Emma

Description

The new paperback series- Penguin English Library 'I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall' Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of English literature's greatest and most widely-read writers - one of the four 'great English novelists' according to F. R. Leavis (along with George Eliot, Henry James and Joseph Conrad). Emma was the fourth of Austen's six novels to be published. Of the eponymous Emma, Austen wrote 'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like'. Whether or not readers agree with the assessment, Emma endures as one of the strongest female characters to emerge from eighteenth-century English fiction. Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are also published in the Penguin English Library.