Emma
“Emma has always been my favorite Jane Austen novel. A lot of people tend to like Emma—she’s such a winningly flawed person…You could almost say that Austen deals in types, which normally is a very dangerous practice and doesn’t lead to anything interesting. Yet her work is stupendous. Her novels work themselves out with a tremendous clarity that feels mathematical or geometric. It’s very spare; there’s nothing extra. Her books shouldn’t work, but they do, and better than almost anyone else’s.”
Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoiled, vain, and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village, but her attempts at matchmaking lead to misunderstandings and potential heartbreak. Only her friend and neighbor Mr. Knightley dares to point out the mistakes she is making and encourages her to change her ways.
Praise