EMMA JANE AUSTEN

THE WRITER

Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775, to the Reverend GeorgeAusten of the Steventon rectory and Cassandra Austen of the Leigh family. The seven Austen children grew up in an environment of open learning, creativity and dialogue in a close-knit family.
In 1783, Austen and her sister Cassandra were sent to a boarding school for their formal education which included foreign languages (mainly French), music and dancing. Returning home, the rest of Austen´s education consisted of what her father and brothers could teach her and her own reading from the extensive vicarage library.
By 1787 Austen was writing collections consisting of stories and poems and by 1789, she had written the dark, satirical comedy Love and Freindship (sic), and began to take her writing seriously. She experimented with playwriting but abandoned this for Susan, a novel told in the epistolary format. By 1796 she had completed the work entitled Elinor and Marianne (later to become Sense and Sensibility).
In December of 1795, Austen met and fell in love with Tom Lefroy, a student studying in London to be a barrister. However his family intervened, viewing any possible engagement as impractical and sent Tom away.
Austen went on to write First Impression, the work we now know as Pride & Prejudice. The first draft was completed sometime in 1799 and Jane returned to work on Elinor and Marianne. She then began serious work on Susan, the work that would go on to become Northanger Abbey.
At the end of 1800 Austen's father George retired from the clergy, meaning the family had to move to Bath. Two years later, Austen accepted a proposal of marriage from a wealthy childhood friend, only to retract it the following day, realising that there was no real feeling on her side.
Sometime after the death of Austen´s father and a period of insecurity, the Austen women moved in with brother Frank who later offered them up a cottage on a nearby estate. Chawton Cottage allowed Austen to return to productive work. Her brother Henry, a banker, doubled as Jane's literary agent and approached London publisher Thomas Egerton with the manuscript for Sense & Sensibility which was published in 1811 to good reviews. Egerton then took the manuscript of Pride & Prejudice and published this second work for public consumption in January of 1813 to critical and public acclaim.
Mansfield Park quickly followed and Austen moved to a more well known London publisher, John Murray. Under Murray's watch, Emma, a second edition of Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published. Emma had great critical success.
At this time, the banking venture pursued by brother Henry failed, and along with it, the fortunes of brothers Edward, James and Frank. This left the Austen women - and family for that matter - in a precarious financial position. Jane continued writing, even more dedicated to complete a working first draft of Persuasion.
In the beginning of 1817 Austen was suffering from an unknown complaint, by April, she was confined to her bed and in July she died in Winchester. Henry worked to have his sister buried at the Winchester Cathedral.
Henry and Cassandra worked at getting Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published through Murray as a set collection. Within this work, however, Henry published a memoir of Austen herself, who until then had been nameless to the world.

EMMA

Emma is a novel about the dangers of misconstrued romance and of meddling in others´ personal lives. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in 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 very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich."
Although convinced that she herself will never marry, and having no experience of love affairs, Emma Woodhouse, the twenty-year-old heroine, imagines herself qualified to determine the feelings of others. After self-declared success at matchmaking between her governess and Mr. Weston, a village widower, Emma takes it upon herself to find a good match for her beautiful new friend, Harriet Smith. Though Harriet’s parentage is unknown, Emma is convinced that Harriet deserves to be a gentleman’s wife and sets her friend’s sights on Mr. Elton, the village vicar. Meanwhile, Emma persuades Harriet to reject the proposal of Robert Martin, a well-to-do farmer for whom Harriet clearly has feelings.
Although soon proved hopelessly wrong, Emma continues to meddle – and continues to get things wrong, mistaking admiration for love and flirtation for serious intentions. Not only is she blind to an intrigue at the heart of the novel, she is unaware of the feelings of even the most straightforward and transparent characters. Most of all she is unaware of her own romantic feelings, until piqued by jealousy.
Throughout the novel Mr. Knightly, her brother in law and family friend, shows the insight into others´ feelings, motives and actions that Emma lacks and acts as a moral point of reference, urging discretion, empathy and moderation.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT WHILE READING

Emma has been filmed and staged in many versions, such as the film Clueless and this year´s Aisha, a version set in the stylish upper class part of modern Delhi, produced by Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor. Are the love story and the class system in Emma timeless and universal?
To what extent do the protagonists need the jealousy provoked by other possible suitors to recognise they are in love with each other? Is it true that jealousy is a symptom of love?
How do you see the moral progress of the heroine?