Emma (novel)

Title page of first edition, volume 1 of 3
Author	Jane Austen
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Novel of manners
Published	23 December 1815 (title page gives 1816) John Murray
Preceded by	Mansfield Park
Followed by	Northanger Abbey

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters.

Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.

This novel has been adapted for several films, many television programs, and a long list of stage plays.

Plot summary

Emma Woodhouse has just attended the wedding of Miss Taylor, her best friend and former governess, to Mr Weston. Having introduced them, Emma takes credit for their marriage, and decides that she rather likes matchmaking. She returns home to Hartfield with her father, who misses Miss Taylor equally with his daughter. Against the advice of Mr Knightley, Emma forges ahead with her new interest, and tries to match her new friend Harriet Smith to Mr Elton, the local vicar. Emma is convinced that Mr Elton's attentions are a result of his attraction for Harriet. First, Emma must persuade Harriet to refuse the marriage proposal from Robert Martin, a respectable, educated, and well-spoken young farmer. Emma decides he is not good enough. Against her own wishes, Harriet rejects Mr Martin. Mr Elton, a social climber, thinks Emma is in love with him and proposes to her after a Christmas visit to the Westons. Emma, shocked, tells Mr Elton that she had thought him attached to Harriet. Elton is outraged at this notion. After Emma rejects him, he leaves for a sojourn in Bath, and Harriet feels heartbroken. Emma feels dreadful about misleading Harriet. Mr Elton soon returns with a pretentious, nouveau-riche wife, as Mr Knightley expected.

Frank Churchill, Mr Weston's son, promises to visit his father soon. Frank usually lives with the Churchills, the brother of his late mother and his wife. Frank and Emma have never met. When he arrives for a two-weeks visit, he makes many friends. Mr Knightley suggests to Emma that while Frank is clever and engaging, he is also a shallow character. Jane Fairfax comes home to see her aunt, Miss Bates, and grandmother, Mrs Bates, for a few months, before she must go out on her own as a governess. She is the same age as Emma, but Emma has not been as friendly with her as she might. Emma envies Jane's talent. At age nine, Jane joined the family of Colonel Campbell, a friend of her late father, where she became fast friends with his daughter and received her education. Miss Campbell has married Mr Dixon. Emma is annoyed to find all, including Mrs Weston and Mr Knightley, praising Jane. The patronising Mrs Elton takes Jane under her wing and announces that she will find her the ideal governess post before it is wanted. Emma begins to feel some sympathy for Jane's predicament.

Emma decides that Jane and Mr Dixon were mutually attracted, and that is why she has come home. She shares her suspicions with Frank, who met Jane and the Campbells at a vacation spot a year earlier, and he apparently agrees with her. Suspicions are further fueled when a piano, sent by an anonymous benefactor, arrives for Jane. Emma feels herself falling in love with Frank, but it does not last to his second visit. The Eltons treat Harriet badly, culminating with Mr Elton publicly snubbing Harriet at the ball given by the Westons in May. Mr Knightley, who had long refrained from dancing, gallantly steps in to dance with Harriet. The day after the ball, Frank brings Harriet to Hartfield, she having fainted after a rough encounter with local gypsies. Harriet is grateful, and Emma thinks this is love, not gratitude. Meanwhile, Mrs Weston wonders if Mr Knightley has taken a fancy to Jane. Emma dismisses that idea as she does not want Mr Knightley to marry, because her nephew Henry must inherit Donwell, the Knightley property. When Mr Knightley mentions the links he sees between Jane and Frank, Emma denies them, relying on Frank's words. Frank appears to be courting Emma. They flirt and banter together openly. He arrives late to the gathering at Donwell in June, while Jane leaves early. The next day at Box Hill, a local beauty spot, Frank and Emma continue the banter. Emma insults Miss Bates at that outing.

1898 illustration of Mr Knightley and Emma Woodhouse, Volume III chapter XIII

Mr Knightley scolds her for the insult to Miss Bates. Emma is ashamed and tries to atone with a morning visit to Miss Bates, which impresses Mr Knightley. He leaves to visit his brother in London. On the visit, Emma learns that Jane accepted the governess position from one of Mrs Elton's friends after the outing. Jane becomes ill, and refuses to see Emma or accept her gifts. Frank visits his aunt in Richmond. His aunt dies soon after he arrives. Ten days later, Frank learns what Jane has done; he and Jane reveal to the Westons that they have been secretly engaged since the fall. Frank knew his aunt would disapprove. The strain of the secrecy was great on the conscientious Jane; the two had quarreled outside Donwell and Jane ended the engagement. Frank's uncle readily gives his blessing to the match. The engagement becomes public and Emma is chagrined to discover that she has been so wrong.

