Emma (novel)
A comedy of manners about a matchmaking heroine.
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Emma is a novel by English author Jane Austen, set in the fictional Surrey village of Highbury and its surrounding estates.[1] The title character, Emma Woodhouse, is described as handsome, clever, and rich, but also spoiled and headstrong.[2] Austen wrote before beginning the novel that she would take a heroine whom no one but herself would much like.[2]
Making and release
Emma was written after Austen's move to Chawton.[3] The novel involves relationships among people from a small number of families.[1] The story's first sentence introduces Emma as having lived nearly twenty-one years with very little to distress her.[2] Emma greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities and is blind to the dangers of meddling in others' lives.[2]
Her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.[2] December 1815 saw the initial publication of the novel, even though the title page carries the year 1816.[1] Of all her novels, this one was the final work issued while she was alive.[3] Persuasion, the final novel Austen finished, came out after her death.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "Emma (novel)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Austen-Leigh, "Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters", Russell and Russell, 1965, p. 237 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Emma (novel)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Austen-Leigh, "A Memoir of Jane Austen", Richard Bentley & Sons, 1882, p. 157; Austen, "Emma", W.W. Norton & Co., 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Emma (novel)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burrows, "Jane Austen's Emma", Sydney University Press, 1968, p. 7 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Emma (novel) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Emma (novel) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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