Emma

Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing. Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet has more wit and sparkle; Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey more imagination; and Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood certainly more sense--but Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect. Austen only completed six novels in her lifetime, of which five feature young women whose chances for making a good marriage depend greatly on financial issues, and whose prospects if they fail are rather grim. Emma is the exception: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." One may be tempted to wonder what Austen could possibly find to say about so fortunate a character. The answer is, quite a lot.
For Emma, raised to think well of herself, has such a high opinion of her own worth that it blinds her to the opinions of others. The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image. Ignoring the gaping difference in their respective fortunes and stations in life, Emma convinces herself and her friend that Harriet should look as high as Emma herself might for a husband--and she zeroes in on an ambitious vicar as the perfect match. At the same time, she reads too much into a flirtation with Frank Churchill, the newly arrived son of family friends, and thoughtlessly starts a rumor about poor but beautiful Jane Fairfax, the beloved niece of two genteelly impoverished elderly ladies in the village. As Emma's fantastically misguided schemes threaten to surge out of control, the voice of reason is provided by Mr. Knightly, the Woodhouse's longtime friend and neighbor. Though Austen herself described Emma as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," she endowed her creation with enough charm to see her through her most egregious behavior, and the saving grace of being able to learn from her mistakes. By the end of the novel Harriet, Frank, and Jane are all properly accounted for, Emma is wiser (though certainly not sadder), and the reader has had the satisfaction of enjoying Jane Austen at the height of her powers. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

作者简介：
STEPHEN M. PARRISH is Goldwin Smith Professor of English,Emeritus, at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1954. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Coleridge's Dejection, The Art of the Lyrical Ballads, Currents of the Nineties in Boston and London, Wordsworth's The Pre- lude 1798-1799, and Yeats's Wild Swans at Coole. He is Gen-eral Editor of The Cornell Concordances, The Cornell Yeats Manuscript Series, and The Cornell Wordsworth, all multi- volume projects, and he is coeditor of two multivolume com'- puter concordances to the works of Freud, one in German,the other in English.

Lady Audley's Secret(Penguin Classi..

混血美人The Concrete Blonde,

Northanger Abbey (RED)(Penguin Red ..

Though the domain of Jane Austen’s novels was as circumscribed as her life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equal of the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh child of the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, she was educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writing sketches and satires of popular novels for her family’s entertainment. As a clergyman’s daughter from a well-connected family, she had an ample opportunity to study the habits of the middle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At twenty-one, she began a novel called “The First Impressions” an early version of Pride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her father’s retirement, the family moved to the fashionable resort of Bath. Two years later she sold the first version of Northanger Abby to a London publisher, but the first of her novels to appear was Sense and Sensibility, published at her own expense in 1811. It was followed by Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815).

After her father died in 1805, the family first moved to Southampton then to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Despite this relative retirement, Jane Austen was still in touch with a wider world, mainly through her brothers; one had become a very rich country gentleman, another a London banker, and two were naval officers. Though her many novels were published anonymously, she had many early and devoted readers, among them the Prince Regent and Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, in declining health, Austen wrote Persuasion and revised Northanger Abby, Her last work, Sandition, was left unfinished at her death on July 18, 1817. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen’s identity as an author was announced to the world posthumously by her brother Henry, who supervised the publication of Northanger Abby and Persuasion in 1818. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Book Description
This new critical edition of Jane Austen's comic masterpiece is based on the 1816 text, which has been carefully edited in light of later editions, including the Chapman edition. "Backgrounds" supplies an abundance of documents that shed light on Austen's life and reveal some of her private attitudes toward her writing. Readers should enjoy comparing real events in her life with her fictionalized accounts in the novel. "Reviews and Criticism" presents a wide variety of perspectives, both contemporary and recent, including essays by Sir Walter Scott, Henry James, A.C. Bradley, E.M. Forster, Robert Alan Donovan, Marilyn Butler, Mary Poovey, Claudia Johnson, Juliet McMaster, Ian Warr and Suzanne Juhasz. New to this edition are essays by Maggie Lane, Edward Copeland and Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield, the last of which discusses the film adaptations of "Emma". A chronology and selected bibliography are included.

