Jane Austen - Emma

EMMA

Beautiful, privileged Emma Woodhouse considers herself to have an enviable life, secure in the affection of her family and the respect of her fellow villagers. With her active imagination, she charms others and diverts herself. When change comes to Emmas little world, she confidently intervenes in matters of the heart, only to discover for the first time the limits of her powers. Often considered Jane Austens finest novel, Emma is acclaimed in particular for its psychologically astute characterizations and peerless use of language.

This edition has been specially prepared in commemoration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Emma. To offer a full reading experience to first-time readers and devoted Austen fans alike, Juliette Wells has provided an introduction to the novel, focusing on the importance of Emma to Austens career and the reception of this novel by its first readers, and original contextual essays. Additional features include tips for reading, a glossary of period usage, maps, and suggestions for further study, as well as illustrations from early editions of Emma drawn from the Jane Austen Collection at Goucher College.

We, therefore, bestow no mean compliment upon the author of Emma, when we say that, keeping close to common incidents, and to such characters as occupy the ordinary walks of life, she has produced sketches of such spirit and originality, that we never miss the excitation which depends upon a narrative of uncommon events, arising from the consideration of minds, manners, and sentiments, greatly above our own. In this class she stands almost alone.

Walter Scott (writing anonymously), TheQuarterly Review, March 1816

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EMMA

JANE AUSTEN was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon, near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. As a girl, Jane Austen wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. 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, when she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. During her lifetime, she published four novels, each after much revision. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). She died in Winchester on July 18, 1817. Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasionthe latter written in a race against failing health in 181516were published posthumously in 1817, with a biographical notice by her brother Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship. 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.

JULIETTE WELLS is associate professor and chair of the English Department at Goucher College, where she is active in outreach relating to the librarys distinguished Jane Austen Collection. The author of Everybodys Jane: Austen in the Popular Imagination, she has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters on Austens works and cultural legacy. She is on the editorial board of Persuasions, the journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America.

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First published in Great Britain by John Murray 1816

First published in the United States of America by Mathew Carey 1816

This edition with an introduction and essays by Juliette Wells published in Penguin Books 2015

Introduction and essays copyright 2015 by Juliette Wells

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Map illustrations by Juliette Wells

Photographs from Goucher College Library, Jane Austen Collection

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALO GING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Austen, Jane, 17751817.

Emma : 200th-anniversary annotated edition / Jane Austen ; edited, with an introduction by Juliette Wells.

pages cm. (Penguin Classics Deluxe)

ISBN 978-0-698-40839-5

1. Young womenEnglandFiction. 2. Mate selectionFiction. 3. Fathers and daughtersFiction. 4. EnglandSocial life and customs19th centuryFiction. 5. Regency fiction. I. Wells, Juliette, 1977 II. Title.

PR4034.E5 2015

823.7dc23 2015024815

Cover art and design by Dadu Shin

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