Emma is certain that Frank's engagement will devastate Harriet, but Harriet says no. Harriet loves Mr Knightley, but knows the match is too unequal. Emma is startled, and then she faces her feelings. She realizes in a flash that she is the one to marry Mr Knightley. Mr Knightley returns, walking to Hartfield's gardens to learn Emma's reaction to the engagement. When he learns, he is overcome with his own feelings for her. He proposes and she accepts. After a long visit with Isabella, Harriet accepts Robert Martin's second proposal, and they are the first couple to marry. Mrs Weston gives birth to a baby girl, after which event, Emma tells her father of her plans with Mr Knightley, and their living with him at Hartfield. Jane and Emma reconcile, and Frank and Jane visit the Westons. Jane rejoins the Campbells. Once the period of deep mourning ends, they will marry, settle at Enscombe. Before the end of November, Emma and Mr Knightley marry. They seem all set for a union of "perfect happiness".

Principal characters

Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist of the story, is a beautiful, high-spirited, intelligent, and 'slightly' spoiled young woman of twenty when the story opens. Her mother died when she was young. She has been mistress of the house since her older sister got married. Although intelligent, she lacks the discipline to practise or study anything in depth. She is portrayed as very compassionate to the poor, but at the same time has a strong sense of class status. Her affection for and patience towards her valetudinarian father are also noteworthy. While she is in many ways mature, Emma makes some serious mistakes, mainly due to her conviction that she is always right and her lack of experience. Although she has vowed she will never marry, she delights in making matches for others. She falls in love briefly with Frank Churchill, but that passes away easily. She realises at the end that she loves Mr Knightley.

George Knightley is a neighbor and close friend of Emma, age 37 years. He is her only critic. Mr Knightley is the owner of the estate of Donwell Abbey, which includes extensive grounds and farms. He is the elder brother of Mr John Knightley, the husband of Emma's elder sister Isabella. He is a man of thoughtful manners, aware of how others react to words and events. Mr Knightley is annoyed with Emma for persuading Harriet to turn down Mr Martin, a farmer on the Donwell estate; he warns Emma against matchmaking Harriet with Mr Elton, knowing that Mr Elton seeks a bride with money. He is suspicious of Frank Churchill and his motives; he sees that Frank has something secret going on with Jane Fairfax.

Mr Frank Churchill, Mr Weston's son by his first marriage, is an amiable young man. 23 years old, who manages to be liked by everyone. Mr Knightley sees him as immature, because he fails to visit his father for so long. After his mother's death, he was raised by his wealthy aunt and uncle at the family estate Enscombe and whose last name he took at his majority. His uncle was his mother's brother. Frank enjoys dancing and music and living life to the fullest, but he is not above a secret engagement when he fears his aunt will forbid it. He manipulates and plays games with the other characters to ensure his engagement to Jane remains concealed. Frank may be viewed as a careless but less villainous version of characters from other Austen novels, such as Mr Wickham from Pride and Prejudice or Willoughby from Sense and Sensibility.

Jane Fairfax is an orphan whose only family consists of her aunt, Miss Bates, and her grandmother, Mrs Bates. She is a beautiful, clever, and elegant woman, with the best of manners. She is the same age as Emma. She is well-educated and talented at singing and playing the piano; she is the sole person whom Emma envies. An army friend of her late father, Colonel Campbell, feels responsibility for her, and sees to her education, sharing his home and family with her when she turned nine years old. She has little fortune, however, and the plan is that she become a governess – a prospect she dislikes. The secret engagement goes against her principles and wears on her.

Harriet Smith, a young friend of Emma, just seventeen when the story opens, is a pretty but unsophisticated girl. She has been educated at a nearby school, where she met the sisters of Mr Martin. Emma takes Harriet under her wing early on, and she becomes the subject of Emma's misguided matchmaking attempts. She is revealed in the last chapter to be the natural daughter of a decent tradesman, although not a "gentleman". Harriet and Mr Martin are wed. The now wiser Emma approves of the match.

