Emma features one of Jane Austen’s most unforgettable characters, an irresistible yet misguided young woman who must learn not to meddle with others’ hearts–and in the process learn how to understand her own.

Twenty-one-year-old Emma Woodhouse comfortably dominates the social order in the village of Highbury, convinced that she has both the understanding and the right to manage other peoples livesfor their own good, of course. Her well-meant interfering centers on the aloof Jane Fairfax, the dangerously attractive Frank Churchill, the foolish but sweet Harriet Smith, and the ambitious young vicar Mr. Eltonand ends with her complacency shattered, her mind awakened to some of lifes more intractable dilemmas, and her happiness assured.

Austens comic imagination was so deft and beautifully fluent that she could use it to probe the deepest human ironies while setting before us a dazzling gallery of characterssome pretentious or ridiculous, some admirable and moving, all utterly true.