Emma

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'SHE WAS ONE OF THOSE, WHO, HAVING, ONCE BEGUN, WOULD BE ALWAYS IN LOVE.' 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. 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 protégée Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. Emma is a comedy of manners. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.' Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.