Philip Elton is a good-looking, initially well-mannered, and ambitious young vicar, 27 years old and unmarried when the story opens. Emma wants him to marry Harriet; however he aspires to secure Emma's hand in marriage to gain her dowry. Mr Elton displays his mercenary nature by quickly marrying another woman of lesser means after Emma's rejection.

Augusta Elton, formerly Miss Hawkins, is Mr Elton's wife. She has her 10,000 pounds, but lacks good manners, at best, using people's names too intimately as one example (Jane, not Miss Fairfax, Knightly, not Mr Knightley). She is a boasting, pretentious woman who expects her due as a new bride in the village. Emma is polite to her but does not like her. She patronises Jane, which earns Jane the sympathy of others. She displays many of the faults for which Mr Knightley reprimands Emma, however on a much larger scale. Ironically much of Emma's dislike of Mrs Elton arises from these faults.

Mrs Weston was Emma's governess for sixteen years as Miss Anne Taylor and remains her closest friend and confidante after she marries Mr Weston. She is a sensible woman who loves Emma. Mrs Weston acts as a surrogate mother to her former charge and, occasionally, as a voice of moderation and reason. The Westons and the Woodhouses visit almost daily. Near the end of the story, the Westons' baby Anna is born.

Mr Weston is a widower and a business man living in Highbury who marries Miss Taylor in his early 40s, after he bought the home called Randalls. By his first marriage, he is father to Frank Weston Churchill, who was adopted and raised by his late wife's brother and his wife. He sees his son in London each year. He married his first wife, Miss Churchill, when he was a Captain in the militia, posted near her home. Mr Weston is a sanguine, optimistic man, who enjoys socialising, making friends easily in business and among his neighbours.

Miss Bates is a friendly, garrulous spinster whose mother, Mrs Bates, is a friend of Mr Woodhouse. Her niece is Jane Fairfax, daughter of her late sister. She was raised in better circumstances in her younger days as the vicar's daughter; now she and her mother rent rooms in the home of another in Highbury. One day, Emma humiliates her on a day out in the country, when she alludes to her tiresome prolixity.

Mr Henry Woodhouse, Emma's father, is always concerned for his health, and to the extent that it does not interfere with his own, the health and comfort of his friends. He is a valetudinarian (i.e., similar to a hypochondriac but more likely to be genuinely ill). He assumes a great many things are hazardous to his health. His daughter Emma gets along with him well, and he loves both his daughters. He laments that "poor Isabella" and especially "poor Miss Taylor" have married and live away from him. He is a fond father and fond grandfather who did not remarry when his wife died; instead he brought in Miss Taylor to educate his daughters and become part of the family. Because he is generous and well-mannered, his neighbors accommodate him when they can.

Isabella Knightley (née Woodhouse) is the elder sister of Emma, by seven years, and daughter of Henry. She is married to John Knightley. She lives in London with her husband and their five children (Henry, 'little' John, Bella, 'little' Emma, and George). She is similar in disposition to her father.

John Knightley is Isabella's husband and George's younger brother, 31 years old (10 years older than Jane Fairfax and Emma). He is an attorney by profession. Like the others raised in the area, he is a friend of Jane Fairfax. He greatly enjoys the company of his family, including his brother and his Woodhouse in-laws, but is not the very sociable sort of man who enjoys dining out frequently. He is forthright with Emma, his sister-in-law, and close to his brother.

Other characters

• Mr Perry: Physician to Mr Woodhouse and his family in Highbury since Emma was a young child. He is married and has several children of his own.

• Mr and Mrs Churchill: Mr Churchill was the brother to the first Mrs Weston. She married Captain Weston of the militia, and had a son, Frank, with him. She died when the son was a few years old. Mrs Churchill is of a domineering temperament and poor health, and insisted on taking the nephew of her husband into their household, as they were childless, and wealthier at their estate of Enscombe in Yorkshire, than the boy's father, otherwise in good financial standing, in Highbury. She pressed the issue further, that young Frank Weston had to take their last name as his upon his majority, so signing himself Frank C Weston Churchill, but known socially as Frank Churchill. Her family believe in the ups and downs of her health, but those in Highbury do not, until she dies so suddenly.

• Colonel Campbell: Friend to Lieutenant Fairfax, father of Jane, during the wars. Mr Fairfax did him a service so the Colonel feels a strong obligation to his friend, taking charge of his orphan daughter Jane from her age nine, as her remaining relatives were fallen in social status and could not provide the best education to her. Colonel Campbell is married and has daughter close in age to Jane. He and his family saw to Jane's education in their home in London, and took her when they travelled about England.

