Emma, a novel by Jane Austen, was published in three volumes in 1815. Set in Highbury, England, in the early 19th century, the novel centers on Emma Woodhouse, a precocious young woman whose misplaced confidence in her matchmaking abilities occasions several romantic misadventures.
Austen structures the novel around various courtships and romantic connections and presents marriage as a fundamental aspect of society. Jane Austen writes about what she has seen and experienced, depicting leisured middle-class people and avoiding emotion and passion.
The novel explores such themes as love, marriage, money, class and the first impressions.
