Emma

Jane Austen''s stylish masterpiece, Emma is a brilliant psychological comedy about the mind''s deception of itself. It speaks to the tedium of family and social existence, yet does so in a sparkling, utterly beguiling manner. An ''imaginist'' and a snob, the heroine Emma inhabits a comical world of secrecy, illusion and fantasies. Living a claustrophobic life in which she is always significant, Emma persuades herself that marriage is unnecessary for her; instead, she employs her charm and position to manoeuvre others, until she learns the truth about herself and her needs. A sharp portrait of entitlement and snobbery, Emma is simultaneously a story of family kindness and of a nurturing village community more fully realised in this novel than in any other Austen work. Prefaces and explanatory endnotes supplied by Janet Todd illuminate the cultural, historical and literary context, bringing Jane Austen''s world to life.