The Third Edition of Jane Austen's popular comedic novel is based on the 1816 first edition text, which has been carefully collated by the editor.

"Backgrounds" includes an abundance of source material that sheds light on Austen's life and reveals some of her private attitudes toward her writing. Readers will enjoy comparing real events in Austen's life with her fictionalized accounts in Emma. Included is a selection of Austen's letters to her sister, Cassandra; an excerpt from The Watsons (a novel fragment) describing that most Austenian of social events, a country ball; Virginia Woolf s commentary on The Watsons; and two biographical sketches by family members. The editor has also included Austen's "Plan of a Novel" and relevant correspondence between Austen and J. S. Clark (chaplain to the Prince Regent).

"Reviews and Criticism" includes sixteen wide-ranging assessments of the novel, three of them new to the Third Edition. Sir Walter Scott, George Henry Lewes, Henry James, A. C. Bradley, Reginald Farrer, E. M. Forster, A. Walton Litz, Robert Alan Donovan, Marilyn Butler, Mary Poovey, Claudia L. Johnson, Ian Watt, Maggie Lane, Suzanne Juhasz, and John Wiltshire provide critical overviews. The section culminates with Suzanne Ferriss's account of the popular film versions of Emma, recently released.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.

Contents

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Preface to the Third Edition The Text of Emma Backgrounds  Jane Austen's Life and Her Fiction   Henry 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     Breakfast     The Midday Meal     Dinner     Tea     Supper    Rich and Poor     The Aristocracy     The Gentry     The New Middle Classes     Labourers, Servants, and the Poor  Jane Austen On Her 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 [explaining why 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 James • The Lesson of Balzac  A. C. Bradley • Jane Austen: A Lecture  Reginald Farrer • Jane Austen, ob. 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 • "Emma"  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

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Tags: Literature, LiteraryCriticism, 19CEngland

John Sutherland, "Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? More Puzzles in Classic Fiction" 2 puzzles on Austen novels

Josephine Ross, "Jane Austen: A Companion"

Janet Todd (ed), "Jane Austen in Context (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen)"

Sue Birtwistle & Susie Conklin, "The Making of Pride and Prejudice"

Julia Prewitt Brown, "A Reader's Guide to the Nineteenth-Century English Novel"

Ian Gregor (ed), "Reading the Victorian Novel: Detail into Form"

Emma Thompson, "The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film"

John Sutherland & Deirdre Le Faye, "So You Think You Know Jane Austen? A Literary Quizbook (World's Classics)"

Daniel Pool, "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist -- The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England"

John Sutherland, "Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet? Further Puzzles in Classic Fiction (World's Classics)" 3 puzzles on Austen novels

Kristine Hughes, "The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England"