• Mr and Mrs Dixon: Miss Campbell, daughter of the Colonel and close friend to Jane Fairfax, marries Mr Dixon at about the time the Westons married. They travel to Ireland to Mr Dixon's country seat. A few months later, they asked the Campbells to visit them. Jane Fairfax left to visit Highbury rather than Ireland. Some of Miss Fairfax's decisions depend on when she can again see the Campbells.

• Mrs Goddard: Middle-aged woman of Highbury who runs a school for girls and is a friend to Mr Woodhouse. Her students included the Martin sisters and Harriet Smith. She plays cards on frequent social visits to the Woodhouse family, often in the company of Mrs Bates and Miss Bates.

• Robert Martin: He is farmer of Abbey-Mill Farm rented from Donwell, living with his sisters and his mother, age 24 years. Mr Knightley thinks highly of him, for being practical, direct and hard-working, a reliable man. He falls in love with Harriet Smith after she visits with his sisters for a couple of months before the opening of the story and sends her a proposal of marriage in a well-written letter. She turns him down once.

• William Larkins : Manager of the Donwell estate, he works closely with Mr George Knightley.

• Mrs Suckling: Née Selina Hawkins, sister of Augusta Hawkins Elton, who married a man wealthier than did Augusta. Mr and Mrs Suckling live at Maple Grove in Yorkshire, mentioned often in Mrs Elton's conversations at Highbury. They promise a visit to their newly married sister, but in the time of the novel, it is a visit never made, always expected. The Sucklings were expected to arrive in their barouche-landau carriage, a prestigious vehicle.

• Mr and Mrs Cole: A family in the merchant class whose income had of late risen, they enlarged their home and hired more servants, making them second only to the Woodhouses in Highbury. They expanded their social circle. They invite Emma Woodhouse to a dinner at their home, when Emma shares her suspicions with Frank Churchill that Jane Fairfax has feelings for Mr Dixon, among all the speculation on who sent the piano to Miss Fairfax. Mr Cole is involved in parish business, and talks with Mr Knightley.

Development of the novel

Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.

Reception

Main article: Reception history of Jane Austen

Early reviews of Emma were generally favourable, but there were some criticisms about the lack of story. John Murray remarked that it lacked "incident and Romance"; Maria Edgeworth, the author of Belinda, to whom Austen had sent a complimentary copy, wrote:

there was no story in it, except that Miss Emma found that the man whom she designed for Harriet's lover was an admirer of her own – & he was affronted at being refused by Emma & Harriet wore the willow – and smooth, thin water-gruel is according to Emma's father's opinion a very good thing & it is very difficult to make a cook understand what you mean by smooth, thin water-gruel!!

Themes

Emma Woodhouse is the first Austen heroine with no financial concerns, which, she declares to the naïve Miss Smith, is the reason that she has no inducement to marry. This is a great departure from Austen's other novels, in which the quest for marriage and financial security are often important themes in the stories. Emma's ample financial resources put her in a much more privileged position than the heroines of Austen's earlier works, such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Jane Fairfax's prospects, in contrast, are bleak.

In contrast to other Austen heroines Emma seems immune to romantic attraction. Unlike Marianne Dashwood, who is attracted to the wrong man before she settles on the right one, Emma shows no romantic interest in the men she meets. She is genuinely surprised (and somewhat disgusted) when Mr Elton declares his love for her—much in the way Elizabeth Bennet reacts to the obsequious Mr Collins, also a parson. Her fancy for Frank Churchill represents more of a longing for a little drama in her life than a longing for romantic love. For example, at the beginning of Chapter XIII, Emma has "no doubt of her being in love," but it quickly becomes clear that, even though she spends time "forming a thousand amusing schemes for the progress and close of their attachment," we are told that "the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his side was that she refused him."

Notably too, Emma utterly fails to understand the budding affection between Harriet Smith and Robert Martin; she interprets the prospective match solely in terms of financial settlements and social ambition. It is only after Harriet Smith reveals her interest in Mr Knightley that Emma realises her own feelings for him.

While Emma differs strikingly from Austen's other heroines in these two respects, she resembles Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliot, among others, in another way: she is an intelligent young woman with too little to do and no ability to change her location or everyday routine. Though her family is loving and her economic status secure, Emma's everyday life is dull indeed; she has few companions her own age when the novel begins. Her determined though inept matchmaking may represent a muted protest against the narrow scope of a wealthy woman's life, especially that of a woman who is single and childless, but it may also represent Austen's own interest in self-consciously toying with the fact that marriage plots dominates the novel.

