Hampshire in 1775, and later lived in Bath and the village of Chawton. As a child and teenager, she wrote brilliantly witty stories for her family's amusement, as well as a novella, Lady Susan.

Her first published novel was Sense and Sensibility, which appeared in 1811 and was soon followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma.

Austen died in 1817, and Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously in 1818.