Amazon.com
Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing. Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet has more wit and sparkle; Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey more imagination; and Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood certainly more sense--but Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect. Austen only completed six novels in her lifetime, of which five feature young women whose chances for making a good marriage depend greatly on financial issues, and whose prospects if they fail are rather grim. Emma is the exception: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." One may be tempted to wonder what Austen could possibly find to say about so fortunate a character. The answer is, quite a lot.

For Emma, raised to think well of herself, has such a high opinion of her own worth that it blinds her to the opinions of others. The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image. Ignoring the gaping difference in their respective fortunes and stations in life, Emma convinces herself and her friend that Harriet should look as high as Emma herself might for a husband--and she zeroes in on an ambitious vicar as the perfect match. At the same time, she reads too much into a flirtation with Frank Churchill, the newly arrived son of family friends, and thoughtlessly starts a rumor about poor but beautiful Jane Fairfax, the beloved niece of two genteelly impoverished elderly ladies in the village. As Emma's fantastically misguided schemes threaten to surge out of control, the voice of reason is provided by Mr. Knightly, the Woodhouse's longtime friend and neighbor. Though Austen herself described Emma as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," she endowed her creation with enough charm to see her through her most egregious behavior, and the saving grace of being able to learn from her mistakes. By the end of the novel Harriet, Frank, and Jane are all properly accounted for, Emma is wiser (though certainly not sadder), and the reader has had the satisfaction of enjoying Jane Austen at the height of her powers.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Alix Wilber

Amazon.co.uk Review
"I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of return; it would do her good," remarks one of Jane Austen's characters in Emma.
Quick-witted, beautiful, headstrong and rich, Emma Woodhouse is inordinately fond of match-making select inhabitants of the village of Highbury, yet aloof and oblivious as to the question of whom she herself might marry. This paradox multiplies the intrigues and sparkling ironies of Jane Austen's masterpiece, her comedy of a sentimental education through which Emma discovers a capacity for love and marriage.

From Library Journal
This is another case where a classic is being reprinted simply as a tie-in to a TV/feature film presentation. Libraries, nonetheless, can benefit by picking up a quality hardcover for a nice price.

Book Dimension:
length: (cm)20.9 　　　 　　　　　 　 width:(cm)13.3

Preface to the Third Edition
The Text of Emma
Backgrounds
JANE AUSTEN'S LIFF; AND HER FICTION
I tenry Thomas Austen·Biographical Notice
James E. Austen-Leigh·Memoir of Jane Austen
Jane Austen·Letters to Her Sister, Cassandra
[An Account of a Ball, 1800]
[The Events of a Day, 1805]
[The Events of Two Days, 1813]
From The Watsons
[An Account of a Ball, 1803 or Later]
Virginia Woolf" [The Watsons]
Maggie Lane·Daily Life in Jane Austen's England
Meals and Manners
Rich and Poor
JANE AUSTEN ON IIER OWN ART
Jane Austen's Correspondence with J. S. Clarke
J. S. Clarke to Jane Austen [asking her to write a novel about a clergyman]
Jane Austen to J. S. Clarke [explainingwhy she cannot]
J. S. Clarke to Jane Austen [asking again]
J. S. Clarke to Jane Austen [proposing a historical romance]
Jane Austen to J. S. Clarke [decisively refusing]
Jane Austen * Plan of a Novel, According to Hints from Various Quarters
Reviews and Criticism
Sir Walter Scott·[Review of Emma]
George Henry Lewes·The Lady Novelists
Henry lames·The Lesson of Balzac
A. C. Bradley·Jane Austen: A Lecture
Reginald Farrer·Jane Austen, oh. July 18, 1917
E. M. Forster·Jane Austen
A. Walton Litz·The Limits of Freedom: Emma
Robert Alan Donovan·The Mind of Jane Austen
Marilyn Butler·"Enmla"
Mary Poovey·The True English Style
Claudia L, Johnson·Emma: "Woman, lovely woman reigns alone."
Ian Watt·Jane Austen and the Traditions of Comic Aggression
Suzanne Juhasz·Bonnets and Balls: Reading Jane Austen's Letters
John Wiltshire·Emma
Suzanne Ferriss·Emma Becomes Clueless
Jane Austen: A Chronology
Selected Bibliography