Allusions to real places and vehicles

Highbury is a fictional place, but it is placed by the author as being 16 miles from London, in Surrey. Richmond, where Frank Churchill's aunt and uncle settle in the summer, is now part of the greater London area, but then was a separate town in Surrey. Enscombe, the estate of the Churchills is in Yorkshire, in the northern part of England. Frank and Jane met often in the seaside resort town of Weymouth, Dorset, after first meeting in London, when their two families travelled to each place. Emma's sister Isabella and her family live in Brunswick Square, an area of London that had houses when the book was published, but no longer does. Isabella and John's family visited the sea shore at South End, about 40 miles east of central London, rather than journey 100 miles to the place favored by the Perry family, Cromer in Norfolk. Box Hill, Surrey is a place of beauty in England, Bath is a well-known spa city in the southwest of England, where Mr Elton went to meet his Augusta.

Mrs Elton frequently refers to the upcoming visit of her well-married sister, who will certainly arrive in their barouche-landau carriage. This was an expensive carriage for summer use, described and illustrated in a paper by Ratcliffe.

Adaptations

Emma has been the subject of many adaptations for film, TV, radio and the stage.

Film

• 1995: Clueless, a loose American modern adaptation of the novel, set in Beverly Hills and starring Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz (Emma)
• 1996: Emma, an American comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma
• 2010: Aisha, an Indian modern adaptation of the novel, starring Sonam Kapoor as Aisha (Emma).

Television

• 1948: Emma, live BBC TV broadcast, starring Judy Campbell (who also wrote the screenplay) as Emma, and directed and produced by Michael Barry
• 1954: Emma, live NBC TV broadcast, starring Felicia Montealegre as Emma
• 1957: Emma, another live NBC TV broadcast in their Matinee Theater series, starring Sarah Churchill as Emma
• 1960: Emma, live BBC TV serial in six parts, starring Diana Fairfax as Emma and directed by Campbell Logan
• 1960: Emma, live CBS TV broadcast in their Camera Three series, starring Nancy Wickwire as Emma.
• 1972: Emma, a six-part BBC miniseries, starring Doran Godwin as Emma
• 1996: Emma, an ITV TV film, starring Kate Beckinsale as Emma
• 2009: Emma, a four-part BBC miniseries, starring Romola Garai as Emma
• 2013: Emma Approved, a YouTube web series produced by Pemberly Digital and developed by Bernie Su, starring Joanna Sotomura as Emma.

Stage

• 1991: Emma, a stage adaptation by British playwright Michael Fry, first produced by the Cloucester Stage Company in 1991, and since then produced by a number of theatre companies in Britain and the US
• 2000: Emma, a musical written by Stephen Karam and first showed by the Brownbrokers student theatre group at Brown University under the direction of Darius Pierce. In 2004 Karam's musical was played at the New York Musical Theatre Festival under the direction of Patricia Birch.
• A theatrical adaptation by Michael Napier Brown was performed at the Royal Theatre in Northampton in 2000
• 2007: Jane Austen's Emma – A Musical Romantic Comedy, a musical written by Paul Gordon, which premiered at TheatreWorks in Menlo Park, California. This musical has since been performed at the Cincinnati Playhouse, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.
• 2007: Emma, a musical written by Joel Adlen, and directed by Terry Berliner at the New York Musical Theatre Festival
• 2009: Emma, a stage adaption by Peter Mimmack for touring British theatre company Heartbreak Productions
• 2009: Emma, a stage adaption by Rachel Atkins for the Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle, directed by Marcus Goodwin with Sylvie Davidson in the title role
• 2010: Emma, a stage adaption by Michael Bloom at the Cleveland Play House, Ohio
• 2012: Emma, a stage adaption by Dr. Vicki Ooi of the Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection in Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong

Fiction

• Joan Aiken wrote a companion novel, Jane Fairfax: The Secret Story of the Second Heroine in Jane Austen's Emma.
• Alexander McCall Smith has written a modern version, titled Emma: A Modern Retelling (2014)

See also

• Illegitimacy in fiction

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Emma at Project Gutenberg
• Chronology/Calendar for Emma
• Emma, Read online in flash version at LibriPass
• Emma study guide, quotes, themes, teaching guide
• Emma public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Emma, Easy to read text.