Key themes
- Self-deception and its consequences
- Class and condescension
- The limits of a privileged life
About this book
A clever, comfortable heroine meddles in everyone's love life but her own; sparkling social comedy for readers who like their romance with a sting.
Considered Austen's most technically accomplished novel, Emma was published in 1815 and praised by contemporaries including Sir Walter Scott.
Discussion questions
- Emma is introduced as a character who has never been told she is wrong. Do you find her sympathetic, frustrating, or both — and does your feeling change over the course of the novel?
- Austen reportedly said she was writing a heroine whom only she would much like. Did she succeed? What does it reveal about Austen that she was drawn to this character?
- How does Emma's treatment of Harriet Smith illustrate the dangers of well-meaning but condescending social interference? Are her intentions ever purely selfless?
- Mr Knightley is the one character who consistently challenges Emma. What does their relationship suggest about Austen's ideal of an equal partnership?
- The novel is almost entirely set within walking distance of Highbury. What does this tight geography allow Austen to do, and what does it say about the world Emma inhabits?
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