Emma
(Jane Austen)

Jane Austen is a celebrated and much loved English novelist who primarily wrote romance novels. Some of her most famous work includes Pride and Predjudice, Sense & Sensibility and Emma. Her work chiefly concerns the lives of the landed gentry—the wealthy families of the upper classes. It is her exploration of contemporary social issues within these families and stories that have made her stories extremely popular. She was a fairly popular author at the time, but only experienced enormous success after her death. Due to publishing anonymously, Jane was an unknown author, but she was celebrated among the upper classes especially. By the 20th Century,  she was known by name and generally celebrated as one of the great English novelists.

Austen herself was born in December 1775 and died at the age of 41 in 1817. She was a member of an upper class family who was close. She did not have much fortune to speak of, however, which often prevented her from making a marriage match. She was only engaged once, but on accepting, she realized she had made a complete mistake and rejected the man in question the following day. Although not much biographical information is available for Austen, historians know that she was educated by her father and brother on returning from school, and they supported her writing. She had six brothers and one other sister. Jane Austen started to feel sick, and her health deteriorated quickly, but she continued to work on her writing until she was confined to her bed. Austen was unmarried when she died.

Austen's earliest writing projects were for her family's own amusement, not for publication. Most of these pieces of work, including an epistolary novel, are lost—either destroyed by Austen herself, or by other family members. Austen frequently destroyed letters she wrote, and those that were not destroyed by her hand were either censored or destroyed by her sister, Cassandra.

Emma is a widely read and celebrated novel and is one of Austen's most adapted pieces of work. Mini-series, films, stage-plays and other media have all explored this novel about social ambition and the blunders that can often occur as a result. Austen had originally set out to create a character in Emma who readers would not like, but the general reaction to the heroine is the opposite. It is not always clear from Austen's writing whether or not we are to judge Emma for her poor behaviour, especially when Emma endeavours to fix things and become a better person.

Although Emma was well received in contemporary society, there were some criticisms about a lack of plot. They believed that there was little to no actual story in the novel because its protagonist was chiefly interested and involved in the relationships of others. Some others felt that it lacked the kind of romance most period pieces explored, especially next to Austen's Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice. However, most applaud it for its satirical look at the different kinds of youthful ambition, love and match-making.