Published in three volumes in 1815, Emma was the second to last of Jane Austen’s novels, and treats the social concerns of Regency England with the light and satirical touch of a master. When she set out to write Emma, Austen wrote that she was “going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” Emma Woodhouse, the heroine of Emma, is wealthy, pretty, self-satisfied and willful young woman who lives on Hartfield Estate in a small English town with her hypochondriac father. Apart from a friendship with her neighbor Mr, Knightly, the proprietor of Donwell Abbey, she has nothing but time on her hands. She decides to take charge of the affairs of young Harriet Smith, the illegitimate daughter of some unknown gentleman, and tries to marry her off to an eligible suitor, the first of many misguided matchmaking attempts. The well drawn characters are as much of the appeal as of the book as the singularly English screwball comedy of a plot. There is the social climbing Mr. Elton, who snubs Harriet for a nouveau-riche wife; Robert Martin, the educated and respectable local bachelor farmer; Jane Fairfax, the talented and elegant orphaned niece of the impoverished spinster neighbor Miss Bates; Frank Church, who will inherit a fortune from an aunt; and, of course, Mr. Knightley, who serves as the voice of conscience for much of the time. The story ends happily after every possible mishap, much as we hope it will. (Summary by Michael Hogan)

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