Emma

by Austen, Jane; Stafford, Fiona J.

• ISBN13: 9780140434156
• ISBN10: 0140434151
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-05-01
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA

Summary

As daughter of the richest, most important man in the small provincial village of Highbury, Emma Woodhouse is firmly convinced that it is her right--perhaps even her "duty"--to arrange the lives of others. Considered by most critics to be Austen's most technically brilliant achievement, "Emma" sparkles with ironic insights into self-deception, self-discovery, and the interplay of love and power.

Author Biography

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 at Steventon near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. She lived with her family at Steventon until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother; in 1809, they settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire. Here she remained, except for a few visits to London, until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on July 18, 1817.

As a girl Jane Austen wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Her works were only published after much revision, four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818 with a biographical notice by her brother, Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship. Persuasion was written in a race against failing health in 1815-16. She also left two earlier compositions, a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons. At the time of her death, she was working on a new novel, Sanditon, a fragmentary draft of which survives.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii	(16)
The Penguin Edition of the Novels of Jane Austen	xxiii	(2)
Note on the Text	xxv
EMMA	1	(396)
VOLUME ONE	5	(122)
VOLUME TWO	127	(132)
VOLUME THREE	259	(138)
Notes to the Text	397	(16)
Select Bibliography	413	(2)
List of Emendations to the Text	415